After the Dirty Rats’ doubleheader sweep Thursday, July 7, head coach Santana Alvarado made a statement to the rest of the Sedona Adult Softball League, presented by the Sedona Parks and Recreation department.

“I think we can compete with any team,” he said after a three-run sixth-inning rally in the second game knocked off the Mighty Ducks of L’Auberge de Sedona, 7-5. “We should’ve been at the top; we just had some people missing, [but] everybody’s back now. We’ll be good.”

The Dirty Rats also had to rally from 1-0 down against the Sedona Red Rock News, struggling the first four innings before putting away the Paperboys, 9-2.

“They were playing good defense to start,” said starting pitcher Doug Barnard, who had one of the go-ahead RBIs against L’Auberge with a shallow single to center field. “Then the errors caught up to them.”

The two wins put the Dirty Rats back at .500 with the return of Barnard to the mound after he missed the first two games of the summer.

“That was the most strikeouts I’ve ever had,” said Barnard, who struck out nine Mighty Ducks in his first year with Alvarado’s team. “That was a fun game.”

Barnard debuted in the league two years ago but thought he would be passed over for the second straight summer before friend Tommy Lopez, one of the four Dirty Rats missing in action July 7, brought him on board. They join heavy hitters like shortstop Eric Dominguez, center fielder Israel Martinez and corner infielders Joel Serrano and Nate Leake on the 14-player roster.

“I think keeping hitters together in the lineup instead of splitting them [up] helps,” Barnard said. “Because the out in between was killing us.

“We stacked the lineup with three of our best hitters in a row and it worked out for us.”

A Day in the West also stayed a half-game ahead of Rotary in second place behind the league-leading Balloonatics with an “ugly” 25-0 wipeout of the Sedona Red Rock News, Alvarado said.

“You’re up 25-0 and you’re complaining about fair calls? Really?” Barnard added. “I didn’t have fun playing A Day in the West because they’re cocky, all business. They don’t joke around.

“Their defense is stellar, so you’ve got to hit it away from them. We’re not spot hitters, necessarily, so we need to get lucky a little bit. Balloonatics and A Day in the West, you can tell, practice.”

For full Sedona Adult Softball league standings and upcoming games, please see the Wednesday, July 13, issue of the Sedona Red Rock News.