by O.B.

BEAT LIVES!

The bats came alive and a solid defense refused to crack as The BEAT defeated Rhino's, 13-11, for their first ever C-league victory on April 13, 1996.

After having been blown out their previous two games, The BEAT was determined to win. Perhaps Laffey's return sparked the team. Perhaps each player just found a way to turn it up a notch. But in the end, the local heroes, left for dead a week earlier, had risen from the ashes.

The game ball fittingly went to lead-off batter Mike Buttafuso, who topped a 4 for 4 perfomance with brilliant outfield play. Mike, Mark St.Georges, and the hitters club constantly set the table, scoring 11 runs while the 3-6 batters had nine RBI's.

With that formula, The BEAT scored consistantly in the first four innings (2,2,1,2), but couldn't quite put Rhino's away. Fortunately, the defense rose to the challenge. Butts snagged a sinking fly to end the first, and The BEAT faced the minimum in the second and third. But Rhino's broke through for three in the fourth, and the lead seemed very fragile.

The bottom of the fifth was pivotal, and may mark The BEAT's arrival in C-league. Lukoski, Laffey and Spoon led off with singles, Wilfred being erased on a fielders choice. Butts singled, MSG walked, and Palmer knocked in two. Donnell's sacrifice fly made even an out productive, and Peter and Kevin followed with RBI singles. The six runs marked the first big inning of the year, and gave The BEAT a seemingly insurmountable 13-4 lead.

But the game of softball is not so easliy mastered, and the Rhino's were indeed a C-league team. In the top of the sixth, they plated their first four batters and ended up scoring six themselves. Added to the defensive breakdown was the loss of John Palmer to a knee injury in the field with still an out needed to end the inning. Luckily, a quick grounder to Peter and a flip to O.B. at first ended the inning on a very close call.

The BEAT went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the sixth and Rhino's was granted one more at bat. A triple, two singles, a couple fly balls and a walk, and suddenly the bases were loaded, tying run at second, with two outs. As one fan noted later, "There was much peeing of pants in the stands".

"He hasn't had a hit all day" whispered Anne to Stacia, as the number 10 hitter came to the plate. But not loud enough. A ground ball to MSG unassisted at second, and The BEAT became a legitimate C-league team!

View The BEAT's 1996 Batting Statistics

See the game scoresheet in pdf (242k) or
On The BEAT News Archive