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With only four teams in the fall coed softball league, all teams qualified for the playoffs. Re-Entry faced the Soft Ballers for the third time this season. Before all the fans had a chance to sit down in their seats, the Soft Ballers first batter hit a homerun down the left field line on the first pitch of the game. With the help of a couple of Re-Entry miscues, the Soft Ballers added three more runs to take a 4--0 lead. In the bottom of the first inning, Howie led off with a double down the left field line. With one out, Mike laced a single to left field. Howie, running hard, beat the throw home for the first Re-Entry run. But, Re-Entry was unable to keep the rally going and the Soft Ballers maintained a 4--1 lead.

The second inning saw no scoring by either team. The Soft Ballers threatened with a couple of infield hits. With the bases loaded and two outs, the Soft Ballers batter hit a fly ball to medium center field. Adrian, playing right center field had to come in a long way, and at the last moment stuck out his glove to make the basket catch, Willie Mays style, to end the Soft Ballers threat and earn a webgem. Re-Entry held the Soft Ballers scoreless again in the third inning. Overcoming a muffed ground ball to open up the top of the third inning, Howie made amends with an acrobatic snare of a hard hit line drive to the backhand side in the hole between shortstop and third base, earning the game's second webgem. Howie continued to take control of the inning with runners on first and second as he tracked down a towering pop fly ball behind second base.

In the bottom of the third inning, with Re-Entry still trailing by three runs, Howie stepped up to the plate with runners on first and second base. After two foul balls to the left side of the field, Howie struck a line drive to the right side of center field. The Soft Ballers center fielder made a valiant attempt to reach the ball but came up short, and the ball was by him. Howie was just able to beat the throw home to complete the three run homerun and tie the game at 4--4. But the Soft Ballers responded in the top of the fourth inning with three runs of their own to re-establish a three run lead.

In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Re-Entry bats came alive again. After an A.J. single followed by an infield single by Alex, Rob delivered a RBI double. Two batters later, with two outs and runners on second and third, Adrian delivered the biggest hit of the game--a line drive shot to the right-center field gap that made it all the way to the soccer field. The throw to the plate actually beat the runner, but the Soft Ballers catcher juggled the ball and Adrian crossed the plate untouched. With that three run home run by Adrian, Re-Entry took their first lead of the game. The score now stood at 8--7 in Re-Entry's favor.

With darkness quickly approaching, the head umpire declared that the fifth inning would be the last inning of the game (unless it was a quick one). Until this point, the Re-Entry defense had mostly held up, with a few errors causing minimal damage. Sadly, this would not continue in the top of the fifth inning, as the defensive meltdown that had plagued Re-Entry during most of its fall quarter games recurred one more time. Giving the Soft Ballers so many extra outs ultimately doomed the potential Re-Entry upset. Indeed, the Soft Ballers seized the advantage, adding a number of key line drive hits to drive in runners that should have never been on the bases. By the end of the deluge (with no ten run rule in effect during the final inning), the Soft Ballers had plated twelve runs to take a 19--8 lead. Re-Entry was unable to recover; after a lead off single, the next three Re-Entry batters recorded outs, to end the game and the season.

In the final analysis, Re-Entry was unable to make up for the loss of their three top hitters and outfielders, who departed Santa Cruz at the end of the spring season. Although Re-Entry had two valiant efforts against the Soft Ballers this fall season, it could not overcome the one big inning their opponents seemed to always muster. Still, it was a spirited effort by a Re-Entry team with lots of heart. We gave the Soft Ballers a good scare! Meanwhile, we will look to improve in the upcoming Spring 2016 season and try to get back to the winning Re-Entry tradition!