Eateth All The Hoagies And The Gods Of Softball Will Exact Their Wrath

The Red Inks of the Pen & Pencil Club took care of business and stayed in playoff contention with a solid 20-11 win over the Zoo on Tuesday evening at immaculate Edgeley 8.
(It has come to my attention that many people, including city of Philadelphia officials, insist that The Edgeley Oval is actually Edgely. No e. I prefer my spelling. I find it more regal. And I am sticking with it. Next season, I also plan to use Belmonte.)
Anyway, yes, a win that boosts us above .500 and ensures a non-losing season for the first time in three years. (Team Motto: Aim Low And You Can’t Miss.) As stated above, we still have a mathematical and a softball-related chance to overtake Bishop’s Collar for the fourth and final playoff spot in the Center City Softball League.
Our final game is Mon., July 11 against the Collar and our fate, as well as a few beers, is in our hands. I’m sure you will get your running in.
Back to Tuesday versus the Wild Animals of the Zoo. We jumped up early, scoring six runs in the opening inning on eight hits from the first nine at-bats in the order. A Marcus Hayes triple was one highlight among many.
In the second, we got really fresh and scored eight runs, all with two out. With two down and a runner on third, the next seven P&P batters reached base in one form or another. It was mostly just line drive singles and station-to-station scoring, but it never stopped. We scored eight and had only one extra-base hit in the inning, a double by George Miller.
It went like that for a while – leaving out Ron’s slow-motion swing and a miss, lose balance, fall down slowly -- and heading into the top of the fifth we held a 16-1 lead. We had added a couple of runs in the fourth on a Mark Nevins home run followed by three hits and a sacrifice fly. Yes, some strandage there.
So, it’s 16-1 and we’re loose, and the goddam Zoo scores nine runs, bats around plus five, and, well, uh-fucking-oh. It’s a messy scorecard, but Ron awarded three errors in the inning. It was one of those innings that we have sometimes, and the Management tossed a few shitty pitches, too.
Well, we’re up six on the Zoo with two innings to play. I’d kind of take that deal. And so it was. We come back for three in the bottom of the inning, all with two out, with big RBI hits by Hayes and Nevins. We get another in the sixth with singles from Jon Snyder, The Management and Brian Donlen, and lead 20-10 heading into the top of the seventh.
We nail it down in six batters, and move into the dusk part of the evening waiting for gunfire from Diamond St.
Stats? We got stats. Four hits for Miller, Nevins and Snyder, each of whom scored three runs. Three hits for Hayes, Donlen and the Management. Two hits for Steve Lynch, and B.J. Clark. Three RBIs for Hayes, Nevins, the Management and Donlen.
Lotta hitting, and good composure in the face of some adversity, mostly self-inflicted. Everyone who showed up also showed up in the scorebook and great efforts from Goldwyn, Mike Galan and Ed Cascarella. Mike and Ed managed not to fall down during their at-bats.
That about covers it. We have one more game together, at least. No team is ever the same from one season to the next. Take a moment to savor what a good group we have.