Thursday afternoon at Riverside Park, the DC Bullets topped Newsweek/Daily Beast 20-10 to run their New York Media Softball League record to 3-1. The game, however, was closer than it first appeared. A late-game bout of pitching wildness and a few defensive lapses allowed DC to pull away in a game that remained a nail-biter through five innings.
DC jumped out to a quick lead in the first. With one away, Mike Lorah beat out an infield single, and Travis Hastback lasered a single to left. John Choi followed with a base hit, scoring Mike, and after Vince Letterio popped up for the second out, Nel Yomtov (adding to his super-soldier legend, playing on a stress fracture in his foot!) tripled to give his team an early 3-0 lead.
In the second, Brian Walters led off with a base hit. One out later, LP Vollano crushed a towering drive to deep left centerfield. Brian scored easily, but third base coach Joel Press got a little aggressive and LP was dead meat at the plate. Newsbeast matched the run in their half, as their first hitter in the second crushed a solo home run to left field.
After a Joel Press single, Larry Ganem grounded into a fielder's choice, and then went to third when Mike Lorah bounced a double off the top quarter of the right field wall. Yeah, that's right, the Riverside Park right field wall, top quarter. "A thing of beauty," Brian Walters was heard to say of the hit. Travis scored Larry with a sacrifice fly, and John added an RBI single, driving Mike home. Newsbeast, however, responded in force, tallying four runs in the bottom half, making it a one-run game.
Fourth inning: Nel, CNap and Brian singled to load the bases, and Sal Cipriano drove home a run with an RBI fielder's choice. LP added a second run with a ground out. Laura Demoreuille and Joel walked to load the bases, but Pat Brosseau popped out to stall the threat. Newsbeast scored a single run in the fourth, and after a scoreless turn by the Bullets, another in the fifth to again keep the game close. The comic book makers held an 8-7 edge going into the sixth. And that's when the game got out of hand.
After Nel lined a base hit to center and CNap lined out to third, Brian and Sal took back-to-back walks. LP doubled for two runs, and Laura did the same. Joel popped up for the second out, but Larry Ganem drove home another run with a two-out single to center. Mike added a hit, and then Travis and John doubled for three more runs. The eight run outburst put the game nearly out of reach; Newsbeast, however, remained resilient, scoring once in the bottom half, another long solo homer from their clean-up hitter.
DC tacked on quickly in the seventh. Singles by Nel and Brian, sandwiched around CNap's walk, loaded the bases for Sal, who unloaded a long drive to left field, making for an easy grand slam homer. LP, Laura and Joel went down in sequence then, which is probably good - it was getting pretty dark.
Newsbeast scored twice in the last of the seventh, giving us our final 20-10 score.
9-5 (3-1 NYMSL), the Bullets (and some friends, it seems) play ProPublica this evening on Great Lawn #3.
Bullet Box:
OF/C Pat Brosseau 0-2 / P Larry Ganem 1-2, 2 R, RBI
3B Mike Lorah - 4-4, 3 R, double
LF Travis Hastback - 2-3, 2 R, 3 RBI, double, sac fly
C John Choi - 3-4, R, 3 RBI, double
OF Vince Letterio - 0-4
SS Nel Yomtov - 4-4, 3 R, 2 RBI, triple
2B Christine Napolitano - 1-3, R, BB
OF/C Brian Walters - 3-3, 4 R, BB
OF/C Sal Cipriano - 1-3, 2 R, 5 RBI, BB, home run
DH LP Vollano - 2-4, R, 4 RBI, double, triple
1B Laura Demoreuille - 1-3, R, 2 RBI, BB, double
SS Joel Press - 1-3, BB
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