CLEARFIELD – For the first time in 14 years, the Clearfield Past-Your-Prime Modified Fast-Pitch Softball Tournament ended with co-champions after Denny\’s Beer Barrel Pub edged Aqua Specialists 11-9 Sunday evening at Bucky Strunk Memorial Field.
Randy Hutton and Crash Cutler drove in four runs apiece as Denny\’s avenged an 18-11 winner\’s bracket final loss to the Mechanicsburg team making its first appearance in the tourney that benefits Clearfield County youths through the United States Marine Corps Sergeant William L. Dixon Detachment\’s \”Toys for Tots\” program.
Denny\’s rebounded in the loser\’s bracket final, scoring two runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to nudge the four-time champion Meatheads 9-8 for the rematch with Aqua, which had roared through the winner\’s bracket with 43 runs in three games.
Denny\’s victory in the title game that started nearly three hours behind schedule meant another game would have been necessary to determine the 2008 champion of the double-elimination tourney.
However, with Aqua players facing a long drive home, a brief conference of tourney officials and team representatives resulted in the declaration of co-champions, with the traveling trophy remaining in Clearfield.
Denny\’s, which had to recruit players during the weekend because of injuries, finished 4-1, while Aqua was 3-1 in its impressive debut.
In the finale, the Clearfield club got the jump in the first inning when Hutton doubled home two runs and scored on Marty Smolko\’s single.
Aqua pitcher Billy Allen made it close, 3-2, in the second frame with the first of his two home runs, but Denny\’s took command in the third when Cutler\’s three-run triple to right center highlighted a five-run outburst. Denny\’s threatened to widen the 8-2 bulge by loading the bases with no outs, but Allen logged a strikeout and made an outstanding stop on Bobby Haight\’s hard smash to start a pitcher-to-home-to-first double play.
Three runs in the bottom of the sixth buoyed Aqua\’s hopes with just a 10-8 deficit.
In the seventh, winning pitcher Randy Sones singled across an insurance run that loomed very big when Allen led off with a solo blast to right center and Steve Taglang walked with one out.
Sones then snagged Billy Kozlovac\’s liner befored punctuating his second win in three decisions with his lone strikeout.
Lucky Prestash posted the other two wins for Denny\’s, which bounced the Emporium Used-To-Be-Goods 14-3 and nipped seven-time champion Potter\’s Bricklayer\’s 7-6 in eight innings on Saturday.
Ken Erskine\’s RBI-double decided the extra inning game after Potter\’s had rallied to tie it with two runs in the bottom of the seventh.
A three-run homer by Tom Zurat keyed Denny\’s fast start in the loser\’s bracket final, but the Meatheads came back to take the lead twice, 7-6 with four runs in the fifth, and 8-7 with a run in the seventh on consecutive hits by the Danver brothers, Tom, Tim and Doug.
Down to its last out, Denny\’s pulled out the exciting victory when Hutton knocked in the tying run with a double down the left field line and then scored on a Meathead miscue.
Tom Danver had a double and three singles for the Meatheads, who out-hit Denny\’s 16-12.
EXTRA INNINGS – Allen was 2-1 and Kozlavec 1-0 for Aqua, which beat W.W. Engine & Supply 14-5 and the Meatheads 11-1 in five innings Saturday… The best game over seven innings came in the loser\’s bracket semifinal, the Meatheads getting a two-out single from Tim Andrulonis to force an extra frame and then ousting Potter\’s 7-2. Dave Pennington\’s two-run double was the game-winning hit. Bob Marsh and Jack Rumfola followed with back-to-back home runs. Chuck Moore socked three singles for Potter\’s, which stranded 12 runners… The Meatheads finished third at 4-2, Mark Bodle pitching all of their games… Potter\’s wound up fourth at 2-2, the losses coming in the tourney\’s only extra-inning games… Bob Boob Garage and Siegel Engraving also were 2-2 and tied for fifth place… Meathead Pat \”Planet P\” Pallo\’s bid for Rookie of the Year honors ended on his first at-bat, as he tweaked both hamstrings hustling to first base on a ground ball… The tourney was full of defensive gems, including a pair by Denny\’s third baseman Haight in the finale… Four Saturday games were played at the Lawrence Township Recreation Park Field… Ideal weather conditions both days helped make the event one of the best ever for players, fans and the \”Toys for Tots\” fund-raisers.
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
Denny\’s Beer Barrel Pub – 11
Dave Reed cf 2310, Doug Saltsman ss 4340, Ricky Bumbarger 2b 2100, Randy Hutton 1b 4224, Crash Cutler eh 2114, Marty Smolko lf 4132, Fred St. Clair c 2000, Joe Anderson ph 1000, Randy Sones p 4021, Tom Zurat rf 4000, Bobby Haight 3b 4010. TOTALS: 33 11 14 11.
Aqua Specialists – 9
Dean Jamison lf 5101, Tony Botek ss 4111, Ray Schreffler cf 3221, Dave Giblin c 3011, Pat Stock rf 3110, Billy Allen p 4234, Stan Handiboe 3b 4000, Steve Taglang 1b 3110, Billy Kozlovac 2b 3110. TOTALS: 32 9 10 8.
Score by Innings
Denny\’s 305 200 1 – 11 14 3
Aqua 022 013 1 – 9 10 0
DP – Aqua 1 (Allen, Giblin and Taglang). LOB – Denny\’s 8, Aqua 7. 2B – Hutton 2; Schreffler, Allen. 3B – Cutler; Stock. HR – Allen 2. SB – Jamison.
W – Sones (2-1). L – Allen (2-1).
