Softball

Special delivery

Theresa Nietzel’s RBI single in seventh propels Cooper Paint to narrow win over relentless L&B Tack in series opener

By RICHARD A. ROSS

MONGAUP VALLEY, NY — You can view last week’s one-sided 19-2 division tie-breaking win by Cooper Paint over L&B Tack as an aberration. These two teams are very closely matched. In their five meetings thus far this season, four games have been decided by a one-run margin.

Facing each other for the second-straight year in the “A” Division semifinals of the Sullivan County Women’s Softball League, this series is apt to be a dogfight.

The first game certainly was.

Heading into the seventh inning, the teams were knotted at 13 all and it had been a seesaw battle all night long. Over the course of the game, the lead changed hands six times. But it was Cooper Paint that had the last word as Theresa Nietzel belted a seventh-inning two-out single and Charish Priest motored home, narrowly escaping the tag of catcher Lacy Dalrymple, to score the 14th and deciding run of the series opener. It was the final salvo of an ongoing barrage put up by both teams.

L&B got on the board first with a RBI single by Trish Tuttle.

Cooper responded with two in the first, with RBI from Lori Brown and Ally McCarthy. A three-run homer down the right field line by Liz Stubits put Tack back on top by the score of 4-2 in the top of the second, but a powerful Cooper Paint sent 11 batters to the plate against pitcher Barb Merton in the bottom of the second and scored six runs in the process. Priest, Kate Mahan, Jen Wright, Diana Sherman, Brown and Amanda Irwin all drove in runs as Cooper now led 8-4.

Tack bounced back to get within one at 8-7 in the top of the third with a two-run double by Karen Smith and an E-6 off the bat of Dalrymple. Cooper made a total of four errors in the game, a deficiency that nearly cost them the victory.

After holding Cooper scoreless in the bottom of the third, L&B Tack came back with five runs in the fourth to take a 12-8 lead. Six straight base hits with no outs led to RBI by Trish Tuttle, Holli Schoonmaker, Fran Kaiser, Julie Potosek and Karen Smith. Three 6-4 put outs from Cooper shortstop Erin Shuart to Rocky Irwin ended the rally.

Cooper got three of those runs back in the bottom of the fourth, as they closed within one at 12-11. An E-8 led to two of those runs off the bat of Brown. A sac fly by Amanda Irwin brought in another.

L&B got one run in the top of the sixth on an errant throw from short but that was all. The tie-dyed ladies tied it up in the bottom of the sixth on a RBI single by McCarthy and a ground out by Irwin.

In the top of the seventh, Stubits reached on another errant throw from short. Jamie Hopkins banged into a fielder’s choice and Merton’s pop to first resulted in a 3-3 double play, as Hopkins was doubled off to end the inning.

Cooper got the first two runners on in the seventh with singles by Shuart and Priest, but Tack got the next two batters out before Nietzel banged in the winning run.

Kudos to L&B Tack’s stellar outfielders who made catch after catch. They include Schoonmaker in left, Kaiser in short center, Stubits in deep center and Hopkins in right.

The two teams were slated to hitch it up again at Swan Lake on August 5. Cooper hopes to advance to the finals and vie for its third-straight title. L&B Tack seeks to extend the series to a third game and, hopefully, prevail against a team they have given fits to all year. Although Cooper Paint has now won four of the five games played, they know they’ve been in a dogfight each and every time save one, last week’s 19-2 division tie-breaker that defined Cooper Paint as the second-place finisher in the regular season and L&B Tack as the third.

As they look ahead, neither team is apt to be happy with anything less than a number-one ranking once the playoffs are over and done with.

Visit riverreportersports.com for an album of game pictures.