In week six of the Adult Summer Softball league, the brackets for the post-season playoffs are starting to take shape.
With just two games remaining in the regular season, was a 7:30 p.m. match-up between Dirty Rats and the cellar dwellers of the league, 2-7 Red Rocks Rotary. Dirty Rats played an earlier game Thursday at 6:15 p.m. against Slapnut Magoos, a game Dirty Rats lost 6-1, so they entered this game two games below .500 at 4-6. Despite struggling for much of the season, the underdog Red Rocks Rotary put on an impressive offensive display.
After a scoreless first, in the second inning Tony Meza singled to right field. Dan Wilson then hit a ground ball to short, Dirty Rats tried to start a double play, firing the ball to force Meza at second. The ball flew into right field and Meza raced around to score easily on the two-base error. Red Rocks Rotary led 1-0.
In the third inning, still 1-0, Rotary’s Mark Ross singled and then Andrew Bailor also hit safely and advanced to second on a throwing error. Now with runners at second and third, another throwing error on a grounder by Eilis Meza brought home Ross and Bailor. All of a sudden, 2-7 Red Rocks Rotary was leading 3-0
Did Dirty Rats take the last-place team lightly? “No, we don’t ever think like that because we could be in that boat pretty easy too,” Dirty Rats player Nate Leake said.
“We wish we could say that and we’ve beaten some teams that we shouldn’t have but we’ve lost to teams we should have beat. So we just switched the lineup up,” manager and player Santana Alvarado said.
In the bottom of the third inning, Dirty Rats started to put some hits together. Eric Dominguez and Doug Barnard singled and Leake played clean-up, doubling to center field scoring Dominguez and Barnard. Alvarado followed with a clutch base hit scoring Leake and the Dirty Rats had come back to tie it at 3-3.
“We’ve just got to hit … that’s really it,” Leake said. “If we can hit, we got a chance.”
For two innings, neither team could scratch out a run. Still tied 3-3, both teams were fighting to take the lead.
“It was kind of up and down, it went back and forth,” Alvarado said. “They’re a good team … they have really good players, good hitters.”
In the fifth inning, the tide turned when Dirty Rats got runners aboard. Joe Machado reached on a dropped fly ball to right field. Five straight singles followed, scoring five runs and Dirty Rats took control of the game, leading 8-5.
“We’re just trying to get solid contact, not so much swinging for the fence, just trying to get good contact,” Leake said.
“We just happened to be hitting today … normally we’re not,” Alvarado said
In the top of the sixth, Red Rocks Rotary remained feisty at the plate. Meza slashed a grounder along the first base line headed to right field but first baseman Leake reached down and snagged it as it streaked over the first base bag toward the right field corner. With the ball safely in his glove, Leake stepped on first snuffing out a certain double, which would have put Meza in scoring position.
“I got lucky, just being in the right spot,” Leake said.
Dirty Rats added to their lead in the bottom of the sixth inning when Ian Gilbert singled and scored on a triple to the right field alley by Miguel Gonzalez. It was 9-5 Dirty Rats. But all credit due to the scrappy Red Rock Rotary team. In the top of the seventh, in their last at bat, with a runner aboard, Nick Hastings crushed a long fly ball to deep center field. It cleared the fence and closed Red Rocks Rotary to within 2, down 9-7.
“The game was competitive because one of our players got traded to the other team [Red Rocks Rotary], Leake said. “That made it more interesting.”
“I guess they needed some people so he [Dirty Rats player] went to play with them,” Alvarado said. “Now they’ve got plenty of people and we’re short guys but its all good, no hard feelings.”
Dirty Rats finished with a 9-7 victory. After losing their first game at 6:15 p.m. Thursday evening, the win versus Red Rocks Rotary placed Dirty Rats at one game below .500.
“We’re around .500 right now. That’s basically how it goes,” Alvarado said. “Win one, lose one. Our plan is to win the next game. We’ll probably be in the middle seeds, might even play these guys [Red Rocks Rotary] in the playoffs. We had a good game against them so it should be fun.”
So take it one game at a time? “Exactly,” Alvarado said.
Dirty Rats’ record on the season is now 5-6, good for fourth place in the league standings. A tie on July 11 between Pago’s and Slapnut Magoos looms large. The two teams are tied for second place but well behind undefeated Rokzoo, 10-0 in first place to stay with one regular season game to play.
Don Eicher can be reached at 282-7775, ext. 126 or email at deicher@larsonnewspapers.com
