Sullivan County Women’ Softball All-Star Game

Competitive juices flow at women’s exhibition game

By ZAC BRIGHT

MONTICELLO, NY –The Sullivan County Women’s Softball league pick-up softball game played at Monticello’s Collin’s Field on July 22 was supposed to be a relaxing break from the weekly regular season schedule. It was also billed as a way for players to represent their respective teams while showcasing their mid-season form in a non-competitive atmosphere.

However, “non-competitive” was not in the vocabulary of the 18 contenders on the diamond this night, as their will to win and fierce determination were openly displayed from the game’s rain-spattered opening pitches to its gritty final at-bats in the seventh.

Players from nearly every one of the thirteen Sullivan County Women’s Softball League (SCWSL) squads were placed on either the red or the black team according to the colored playing card each randomly selected prior to game time. As the line-up cards began to fill with names and the home team trotted out of the dugout to take their positions on the rain-sodden grass, the laughs and smiles that have become a staple of the SCWSL still remained. But what also became clear, as the players tightened their cleats and pulled the down the brims of their caps, was an unmistakable seriousness that the tranquil spectators were not expecting.

The avid onlookers could not have asked for a better-quality match-up. In the end, however, Black’s firepower was too much for Red to handle, stealing a close one 11-9. The tremendous play of Mardette Wilcox was a constant throughout, as the Morton Scrapper’s product gave an inspiring 3-for-3, four-RBI performance needing just a home run to hit for the cycle. Teammate Laura White of L & B Tack not only was the winning pitcher, but also came in to relieve teammate Barb Merton as Red’s late rally in the fifth inning had tied the score at eight. White, along with the victory and save, also contributed with her bat, belting a three-run inside-the-park homerun early in the contest.

Red’s Maureen Johnson of New Hope Community who went 3-for-4 with two doubles, and Dutch’s Theresa Nietzel, who also went 3-for-4 with a two-run inside-the-park homerun, turned in big days at the plate. Yet they were just not enough to silence Black’s offensive juggernaut. The play of these two along with the help of their never-say-die teammates forced the game to come down to the wire. Red battled all the way down to their last strike, but in the end, their best efforts were not enough to overcome Black’s supremacy.