Softball

Nine lives: Klein and Sons Logging overcomes errors and base running miscues to tie the series and force game three

By RICHARD A. ROSS

MONGAUP VALLEY, NY - They say cats have nine lives. The same can now be said about Klein and Sons Logging, a team that seemed bound and determined to do everything it could to hand Charlie’s Angels the A division semifinal sweep as the log ladies played a brand of softball that hardly augured a win over the elite Angels.

Needing a win to stay alive in a season that has indeed been special thus far, Klein and Sons quickly got behind Charlie’s Angels on August 8 in game two following its 11-7 loss in the opener just two nights prior.

The halo ladies, who are good enough on their own merits, were aided and abetted by a pair of first-inning errors that conjoined with a couple of base hits to net two runs for the early lead. Tonya Martin and Beth Fanning drove those runs in. Errors on the part of Klein and Sons became routine as the game progressed. By night’s end, they had committed seven of them and had two safe runners at first erased as they made the turn toward second and were tagged out instead of continuing down the first base line.

Klein and Sons players knew full well that this was not the kind of play they needed to keep their playoff hopes alive, and they encouraged one another and played on nonetheless.

They got one run back in the bottom of the first, taking advantage of an E-5 as Chris Powers, followed with a single that drove home Michelle Ross, who was on second at the time.

Charlie’s Angels added a run in the second on a sac fly by Jessica Bradley, but the Angels didn’t capitalize on having bases loaded with only one out. Lacking the kind of hitting that has led to countless victories over the years, Charlie’s Angels allowed a flat Klein and Sons team to hang around. By night’s end, it would cost them the game.

Diane Staves pitched a scoreless second inning for Charlie’s Angels, who then took a 5-1 lead in the top of the third by parlaying a pair of errors that took place on a grounder by Fanning. An E-5 and an errant throw brought in Heidi Hewlett, who had led off the inning with a single. Staves hit a single to knock in another run, and Charlie’s Angels looked like they were finally getting into a rhythm.

Klein and Sons, however, had some music of their own to play. Pretty it wasn’t, but they played it anyway. They loaded the bases with singles by Susan Waddell and Ross, coupled with a walk issued to Jill Hubert Simon. Nikomi Thompson’s two-run single made it a 5-3 game, and Staves induced two groundouts to limit the damage.

After a scoreless fourth inning, which saw Klein and Sons commit two more errors that Charlie’s Angels failed to capitalize on, the Angel extended their lead to 7-3 in the fifth. An E-1 and a pair of singles loaded the bases, and a pair of fielder’s choice grounders by Staves and Cindy Ellmauer drove in the runs. Klein and Sons had no answers in its half of the inning as they squandered a leadoff single by getting two outs off of one swing of the bat as Kayla Scannell was erased at second on a fielder’s choice, and Waddell was tagged out at first after making the turn. A fly out ended the inning.

But somehow Charlie’s Angels just couldn’t muster that killer instinct, despite Klein and Son’s troubles. The Angels put up zeroes in the sixth and seventh inning, while Klein and Sons scored a pair of runs in each to tie the game at seven all after seven. By all rights, Klein and Sons should have won by the end of regulation play but had a runner erased at the plate in the seventh after a double by Ross had tied the game. Earlier in the inning, they had committed a double play that mirrored the first with a runner tagged out after making an errant turn at first.

Earlier in the sixth inning, Klein and Sons had loaded the bases with no outs and scored on a single by Powers and a sac fly by Chris Jersey.

With the game tied at seven, Klein and Sons held Charlie’s Angels scoreless in the eighth and left two runners stranded in their half of the inning to push the game into the ninth inning. Charlie’s Angels broke their silence with a RBI from Nicki Krom on the third single of the inning. But the Angels simply could not put the hammer down and a subsequent ground out and fly out afforded them only a narrow one-run lead as Klein and Sons came to bat in the bottom of the ninth.

An uncharacteristic E-6 put Scannell aboard with one out and Klein and Sons, sensing the allure of the afterlife afforded to them by the Angels of mercy, quickly got singles by Waddell and Hubert Simon to load the bases. A base hit by Barbara Ward Blank tied the game and a liner into the outfield by Ross won the game.

Klein and Sons players erupted in jubilation after accomplishing the one thing they hoped most to do: beat Charlie’s Angels in a playoff game and put themselves in a position to actually win the series.

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of series pictures.