Triple Play Takes Lead in BAJA Senior Softball Recreation League

This week’s action in the BAJA Recreation League saw a new leader charge to the top of the standings.

Last Monday at 10 a.m., the Triple Play gang took the field facing the Jim Click Bunch.

After two hours, Triple Play walked off the field shaking the hands of the Jim Click team after taking both sides of their double header—20-9 in the first and 19—1 in the second.

The second set of games featured Meredith’s Hallmark opposite Arizona Family Restaurant. Strong hitting gave pitcher Jim Meredith a win in game one over the Restaurant.

A three-run homer by Bill Land, followed by another home run by Gary Overfeld kick-started the offensive stampede. backed Bob Kaiser and Husten Pettet each went 4-4 at the plate and Jerry Brotz, Ruth Gleason and Tommy Brandt each went 3-4 on their way to a 16-4 victory.

Game two went the other way when both of the home-run hitters came up lame and Terry Charney pulled a muscle.

The Restaurant boys, on the other hand, had a couple of key double-plays by Bob Kelly and Tom Henkel, while two outstanding catches by Ray Fleener and Mike Miller added to the squad’s strong defensive effort.

Jim Dickey’s bat produced several extra-base hits, driving in several runs.

The final score of game two was Arizona Family Restaurant 13, Meredith’s Hallmark 4.

In the last set of Monday’s games, Mark’s Quality Water took two games from Hickey Automotive 18-6 and 15-3.

Last Wednesday was another cool but beautiful day when Arizona Family Restaurant took to the field against Keagy’s Edward Jones.

When the dust cleared, Keagy’s team took the first game 15-12.

The Arizona Family boys came back in the second game with excellent outfield defense by Will Scheerer and Al Peterson and key hits by Rod Lichtenberger and John Weaver for a 12-8 win.

In the next games, trailing 9-3 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Jim Click team scored five runs to narrow the margin to 9-8.

Then, in dramatic fashion, the Click bunch scored two runs in the bottom of the seventh to record their first victory, 10-9 over Hickey Automotive.

The winning RBI was driven in by winning pitcher DeWayne Schmidt.

Dick Fryan, Charlie Attwood, Dan Stautz, Stan Musial, Bob Royes and John Brennan chipped in with two hits apiece.

Hickey came back in the second game taking a 14-2 win over the Clicks.

The featured game of the day pitted Triple Play against Mark’s Quality Water. Both teams were undefeated and this double header was for the League Lead.

Although Mark’s battled hard in the end Triple Play took both games 9-8 in the first and 14-10 in the second, taking a two-game league lead.

Spirit league

Friday was a cold and windy day. Pitchers had to allow around a foot just to get the ball over the plate.

Baymont Inn and Suites faced Green Valley Lanes on the old field. Skip LaRoche led Baymont going 6-7 from the plate, while Arland Lyons assisted in the outfield with some great catches.

Gary Oberfeld of the Bowlers hit what most observers said was the longest home run they had ever seen in the league.

But when the games were over, Baymont took both sides of the double header 16-4, 17-11.

On the new field, the Insurance Center of Green Valley met a real buzz-saw in 3.5 Happy Barbers.

The Barbers scored five runs—the maximum for one inning—in all but two innings in the game taking both slugfests 28-24 and 25-13.

Home runs were hit by Bill Allard, Jim Sladky and Mike Sommer.

At the end of week two, Baymont and the Barbers share the league lead with a 3-1 record.

Nick Charles is a Green Valley resident and avid BAJA enthusiast.