Barco Construction is hot and so is Brett Moritz. Moritz is the Over the Hill Gang Player of the Week and Barco has won three straight games. He had a perfect four-for-four night, driving in four key runs as Barco beat Lockie & Nowachek Family Chiropractors (L&N) 15-11 to lift them into a first place tie with L&N in the National League.
Barco scored runs in all but two innings to keep the pressure on L&N, scoring two runs in the first, second, fourth, sixth, and eighth innings with a four-spot in the fifth on Kevin Moloney’s big grand slam. At that point, Barco led 10-1 and it looked like it was going to be an easy win.
In the bottom of the seventh, L&N put up four runs, followed by another three in the bottom of the eighth to make it 14-9. Barco added one more run in the top of the ninth. In the bottom of the ninth things got a little hairy, with L&N adding two more runs before Barco finally ended their rally with the tying run at the plate.
It was a very big win for Barco aided by solid pitching and fielding from Gary Jambor and a good defense. Offensive leaders this week were Tim Dorman three-for-four, Dennis Ryan, and Kevin Moloney with his game-changing grand slam.
Paradox Café played LaCorte Family Auto as the schedule wrapped around for their second meeting of the year. Don Carlin started the game for Paradox driving a single for the first RBI. LaCorte were quick to post three runs of their own in the first inning as the blazing, setting sun affected both teams on the right side of the field.
In the fourth inning, LaCorte had pulled out to a 7-2 lead as Paradox’s Bruce Kubart hit a triple in the gap to drive in a run and start a rally. Bob Kirk then hit an RBI single as Lenny Balestrieri and Don Carlin followed with RBI hits of their own.
Paradox was back in the game and down by one. Fighting to stay in the game, Al Celeste made some rally-killing catches in right center as he was backed up against the fence. Walter Hasemann was busy in left field while James Mignone snuffed a few balls at second as the sun screamed in his eyes. Bob Kirk dug one deep out of the hole at short to cut a man down at third base as Balestrieri made a nice catch crossing over from left to right center.
The strong Paradox fielding and good pitching by Carlin allowed Paradox to grab the lead in the seventh inning. With the bases loaded, Brian Mulcahy, Celeste, Mickey Newbeck and Mignone all singled to bring in runs as the score was now 10-7 in favor of Paradox.
Mitch Maghakian added a two-run home run in the eighth inning and Paradox capped it off with one more in the ninth. With the score now 13-7, LaCorte had their final at bat and made it interesting with four runs, but it was not enough as Paradox hung on for a 13-11 victory.
It seemed like neither Zwanger Pesiri Radiology (ZP) nor Bar-Boy wanted to win Friday night. Both teams played shaky defense to put it mildly, but in the end, ZP’s six-run eighth inning rally lifted the team to a 17-13 win. With his defense committing error after error, ZP pitcher Brian Tinney had the patience of a saint and took matters into his own hands making several nice stops on the mound. Behind him, there were a few outstanding plays. Vinny Foppiano and Tyrone Clark had a pair of fine running catches in the outfield.
At the plate, Foppiano belted a two-run homer in the fourth to help ZP hold a slight lead for most of the game. But Bar-Boy pushed ahead 12-11 after seven innings to set the stage for a rally.
In the eighth, Anthony Nicolich started with a single and one batter later, Art O’Neill, Pete Mendelson, Jerry Mazza, Foppiano and John Hernandez strung together singles. But the big blow came off the bat of rookie Sean O’Flynn; he doubled with the bases loaded to drive in three. With Manager “T-Ball” living the good life in Iowa, the book was very messy, but the totals for the night look like this:
Three hits each for Mazza, Foppiano and Mendelson. Two hits for Hernandez, Clark, O’Neill and John DeFalco. Special thanks to Tom Ball and Rich D’Amico for hosting post-game festivities the last two weeks. The team sends its best wishes to Joe Trainer who is recuperating from back surgery. Everyone looks forward to his return to the coaching box later this season.
