Winter Haven Senior Softball

Friday, January 30, 2015


In case you have not already “heard it through the grapevine”; Nick Matta hit a homerun over the fence, to help his team do some “dancing in the street”. In today’s game, it was the “same old song, one team was “as sweet as a honeybee, but like a honeybee stings, that team left the other teams heart in pain”. If you have not guessed it by now, today’s write-up is a tribute to the great Motown sound. It is in honor of the many players who played in today’s game from the Michigan, Detroit and Windsor area. (JD Davis, Danny Parker, Ed Gazarek, Terry Smith, Pat Drouilard, Mike Wiltshire, Don Ing and Scot Seguin, to name a few, played in our game today). They are all from the Motown area.  Although you, the reader, do not have to be from the Detroit area to appreciate the outstanding music that came from that region; you probably sang many of these songs while listening to them on the radio. Remember, “it’s the same old song but with a different meaning since you been gone” from that era. Many Motown hits will be covered in this article. Can you recognize all of them?

The Four Tops, Visiting Team: Benson, Drouilard, Brock, Matta, Erb, Reagan, Seguin, Osterreich, Dampier, Ing and Roy.
The Temptations, Home Team: Coffman, Gazarek, Doerbaum, Wiltshire, Toro, Smith, Parker, Hill, Fabian and Linton.
  
The Four Tops came out swinging in the first inning, they did not want to be “standing in the shadows of love” when the final score was tallied. They wanted the Home team to “get ready for the heartaches to come”. Brock started out the scoring by delivering a two out single, Matta tripled him in and Erb smashed a triple, to finish the scoring in the first inning. After 1 inning of play the score was Tops: 2- Temps: 0.
The Four Tops added a run in the second when Dampier scored on an Ing triple. Donny must have been singing “ sugar pie, honey bunch, you know that I love you” to his bat, after that big hit. The Temptations had enough of this “ball of confusion”; they knocked in 3 runs in the bottom of the 2^nd , to tie the game, 3-3. Wiltshire, Toro and Parker all had big hits that inning. Lionel Richie may be ready to go “all night long, all night” as his song implies, but these guys were ready to go all day long, to win this game.

“Mercy, mercy me”, would these two teams ever gain some separation in the score book, the game stayed close through the first few innings.  The Temptations told us to “get ready, cause here we come” in the bottom of the 3^rd. They scored 3 runs when Linton, Gazarek and Edwards crossed the plate. They were on “cloud nine” for just a little while as they took the lead 6-3. However, it would be the last time they would lead in the game.

After the 3^rd inning the Temps just “wished it would rain”. "Sunshine, blue skies please go away, their teams found more runs and our lead has gone away." The Four Tops regained the lead for good, in the 4^th inning. They hit like they “were going to a go-go.”  The inning started with a Reagen triple, as he smashed the ball deep over the left fielders head. Seguin added a double, Dampier singled him home. Ing walked and Roy finished the scoring with a two run double. At the end of 4 innings the score was Tops: 7- Temps: 6. The temps had "the tears of a clown" " Now if there is a smile on my face, It's only there trying to fool the public. But when it comes down to fooling you, now honey that's quite a different subject." 
The Tops were not finished hitting, in fact, they were just getting started. They hit like “super freaks”, in the 5^th inning, as they added 5 runs to their lead. Matta drove in Drouilard and Brock with his HR. Erb, Reagan, Seguin and Osterreich added hits, to drive in two more runs. After 5 innings the score was Tops: 12- Temps: 6.
The Tops had one more big offensive inning, scoring 4 more runs, it took place in the 6^th.  At this point the Temps thought “what’s going on”. Dampier lead off with a double and Ing singled him in. Benson then singled Ing to second. Next up, Big Money, Pat Drouilard, smashed a triple. Even though Pat had been injured earlier in the game, while running to first, he hit the ball hard and legged out a three bagger. It was like Pat was saying, “reach out, I’ll be there”.  After 6 innings, Tops:16-Temps:8

The last three innings of the game, JD channeled his inner Marvin Gaye and said, ”let’s get it on”. His team scored 5 runs, while holding the Four Tops to one score.  It was not enough, in the end there was “nowhere to run” for the Home team. “The function at the junction” was over and the Tops finished on top, by a score of 17-13. The two teams lined up to shake hands and show some" R-E-S-P-E-C-T".

As Jimmy Ruffin would sing, “what becomes of the broken hearted”, well in the case of senior softball players who lose a game, you live to play and enjoy another game.

MO-Town Stars: ("Ain't No Mountain High Enough", for these guys).
Winning pitcher Rick Brock for a great game on the mound.
Jack Benson for a shoe string catch on a sinking line drive in left field.
Bobby Reagan for a good catch at 2^nd base.
Don Ing for a good catch at 3^rd base.
Terry Smith for robbing Pat Drouilard of a base hit up the middle.

Four Top Hitting Stars:
Benson: 2/4 and a walk.
Brock: 3/5 with a double.
Matta: 3/5 with a HR and a triple.
Erb: 3/5 with a triple.
Reagan: 3/5 with a triple.
Seguin: 2/4 and a walk.
Dampier: 2/3 with a double and a walk.
Ing: 2/3 with a triple and a walk.
Temptation Hitting Stars:
Edwards: 3 / 4 with a double.
Doerbaum: 2/3 and a walk.
Toro:3/ 4 with a double.
Smith: 3/4 .
Write up by Nick Matta