Winter Haven Senior Softball

Today's game featured a highly competitive back and forth game between Hamilton's (Detroit) Tigers and Gonzalez's (Not so heavenly) Angels, both entering with 2-1 records.  With 9 lead changes the outcome was not determined until the last inning.  The Tigers roared first with 5 in the first without an out. The Angels answered with one in the 1st and 2nd and took their first lead with 5 in the 3rd capped off by a 3 run blast by TORO that truly scraped the clouds. The Tigers answered with 5 in the 5th featuring a Bomb off the bat of McKinnon.  The Angels came right back with 5 of their own in the bottom of the 5th closed out by TORO's second big fly of the game. Refusing to be outdone the Tigers answered with 4 in the 6th, only to see the Angels respond with another 5 in their half to take a 19-15 lead.  However the Tigers immediately put up another 5 to regain the lead at 20-19.  The Angels pushed across 2 to re-take a 1 run lead briefly because  the Tigers put up 2 more in the 8th.  In the bottom of the 8th the Angels rallied for big 5 spot to take the lead at 26-22 going into the 9th.  Although loading the bases in the 9th the Tigers did not score.  Both managers had the wheels turning with 3 intentional walks to McKinnon, Gonzalez and Toro, but each was foiled by clutch hits from Held, Witmer and Jacobson.  The strong wind made play challenging but there were numerous outstanding plays.   Hitting stars:  Guzzo. 4-5; McKinnon. 4-4; Held 3-5, Regis 4-5; Weiland 4-6; Reponen 4-6;           Gonzalez 3-4;   Toro 3-4;  Quinones 4-4; Ogden 4-4;  Constantine 3-4;   Vanderhyde 3-4.


Write up by Les Jacobson