Orange gives Powder Blue a "Light" Dusting, 15-14 (April 11)

In a tense game where Orange trailed the entire game until the bottom of the eighth, the Crush prevailed 15-14 under the warm sun.

We spotted Chuck's crew leads of 4-0 and 10-3 before our bats woke up in the bottom of the fourth. Consecutive hits by Jeff Waters, Tony Gorgone, Steve Rousso (one of his two doubles) set the table and singles by Mike Byrnes, Heffe, Rich Sanders and a clutch two out two run hit by Vic Santini closed out our only five run inning.

That closed it to 10-8 and we kept it close from then on. We kept gifting them extra runs with some shaky defense, but we saved the good plays for the end. In this game we experimented with Bob Staples at 3B and he didn't get a ball for the first seven innings. He kept asking if he should/could return to the outfield. Well, the experiment paid off as he came in hard on a foul popup to get the last out in the eighth, holding Lt. Blue to one run. And in the ninth he caught a screamer for that all important first out. The ball was moving in his glove and ended up half out but he hung on. Henceforth he is Snow Cone Bob. A liner and a grounder to 2B Sanders and it was all over.

Other defensive gems were turned by Gorgone on a 6-3 out in the first. Leo Kay then did him one better when he went into a slide in shallow right center with two outs, bobbled the ball into the air and then grabbed it and showed it to everyone. The first baseman picked a throw in the dirt in the fourth and ranged all of about twenty feet into foul ground to put away the enemy coach in the fifth.

But the theatrics came in the seventh. With no outs and runners on first and second (or was it bases loaded?), Gorgone fielded a sharp grounder at third, wheeled and fired to Rover Helen Kostoff at second, who pivoted slickly and threw to first. Of course we all thought we had the triple play. But the Powder Blue blue disagreed. We are still waiting for New York to chime in. Look on YouTube later. The Orange knows the truth.

That set up Staples' heroics in the last two innings. Mike Elmore had held the Blue in the middle innings to just a couple of runs, including a swinging strikeout, and Mike Howard closed it out.

In our eighth, back to back doubles by Mike Callahan and Rick Evans set up the winning rally, and Rousso provided the game winner on a fielding aided hit.

Kay led the way with a 4-4 day. Rousso went 3-3 plus a walk and 3 RBIs. Waters and Santini were also 3-3, and the latter had a triple and three RBIs.

Dave Rose already cried, "Break up the Orange!"