Winter Haven Senior Softball

Tuesday, May 23rd
On a beautiful, cool Tuesday morning, 39 ball players showed up to play ball. It would have been nice to have 40 players but we made 4 teams anyhow. The National League played with 10 players on a team. The American League tried something different this morning. I put nine players on a team and I played shortstop for one team and second base for one team. I did not bat. This made 10 players per team in the field, each team provided a catcher/umpire when they were at bat and we played one heck of a ball game. The visiting team was made up of Steve Hicks, Dave Shirer, Juan Toro, JD Davis, Don Scarbrough, Randy Crowell, Bobby Skidmore, Ralph Boswell and Bob Hite. The Home Team was made up of Rad Pcholinski, Bobby Reagan, Ray Aufiero, Dave Doerbaum, Ron Pepin, Terry Smith, Bob Zelazny Curt Coffman and Larry Book. The visiting team started out hitting a lot of "ATOM" balls. Everything they hit for the first three innings were hit right at the fielders and were caught. After three innings, the visiting team was down six runs. In the top of the fourth inning, the visiting team decided to change strategies and hit the ball where there were no fielders. They scored six runs and tied the score. In the sixth inning the visiting took the lead while scoring four more runs. Not to be outdone, the home team scored three runs to tie the ball game. Each team scored one run in the seventh inning to remain tied. In the eighth inning, the home team decided to take the lead again and scored five runs in the bottom of the eighth. The visiting team, now behind five runs had to make something happen in the ninth inning. The first four batters reached base and the fifth batter hit a sac fly to score the second run of the inning. Two more runs crossed the plate with two outs and runners at first and second base when the final out was made. The final score was Home Team 16 and Visitors 15. Everyone had at least five at bats and some players actually had six at bats.


Write up by Don Witmer