Team Re-Entry Softball Box Scores for Spring 2007

In the season opener, Re-Entry bats were red hot, producing two "mercy-rule" innings (where 10 runs are scored before the third out of the inning). The 44 run total established a new Re-Entry team record for the most runs scored in a game. (The previous record of 35 runs was accomplished by the fall 2004 coed Re-Entry championship team!) And this time, the game was called after six innings of play. Due to the very long innings, daylight ran out before the seventh inning was reached, and the game was declared over after the bottom of the sixth inning. Josh led the assault with four home-runs, although nearly all Re-Entry players padded their batting averages and slugging percentages!

The Re-Entry bats cooled off a bit this week, at least for the first four innings. When Fiasco scored two runs in the fifth to close to within four runs, it was time to sweat a little. An 8--4 lead is not a comfortable one, but Re-Entry stepped it up in the bottom of the fifth with a 10 run inning (invoking the mercy rule). It was clear sailing from that point onward. Inn their final inning, Fiasco summoned their closer to the mound. Their pitcher (perhaps forgetting that he was pitching to his own team) struck out the final two batters to end the game.

Down early by nine runs, and then still down by eight runs in the bottom of the 5th inning, Re-Entry staged two comeback attempts. Powered by two three-run home runs in the 3rd inning and 6th inning, Re-Entry closed the gap to one run entering the seventh inning. A brilliant double play turned by Clara and Harrison kept the Western Yellow Bellies Racers scoreless in the top of the seventh. Unfortunately, the dramatic comeback fell short as Re-Entry was not able to push across the tying and winning runs in the last of the 7th.

This battle between two evenly matched teams featured good defense on both sides. Re-Entry jumped to a five run lead, but no lead was safe as Nice Crack staged two spirited comebacks to tie the game at 6--6 in the third inning and again at 9--9 in the top of the 6th inning. In the bottom of the 6th, Re-Entry loaded the bases with no outs. Josh followed with a mammoth drive to deep left-center, which was tracked down by Jim Real who made a spectacular catch. Luckily, as Jim was a former Re-Entry star, his talents were well known to us, and all three runners tagged up and advanced two bases each on the out (since Josh's drive was so deep). Thus two runs were able to score (with a third run scoring on the following ground-out), which provided the difference in the game.

On a statistical note, this game saw the end of an amazing streak of Harrison (estimated by this reporter to be) 75 straight games without being thrown out at first on a ground ball. Let the next streak begin with our next game!

Despite a valiant effort against the first place team of the division and two early leads, Re-Entry was not able to quell the fourth and fifth inning rallies of the Cowell Corruptors until the damage had been done. Two mammoth home runs by Justin and Josh were not sufficient to overcome the deficit (and unfortunately, a strained hamstring suffered by yours truly in the first inning did not help matters). Ultimately, this loss coupled with the Western Yellow Bellies Racers' victory over Nice Crack was sufficient to eliminate Re-Entry from the playoffs.

Nevertheless, I can say with confidence that this was probably the best Re-Entry team that failed to make the playoffs. With four (almost equally) talented teams in the division of six team, a third place finish is still nothing to be ashamed of (especially since our loss to the second place team was by the smallest of margins).

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