Winter Haven/Lakeland 2013

Lakeland Senior Softball sponsored this years inter-league games and it was a great success. Our thanks to Russ King for hosting and arranging the event, to Ron Salyer and his crew (Reg Finnegan and Chuck Duff) for doing a super job of preparing, cooking, and serving up the vittles, and to all the ball players that participated and gave the fans some great action.

The National League team managed by Richie Moots played hard and did very well against the two Lakeland teams.They fought hard but came up five runs short in the end. The final score was 18 to 13. Behind early, Winter Haven bounced back in the fourth inning and actually took the lead after scoring eight runs. Lakeland responded with five of their own and never looked back. Winter Haven managed to keep it close with three runs in the fifth but couldn't overcome the deficit. Terry Smith  and Reg Barnes had a big day going  3 for 3.

American Team II  managed by Bob Z enjoyed an early lead scoring five in the first inning and built on it scoring every inning except in the eighth when we were shut out. I hate to use the perfect storm analogy, but when outstanding pitching provided  by Arvil Waddell is married up with great defense led Don Ing and Bobby Reagan, and  bats that just seemed to be on fire all the way up and down the line  up, the results are awesome and predictable. The final score was 29 to 14. I've noted the great defensive play by Bob in the outfield and Don at short fielder but the fact is that everyone was feeding off the competition  and playing solid defense. I mentioned the hot bats: Bob Z and Don Ing were 5 for 5, Fred Dampier,Pat Droiulard, Greg Denny, and Bobby Reagan were 4 for 5, and Frank Jacobs, Mike Wiltshire, John Byrd, and Arvil Waddell were 3 for 4. The Lakeland folks played well and kept it close in the beginning. There was no backing down in them and they kept us on our toes after scoring four runs in their half of the fifth and sixth innings. Great competition and great sportsmanship was the order of the day with everyone having a great time.

It was a high scoring contest at the West Complex between Winter Haven's Team Simon and Lakeland's Team Matta.   Simon vs Matta sounds like one of the usual Winter Haven Games.

Winter Haven's Team Simon scored 5 runs in each of the first 3 frames to jump out to a 15-2 lead.  But, Lakeland's Team Matta came storming back, with 13, to tie the score at the end of 3.  Team Matta slowly gained momentum until they held a 36-25 lead at the end of the 8th.  Trailing by 11, Team Simon scored 16 times in the top of the 9th to take a narrow and not very safe 5 run lead.  Enter the bottom of the ninth, Richie Marino( playing the role of Bobby Richardson) at 2nd base and Al Andrews (The Mick in Center) made 3 straight plays to shut down the very powerful Lakeland team and seal the victory.

41-36 Winter Haven wins!

Submitted by

Bob Hite

It was game time. The boys were ready to play and play we 

did. Lakeland came out strong in the first 3 innings leading 

by a score of 5 to 13  but by the 6th inning Winter Haven 

was determined to stay close. Some key hitting put the scores

12 to 14; Lakeland still holding the lead. 

The last three innings were hotly contested. 

Winter Haven scored 8 runs, Lakeland 3

Final score WH 20  Lk 17  WH wins!!  We were determined 

to make the commish proud.  
 
The team collectively hit a great .550

Top batters were Tom Hamilton 4/6  Joe D'herin 4/5 
 
Juan Toro and Les Jacobson went out of the yard for homers.

 Submitted By:

Freddy G.