Rec League race tightens up; Keagy continues Select League winning streak

The winds blew and blew, but the BAJA senior softballers kept right on playing the week of Feb. 16.

On Monday, 2 Girls Pizza maintained their lead as they swept the Arizona Restauranters, 15-3 and 21-11. For the restaurant, Dorrie Carroll — the only female playing this year — hit a line drive triple over the Pizza outfielders, and Fred Anderson followed with another triple. For the Pizzamen, Bob Schwankl pitched effectively despite the wind and contributed some timely hits. Wally Towne, George Heatherington and Dick Harris led the hitters, while Towne and Terry Charney made great defensive plays by throwing out runners while on their knees. (Were they praying?)

Jim Click and the San Ignacio Inn split their twin bill, with SI winning game one 15-7, and the Clickers waking up their bats in game two to prevail, 19-8.

Ron Klopf was really driving the ball for Jim Click, and was aided by the hitting of Craig Burgess, Mike Sommer, and Billy “The Kid” Kerr, who had a sun-aided grand slam home run. Bruce Peters and Bob Royes combined their pitching talents in both games.

Three-and-a-Half Barbers clipped Triple Play twice, showing an uncanny ability to come up with key hits in game one to win 15-14, and having an easier time of it in game two, 16-8.

Behind the hitting of Lu Smith, Dick Purdy, and Marty Camacho, the Triple Players led early in game one, but could not hold onto the lead, despite excellent pitching from Jim Mollsen. Andy Lynch, Dan Patterson, and Bob Kaiser led the TP hitters in game two. The Barbers were led by the hitting of Dave Ahner, Nick Charles, and Gil Moss, along with the pitching of Mark Haskoe.

Wednesday, the weather was finally beautiful!

League-leading 2 Girls Pizza split their games, losing the first game to Triple Play 17-10 but winning the second, 11-8. For the Pizza people, Tom Kennedy, DeWayne Schmidt, Greg Pettet, Wally Towne, and Jeff Harrison led the hitters, while Schmidt and Towne were rock-solid on defense. Towne had three triples, while Pettet was 5-7 with a triple. For Triple Play, the pitching of Jim Mollson was too much in game one, along with the hitting of Bob Kaiser, Andy Lynch, and Dick Purdy. In game two, a late rally fell short, despite the pitty pat hitting of Bob Epstein and more solid bat work from Lu Smith, Marty Camacho, and Dan Patterson. Lu Smith was stellar on defense all day long.

Jim Click rallied for five runs in the bottom of the seventh in game one to nudge the Cow Palace, 14-13, then held on to win game two, 15-12. The leading Cow hitters were Jim Hill, Robert Ruble, Dennis Dion, Jim Dickey, and Walter Schultz. Mike Miller, with two gems, and Charlie Atwood with solid play, were the defensive stalwarts for the Cowmen.

Hitting heroes for the Clickers were Mike Sommer, Craig “First Pitch” Burgess and Bruce Peters. Chipping in were Dave “Cubs Win” Erickson, Billy Kerr, Ron Klopf, and Jack Naughton. Peters and Bob Royes did a great job of pitching for the Automen.

The final double-header saw 3 Barbers sweeping the Arizona Restaurant, 19-14 and 25-8, recouping their hitting skills following an early season shutout. Dave Ahner hit for the cycle, Arlie Lyons, Dave Sheedy, Mal Perlich and Jim Reedy led the offensive show.

By winning all four games this week, the Barbers crept to within a game and a half of 2 Girls Pizza. With all of the runs being scored, it is rumored that steroid testing may be instituted for BAJA. (Just joking!)

Friday select league

No lopsided games on Friday this week, as every team came to play. On field one, first-place Keagy Edward Jones played second-place Comfort Inn of Green Valley in a thriller.

With the game tied at 22-22 and bases loaded with no outs in the bottom of seventh, Gale Van Hoorn of Keagy needed only to lift a fly ball to the outfield to push the winning run across. As he has done on more than one occasion this year, he pushed four winning runs across with a grand slam home run.

Bill Land of Comfort Inn hit two home runs in the contest, with Jim Larsen adding another in the losing cause.

For Keagy, Claude Lebarre, Steve Garcia, Steve Wentz, Rick Keagy and Gale Van Hoorn tallied seven home runs between them.

Comfort Inn played errorless and inspired softball, but in the end couldn’t muster a defense against the long ball. Final tally, Keagy Edward Jones over Comfort Inn 26-22.

Keagy won game two, 24-20, in similar fashion to game one with the long ball and tight defense when it mattered most.

Bill Land of Comfort Inn hit his series-leading third home run for the day, while the usual suspects for Keagy joined by Jim Molsen and Dick Purdy hit five balls into the desert.

Defensively, Comfort Inn outplayed Keagy Edward Jones in both contests highlighted by Lu Smith of Comfort Inn making a fantastic running shoe-top catch in left-center field that brought cheers from both teams and spectators.

On field two, Hickey Automotive looked to surprise Green Valley Insurance, but steady hitting by Insurance men Mike Sommers, Dick Fryan, Craig Burgess, John Brassell, Tommy Liedtke and Jerry Brotz put the game away early despite Hickey Automotive scoring 15 times in the final three innings.

Hickey’s top four hitters — Joe Wilson, Dave McKinley, Fred Searle and Arly Lyons — were almost perfect at the plate.

Hats off to both teams outfielders who successfully fought the sun all day, especially John Houghton of Hickey Automotive and Craig Burgess and Mike Ianichino of GV Insurance.

Final score: GV Insurance 25-15 over Hickey Automotive.

Game two was a tight contest with both Hickey Automotive and GV Insurance scoring early and often. Great hitting by Joe Wilson, Dave McKinley, Fred Searle, Arly Lyons, John Houghton and Gary Oberfeld from Hickey’s was matched inning for inning by GV Insurance’s hard hitting Mike Ianichino, Tommy Liedtke, Jerry Brotz, Mark Haskoe, Mike Sommers and John Brassell.

It wasn’t until the seventh inning that the Insurance men — behind some great pitching by Gil Massey — were able to silence Hickey’s bats and garner their second win for the day, 23-19.

Rec League standings

2 Girls Pizza, 17-6

3 Happy Barbers, 16-8

San Ignacio Inn, 15-9

Jim Click, 14-10

Triple Play, 10-14

Cow Palace, 9-14

Arizona Restaurant, 2-22

Select League standings

Keagy Edward Jones, 10-0

GV Insurance, 5-5

Comfort Inn of GV, 4-6

Hickey Automotive, 1-9