After a nice winter break it was safe to say that everyone was eager to get back into the grove of Monday night softball at Rusty Lyons. The bad news is that old man winter is still around to remind us that shaking the rust off also involved keeping the body warm too. Good thing booze helps to fyi.
The two teams who had the pleasure of starting our spring league were Stirista and Star Ballers. Star Ballers were new to Monday nights while Stirista looked to build on last season and they did so by giving Star Ballers a welcome parade in the form of a hit parade at the plate. They consistently drove the ball building a comfortable lead. Star Ballers labored along for a couple innings but woke up in their last at bats to put a 4 spot to make the score a respectable 10-6.
Some familiar faces came back to the field under a new team and moniker in We Got the Runs, ready to make a mess of Swingin Singles who were coming together for the first time. Swingin Singles got off to the quick start with 3 runs to begin their marathon around the base paths. We Got the Runs pushed their way to a 1 run lead in the second but that would be the only time they held the lead that night as Swingin Singles responded with 12 runs over the next inning and a half that ensured them a runaway W, 15-5.
Starting their double header was Las Rosas taking on Top Shelf Primo who didn’t plan on breaking out the cheap stuff. Las Rosas felt good holding a 4 run lead going into the bottom half of the second inning, but that’s when the good feeling and Top Shelf Primo put a thorn in their side with 17 runs over the next two innings to get Las Rosas off to a rocky start to their night.
So noble in their name, the Fighting Knights welcomed the not so subtle Scoregasms, ready to swing the wood and leave the field feeling satisfied. Right away Scoregasms had no problem moving from first base to home plate with a lucky 7 runs to start their evening off. Fighting Knights came back at them with 5 runs of their own to bring it close but couldn’t muster much after that for the rest of the game. As for Scoregasms, we can only hope they were satisfied with 19 runs.
The next game certainly had two teams that gravitated towards a certain theme with their names. Let’s just say that if both teams wore feather scarves and leopard skin hats that nobody would feel out of place. In any case the pitch loving teams battled it out on the diamond. Where My Pitches At grabbed the early advantage pitch slapping the bats of Smack My Pitch Up over the first three innings while they scratched across run after run. In the end we were left with no doubt who the big pitch was as Where My Pitches At took the game over Smack My Pitch Up 8-4.
The Jerks returned to action but stumbled out of the gate while their opponent, Softballs and Hardsticks found a rhythm early. The Jerks fought back with a couple runs but ran out of steam while Softballs and Hardsticks were able to sustain the momentum running away with this one 10-2.
Still feeling the sting of their loss earlier in the evening, Las Rosas looked to bounce back and split their double header. Standing in their way was the friendly neighborhood Spider-Pigs who brought their web slinging antics to the diamond. Las Rosas took advantage of the sluggish start from Spider-Pigs building a small lead that quickly faded when the web slingers swung their way to turn a 2 run deficit into a 2 run lead. With the dreaded feeling looming of dropping both games of the double header, Las Rosas showed poise in mounting a response that brought back the lead to them and stifling the comeback effort of Spider-Pigs to split the double header and bring an end to week one of spring softball.
Teams can look forward to another week of great competition battling in the standings and to capture the prize of a pitcher of Bud Light at the Hanger.