Softball

High-gloss finish

Cooper Paint captures its second straight A Division playoff crown with uncanny hitting against Klein and Sons Logging

By RICHARD A. ROSS

SWAN LAKE, NY - You can call Cooper Paint a dynasty now. They deserve that acclaim and other superlatives as well, following their football-like scoring in this year’s A Division playoffs that culminated with a 22-12 title-clinching win over Klein and Sons Logging on August 14.

The victory gave the ladies, sporting tie-dyed jerseys, back-to-back playoff crowns and capped off a banner year that witnessed their third consecutive capture of the regular-season title.

Five trophies out of a possible six in three years. Not too shabby.

In this year’s playoff run against L&B Tack and Klein and Sons Logging, Cooper Paint scored an uncanny 67 runs in four games, with much of the damage being done by their number three, four and five hitters, who constitute a wrecking crew dubbed the AAA Club. Don’t call them if you have a flat. Call them if you’re feeling masochistic and want to get your brains beat in.

AAA stands for Amanda, Amanda and Ally. Their surnames: Cox, Irwin and McCarthy, Sullivan County Women’s Softball’s version of Murderer’s Row.

In the final game against Klein and Sons, unquestionably the second-best team in the league this year and this writer’s choice for the most improved team, the AAA club went 13-for-15 and knocked in 11 runs. McCarthy went five-for-five, while Cox and Irwin had four hits apiece in their respective five at bats. One of Irwin’s blasts would have easily cleared the fence in Collins Park. Outfielders play several of Cooper Paint’s batters deep, but when it comes to balls like the one “Mo” blasted, or shots launched by Cox and Lori Brown, deep just isn’t deep enough.

Lest one think this team is only fueled by the AAA nexus of power, consider some of the lineup’s other numbers in game two. Charish Priest went three-for-five with a RBI; Jackie Litwak, who had a breakout game, went four-for-five with four RBI; Lori Brown went three-for-five with two RBI, including one sent home on a booming triple; Leyna Madison had two RBI; and Natalie Cillis went two-for-four with a RBI. Pat Shuart was on base three of four times and Rocky Irwin was on base twice.

Klein and Sons made a Herculean effort, intent on having a day of its own as the team valiantly tried to keep pace with Cooper’s runaway offense. Code Blue found itself behind 4-0 in the first, as Cooper Paint got five consecutive runners on with two outs, and netted RBI from Irwin, Brown and Madison for the early lead.

But Klein and Sons answered back with two of its own, getting sac flies from Jane Smith and Cheryl Sheerer. Klein and Sons would go on to put up crooked numbers in innings two through six as well, to total an impressive 12 runs. But against juggernaut Cooper Paint, it was simply not enough.

Cooper Paint used another two-out rally in the second to up their lead to 8-2, as they singled Klein and Sons silly with the Amandas knocking in two runs apiece. Undaunted, Klein and Sons scored three in the second with RBI from Kayla Scannell, Susan Waddell and Jill Hubert-Simon. The score stood at 8-5 after two, not exactly a pitcher’s duel.

That said, Waddell got Cooper out in order in the third, and her teammates picked her up by closing within a run at 8-7 in an inning that saw a ball take a wicked hop to give Cooper shortstop Erin Shuart an egg-sized memento on her forehead.

Cooper won inning four as they scored three to Klein and Sons’ two. Cooper loaded the bases with no outs, and Irwin and McCarthy knocked in one and two runs respectively. In the bottom of the frame, Nikomi Thompson and Sheerer drove in a run apiece. The score was 11-9 after four, with Klein and Sons counterpunching and showing the kind of moxie that has earned them unbridled respect all year long.

If they could only keep Cooper Paint at bay for an inning, they hoped to get the lead.

But with an explosive lineup like Cooper Paint’s, breakout innings are always imminent. Walking Rocky Irwin to start the fifth inning was an ominous foreshadowing of the typhoon to follow. With one out, Cooper piled up eight hits that included a double and a pair of triples. During the downpour of offense that ensued from having bases loaded with one out, RBI rained from Priest, Litwak’s two-run triple, Cox, Amanda Irwin’s two-run double and Brown’s triple.

When the mist cleared, Cooper had doubled up Klein and Sons at 18-9. Code Blue got two runs in the fifth and one in the sixth, but Cooper had added “insurance” with four runs in the top of the sixth, courtesy of an E-1 RBI from Cillis, a two-run double from Litwak and a RBI triple from Cox. Even for a team as good as Klein and Sons, the task of trying to match such force was out of the question.

Klein and Sons went quietly in the seventh and Cooper Paint players simply walked off the field calmly congratulating each other. There was no demonstrative elation like that witnessed a week earlier when Klein and Sons ousted Charlie’s Angels. Cooper Paint’s 28 hits and 22 runs in the game against a team that was a very tough opponent seemed like just another day at the office. Gone now were the pre-game jitters before the two teams hooked up for game one. Cooper Paint had indeed been worried about playing Klein and Sons. Those worries were now put to rest.

Kudos to Klein and Sons Logging. Enough cannot be said about their stellar season and their accomplishment of establishing what may well be a new world order in the league that is beginning to show much more parity.

Look for Klein and Sons to be back in contention in 2008, along with Cooper Paint and Charlie’s Angels and perhaps another up and coming group of ladies who will rock the league like Klein and Sons did this season.

In the B division, the Center for Discovery defeated Mr. Willy’s for this year’s title.

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of pictures from this game and game one of the championship series.