Potter\’s Bricklayers Win Annual Past Your Prime Softball Tourney

 

The loser\’s bracket final and championship game were canceled after the Meatheads and Denny\’s Beer Barrel Pub played through light and heavy rain showers for 11 innings in the loser\’s bracket semifinal at Bucky Strunk Memorial Field, but players and fans had to agree Potter\’s was the best of the eight teams in the two-day, double-elimination tourney.

 

Manager Terry Potter\’s Bricklayers just didn\’t breeze through the field, though, en route to their seventh Past Your Prime title.

 

They had to come from behind twice on Saturday, erasing an 8-3, third-inning deficit to down Denny\’s Pub 14-8 before pulling away from the Meatheads 12-5 after trailing 5-3 in the fourth frame.

 

In the winner\’s bracket final Sunday morning, Potter\’s led only 2-1 after four innings but went on to defeat Bob Boob\’s Garage 10-3 as Keith Hahn walloped a pair of three-run home runs and Jerry Watson pitched a five-hitter for his third win.

 

The Meatheads, who slipped past Denny\’s 9-8 on Scott Dunlap\’s RBI-single in the top of the 11th to make it to the loser\’s bracket final, then were declared the runners-up by a coin toss that relegated Bob Boob\’s Garage to third place.

 

Ultimately, the big winners of the fun-filled weekend are youths who never see the players – some still active and some definitely over the hill – perform.

 

That\’s because the hard-working tournament committee has designated all proceeds, which have grown dramatically in recent years, for projects that benefit area children of all ages.

 

Again this year, the money will go to the Clearfield-based Sergeant William L. Dixon Detachment of the Marine Corps League for its \”Toys for Tots\” program. Several members of that organization volunteered to umpire or help with fund-raisers.

 

On the field, action ran the gamut from very good, considering many participants hadn\’t picked up a bat or glove since last year or longer, to, well, comical at times.

 

While modified fast-pitch is a hitting and defensive game, two pitching performances were noteworthy. Denny\’s Lucky Prestash rang up 12 strikeouts in a 14-0 shutout of Emporium Used-To-Be-Goods in the loser\’s bracket quarterfinals, and Potter\’s Watson retired the side in order four times and faced only four batters in two other innings of what proved to be the championship victory over Boob\’s.

 

The first four batters in the Potter\’s lineup posted amazing statistics. Scott Prohaska, Pat Stock, Rich Harlow and Hahn combined for more than 30 hits and at least 24 runs and 24 runs batted in.

 

Harlow was 11-for-12 with three extra base hits, one a home run. Hahn clubbed three homers and knocked in 17 runs.

 

In the tourney opener, Denny\’s stunned Potter\’s with a seven-run outburst in the third inning, the big blows a three-run homer by Ken Erskine and a two-run triple by Jack Sones. Watson blanked Denny\’s the rest of the way, and his mates came up with an eight-run salvo in the bottom of the fourth inning to take control. Mike Potter\’s two-run single and Stock\’s two-run triple were the key hits. Hahn added a two-run homer in the sixth. Prohaska and Harlow each had four hits, and 62-year-old Harold Hahn chipped in with a single, double and triple.

 

Harlow\’s three-run homer in the first frame staked Potter\’s to an early lead against the Meatheads, but the four-time champions from Clearfield posted pairs of runs in the third and fourth innings for a 5-3 edge. Potter\’s answered with five in the lower fourth and added four in the sixth while Watson was finishing strong again. Denny Billotte rapped four singles and Harlow and Stock each had three hits for the winners.

 

Watson and Bob Boob\’s Larry Conklin were locked up in a pitcher\’s duel midway through the winner\’s bracket final before Harlow cracked a two-run single to right center and Keith Hahn belted a homer to left for three runs and a 7-1 bulge in the fifth. Hahn slugged his second home to dead center in the sixth to match Harlow\’s four-hit performance. Stock had three singles and Prohaska added a pair as the top of the order accounted 13 of Potter\’s 17 hits and nine of the 10 runs.

 

The Meatheads clipped Siegel Engraving 19-11 in their first game. Denny Nosker snapped a 3-3 tie with single and Dunlap doubled home two more runs in the fourth inning. The Meatheads made pitcher Mark Bodle\’s job much easier with six runs in the fifth and seven in the sixth. Nosker had four hits and Dunlap, Bob Marsh and Tom Danver had three apiece.

 

After losing to Potter\’s in the winner\’s bracket semis, the Meatheads bounced back to thump W.W. Engine 27-3 in six innings. Dunlap was 5-for-5, Nosker and Greg Forcey had four hits apiece and Billotte and Greg Maines had three apiece. Dunlap doubled three times. Maines, who drove in five runs, and Forcey each had a pair of doubles. Ron Heichel was the winning pitcher in relief of Bodle.

 

Bodle notched his second victory by pitching all 11 innings in the tourney-record nail-biter with Denny\’s, which rallied to tie the game twice in extra innings before finally falling victim to Dunlap\’s single. Danver hit a solo homer in the 10th for the Meatheads.

 

Boob\’s trimmed W.W. Engine 15-2 and Emporium\’s Used-To-Be-Goods 16-13 to join Potter\’s in the winner\’s bracket final.

 

Logan Cramer III drilled five hits, one a double, and Brent Thomas added three to back Conklin\’s pitching against W.W. Engine.

 

Thomas, Cramer, Jeff Norris and Larry Peacock had three hits apiece in the comeback victory over Emporium, which couldn\’t hold leads of 9-5 in the fourth and 11-10 in the fifth. The game was tied in the sixth, when Boob\’s tallied its final three runs to make Conklin the winning hurler.

 

Emporium bested Buster\’s Sports Bar 17-2 in four innings in the other first-round game Saturday morning. Pat Lewis and Stan Dunsmore each had three hits and Neil McIsaac was the winning pitcher.