Two Girls, Keagy top BAJA standings

The league-leading 2 Girls Pizza stayed on the winning track by knocking off Jim Click 24-19 in game one on Monday — a day when snow covered the Santa Ritas and players had to work hard just to stand up in the howling winds.

The Clickers came back in game two to score a season high 27 runs to derail the pizza express, 27-15. Wally Towne went 8-8 for the pizza men, while Tom Kennedy, Glenn Carter, Dewayne Schmidt, Steve Rankins and Terry Charney each went 6-8.

The defensive gem was when Charney fielded a grounder that deflected off pitcher Bob Schwankl and threw to Dick Harris at home to nail the runner trying to score. For Click, Ron Klopf delivered a bases-loaded double late in game two to seal the victory. Bill Hartnett, Dave Erickson, Dwight Reynolds, Dave Cowan, Mike Sommer and Bob Royes also delivered key blows, while Norm Brooks, Jack Naughton, and Craig Burgess kept up their torrid hitting. Bob Barry’s versatility and Bill Kerr playing on his recently surgically-repaired leg really helped Jim Click. Bruce Peters and Royes did an excellent job of throwing strikes in the fierce wind.

The Cow Palace and Triple Play also split their double header, with the Palace winning game one, 21-12, and Triple Play prevailaing in game two, 14-8.

For the Palace, Jim Meredith and Robert Ruble shared pitching duties, a most difficult task due to the winds. Jim Dickey had two home runs among his six hits. He and John Brennan made some key catches in the outfield under difficult conditions.

For the Triple Players, John Brassell, Lu Smith and Andy Lynch provided the extra-base power. Shortstop Lu (Ozzie) Smith and Dick Purdy chipped in with some nifty D, as did Bob Kaiser, manager Marty Camacho, and Kenny Johnson, who wouldn’t let anything get by him, bad leg and all!

The San Ignacio Inn swept their double-header against Arizona Family Restaurant by the scores of 21-12 and 25-13. Manager Art Janssen attributes the wins to stalwart defense and an offensive contribution by each and every team member.

Wednesday’s games brought much better weather, so all of the old BAJA guys were in better moods.

San Ignacio Inn and the Cow Palace split their two games, with SI winning game one 13-5, and the Palace returning the favor in game two, 15-9. The Palace hitters were led by Dennis Dion, Jim Meredith, and Mike Miller, while Meredith and Robert Ruble exhibited good effort from the pitching mound. For SI, manager Art Janssen had a grand slam inside the park home run, while Jim Larson and John Houghton were the defensive standouts.

Triple Play came up with two big wins, downing the Arizona Restaurant, 16-9 and 19-7. Ozzie Osborn picked up both wins with his stellar pitching, as Andy “Mariano” Lynch nailed the lid shut in game two to pick up the save. The patter of little hits came from BAJA Commissioner Bob Epstein, manager Marty Camacho, and Bill Sullivan. Lu (the wizard of ahs) Smith and Dick Purdy were the defensive standouts. In game two, power was provided by Purdy, Sullivan, and Lynch, while Bob Kaiser, Smith, Dan Patterson, and steady John Brassell kept all of the rallies going with their base hits.

League-leading 2 Girls Pizza stretched their lead to a game and a half with a sweep of 3 1/2 Happy Barbers, 16-6 and 14-11, dropping the Barbers into third place. Bob Allen homered for the Barbers, while Mal Perlich and Dave Hyslop had key hits. The Barbers were missing Dave Ahner and Bob Hoyler, two outstanding hitters.

For the Pizza men, pitcher Bob Schwankl helped his own cause, going 3-4, and Dick Harris’s eye for bad pitches allowed him to get on 3 of 4 times, with hits and walks. Terry Charney played his usual outstanding game at shortstop.

A five run comeback enabled the pizza people to win game two. Tom Kennedy, 8-8, Steve Rankins, 7-8, Glenn Carter 6-7, Wally Towne, 6-8 and Dewayne (the hitman) Schmidt drew three walks to contribute to the rally. Jim Click Ford had the day off with the daily bye.

Friday select league

Green Valley Insurance and Comfort Inn of Green Valley faced off in week five. While GV Insurance won handily 18-8, game two was a classic back-and-forth battle of the bats. Both teams came out swinging, and when the dust from the last cleat settled on home plate, it marked the 45th run scored in the contest.

GV Insurance led 22-20 going into Comfort Inn’s bottom of the seventh. Mike Miller, Bob Barry and John Ledford each singled to load the bases with no outs. Dave Ahner’s clutch single pushed Miller across the plate. Pitcher Gil Massey snagged a line-drive hit up the middle, which kept the tying run temporarily stranded at third base with one out.

Moments later, Dennis Dion ripped his eighth hit of the day to tie the score at 22.

With one out, Jim Larsen sent a long sacrifice fly to right field to allow the winning run to tag up and score easily.

Jim Sladky, Randy Higa, Mike Ianichino, Craig Burgess and John Fawcett each tallied home runs.

More great hitting for both squads was turned in by Mike Sommer, Tom Liedtie, John Brassell, Husten Pettet, Bill Land, Dick Fryan, Lou Smith and Harley Thompson.

On field No. 1, undermanned Hickey Automotive Repair dropped a pair of games to the powerful Keagy Edward Jones, 14-10 and 17-14.

Despite being short four players, Hickey put a big scare into Keagy, pushing the front-runners around until late in the contests, thanks to superb pitching from Marty Camacho and homers from Gary Oberfeld and Arly Lyons. Joe Wilson, Fred Searle and Charlie Atwood contributed fine defense, as well.

Keagy got hot in game two and drilled nine home runs as a team. Jim Molsen, Dick Purdy, Gale Van Hoorn, Steve Garcia, Claude Labarre and Rick Keavy each had at least one four-bagger. Wally Towne, Bill Kerr, Stan Musial, Steve Heath and Steve Rankens each had at least two hits to keep Keagy’s unblemished record intact for at least one more week.

Norm Brooks and Steve Wentz are memebers of the Born Again Jocks Association. Brooks reports on the Monday/Wednesday rec league, while Wentz covers the Friday select league.

Rec league standings

Two Girls Pizza: 14-5.

San Igancio Inn: 14-8.

3 Happy Barbers: 12-8.

Jim Click: 11-9.

Triple Play: 9-11.

Cow Palace: 9-12.

Arizona Rest.: 2-18.

Select league standings

Keagy Edward Jones: 8-0.

Comfort Inn of GV: 4-4.

Green Valley Insurance: 3-5.

Hickey Automotive: 1-7.