Softball

Tack’s turn!

New Era: L&B Tack advances to finals after ousting Cooper Paint in dramatic come-from-behind win

By RICHARD A. ROSS

MONGAUP VALLEY, NY — Call it the dawn of a new era or just plain magic, but however you want to characterize it, L&B Tack’s come-from-behind 6-5 win over two-time defending champion Cooper Paint in the “A” Division semifinals on August 6 was softball drama at its best.

Trailing from the end of the first inning on, L&B was four outs away from seeing Cooper Paint celebrate another trip to the finals, something that has seemingly been an annual rite of passage for the league’s most dominant team until this season.

This year, Cooper Paint was surpassed in the regular season by the then undefeated Charlie’s Angels (who subsequently lost game one of the playoffs to Klein and Sons) and was severely challenged by L&B Tack. That said, Cooper Paint had shaken off their nightmare game two and had mustered enough moxie and timely hitting to put themselves in the driver’s seat as the game reached its critical nexus.

But L&B Tack has never been intimidated when trailing. Time after time this season, they have come back on their tie-dyed rivals and they were about to do it again on the second biggest of stages, the deciding game of the semifinals.

But with L& B tack down 5-3 in the sixth with two out and one on, courtesy of an errant throw from short, something shifted in the great softball universe, though most observers hadn’t noticed it yet.

Cooper Paint was about to unravel and do what championship teams never do, lose a game through a fatal lapse in its defense.

The inning had begun quietly enough for Cooper Paint. Slugger Fran Kaiser had grounded out for the third time. Then, Julie Potosek reached on a wide throw from short. When her sister Karen flied out to Lori Brown in left, things still looked peaceful in paint land until another Smith sister, Lori Froehlich, laced a single to left. Brown momentarily bobbled the short hop and Tack runners took the extra base, putting runners on second and third.

That kind of base running was emblematic of the way L&B Tack plays. They hustle and try to capitalize on every break.

An easy grounder to third should have ended the threat. But an E-5 throw went wide of first for the third error of the inning and both runners scored to tie the game. Pitcher Amanda Irwin, who has seen more than her fair share of shifts of fate this season, got Liz Stubits to fly out. Cooper came in from the field down by only one run in the bottom of the sixth.

In game two, Cooper Paint had fallen into the deadly pattern of trying to hit the long ball and saw 16 of those land in the gloves of L&B outfielders. While it was less apparent in this game and masked by their lead, they were doing the same thing. Coming into the bottom of the sixth, they had flied out nine times and they were about to do it again. Both Erin Shuart and Charish Priest lofted flies to left before Kate Mahan reached on E-5. Jen Wright singled and Cooper had runners on second and third with Theresa Nietzel coming to the plate.

Nietzel delivered the win in game one and her teammates hoped she could hit one down and hard to score the tying and/or the go-ahead run. Instead, she hit a liner to short center right into the glove of Kaiser.

To get back to the finals, Cooper Paint was going to have to find a way to shut L&B down in the seventh.

Nothing doing.

After Erin Shuart made a leaping grab on Jamie Hopkin’s liner to record the first out, Barb Merton laced one that glanced off the glove of second baseman Diana Sherman. Hard hit as it was, it was an E-4 nonetheless. A single by Trish Tuttle put runners on first and second before Holli Schoonmaker flied out to Nietzel for the second out.

That brought Kaiser to the plate. Though she had had a disappointing night thus far, it seemed as if she was only waiting for this hallowed moment to get her only, yet most significant, hit. She drove a single through for the go-ahead RBI. Julie Potosek followed with a single. Irwin got Smith to pop up to short and Cooper rushed to the dugout down a run but confident they could write the concluding chapter with their patented multi-colored ink.

It certainly looked as if they would, too.

Sherman reached on an E-6 and Brown’s single put the tying run at second with no out. But instead of down and hard, it was up and away as the heart of the order went down one two three by what else, fly balls. Winning pitcher Barb Merton induced futile flies from Ally McCarthy, and Amanda and Rocky Irwin, to end the game and uncork a wild celebratory roll in the dirt by several happy Tackers.

L&B Tack had taken the early lead in this game with a first-inning RBI triple by Merton and a ground-out RBI from Tuttle. Cooper took the lead in the bottom of the frame as they loaded the bases and got a sac fly from McCarthy and RBI singles from the Irwin duo. Neither team scored in the second. Cooper tacked one on in the third as Amanda Irwin reached on a rare E-8 by Liz Stubits. Cooper now led 4-2. L&B got one run in the fifth as a leadoff walk to Stubits and a single to Hopkins preceded a RBI from Merton, who, in this writer’s estimation, deserves the series MVP award. That made it 5-3 and, as just recounted, the rest is history.

After the handshake, the pent up L&B players erupted in a fun-filled frenzy as Jamie Hopkins and company sought to upend Karen Smith in what has become a game-ending tradition. Rolling and rollicking in the dirt, the happy players put on a sideshow before the next main event of the evening, another high drama wherein Charlie’s Angels also rode its opponents’ errors to come from behind to defeat Klein and Sons in even more dramatic fashion. (See “Deliverance” on page 24).

L&B Tack will play in its first-ever final. The championship series, best of three against the Angels, began August 12.

Cooper Paint finished its season at 18-7. Look for them to regroup and try to reverse the curse of ’08 next year.

Visit www.riverreportersports.com for a recap of game two and photos from all three games. Stay tuned to the website for the ongoing story of the final series versus Charlie’s Angels.