Softball

Revival of the fittest

Dutch’s Bar/T&C Tanning returns to old form

in win over Nugget

By RICHARD A. ROSS

richardross@riverreporter.com

MONGAUP VALLEY, NY - When it comes to sheer talent, Dutch’s Bar/T&C Tanning is unquestionably one of the league’s top teams. Last year, they proved that with a great record of 16-4, and a run in the playoffs that some prognosticators believed they would win.

Instead, they were ousted in the semifinals by Charlies’ Angels, which left the halo ladies and Cooper Paint to duke it out for the title. The latter defeated Charlie’s for the crown many had previously believed might belong to Dutch’s. This season brought changes, including the coaching helm, and it has been an up and down one for the ladies in red and black.

Coming into their game against rebuilding Nugget (3-12), Dutch’s was hoping to get back to .500 to even out their current mark of 6-7. Always fun-loving, as well as talented, Dutch’s wasted no time getting down to some serious work against Nugget, a team that is also far better than their record would indicate.

Dutch’s leadoff hitter Kim Bradley got on with a single, advanced on a ground out by Justine Whitcomb and came home on a base hit by Tini Kaiser. Two more runs were subsequently driven in by Shannon Holland and Amy Bruderman to give Dutch’s a three-run lead. As it would turn out, that would prove to be enough to offset Nugget’s two-run output. Both of those runs came in the third inning, but by that time Nugget was trailing 12-0. Nugget’s production came on a RBI double by Amanda Davis that drove home Linnea O’Mara and Karen Perrello.

On the opposite side of the ledger, Dutch’s Bar/T&C Tanning had rediscovered its missing mayhem at the plate. A five-run second inning resulted from loading the bases against Nugget hurler Ro Steuber, and RBI from Whitcomb, Kaiser, Theresa Murdock, Bruderman and Rebecca Peters. Meanwhile, Dutch’s pitcher Kathy Jo Hoyt had shut out Nugget over the first two innings. In the third, Dutch’s extended its lead with four additional runs, courtesy of a two-run double by Theresa Nietzel and RBI singles from Holland and Murdock.

It looked like Murderer’s Row had returned, and that Dutch’s was poised to make a statement about its reassertion. Of course, it takes more than one big night to rise to contention, so whether this return to old form was temporary or a harbinger of future success remains to be seen.

Mirroring the periods of hot and cold that have defined its season, Dutch’s suddenly went blank in the fourth and fifth innings, perhaps lulled to sleep by its big lead, but still unable to come up with the five additional runs they would have needed to end this one mercifully after five innings.

They got that and then some, with an eight-run outburst in the sixth, highlighted by a rare homer off the bat of Whitcomb, who put her head down and eyed the ball right off the sweet part of her bat, as it soared into left field. Flashing that unmatchable smile and riding those quick wheels, she quickly traversed the bases and high-fived her amped-up teammates. Nietezel and Holland, two more vets of the rouge and noir tribe (that’s red and black, for those of you who can’t read French), added RBI to propel Dutch’s to a 20-2 lead.

Nugget got two runners on in the sixth as Kendra Harris and Courtney Hunt singled, but Nugget had taken themselves out of this one much earlier, resigning themselves to the loss. They have talent; now what they need is a spark and a belief in themselves. That will come with time. In the meantime at least, they do come to have fun. Nugget slipped to 3-13, while Dutch’s Bar/T&C Tanning improved to a respectable 7-7.

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