Two Riverfront Park softball marathons yielded three drained but happy winners Thursday and Monday, June 25 and 29.
“It was a long day at work,” quipped Autumn Naegel, head coach of Red Rock Dental, which had to beat the Kare Bears back-to-back to win the Cottonwood Parks and Recreation department’s B League for women. “By the end of the night, we had played four straight hours of softball. We were exhausted.”
Particularly pitcher Meagan Hughes, wife of the sponsor’s owner, who hurled all 14 innings of Red Rock’s 16-10 and 17-7 wins at Riverfront Park. The temperature at the start of the first game, which Red Rock had just 10 players healthy for, was 108 degrees, Naegle said.
“We had no substitutes to go to,” she said. “She was definitely the player of the games.
“We had four people injured, so all the players couldn’t run. Those who were not injured were all running double time for the injured people.”
The Baby Mamas clawed back in similar fashion to win the women’s A League. After their second loss of the season, both to the Pain Crushers, sent them to the consolation bracket, head coach Lizbeth Fullbright’s team crushed back June 25 with 8-1 and 14-4 victories.
In terms of degree of difficulty, however, the most stunning comeback came in the men’s league playoffs Monday, June 29. After suffering just their second loss of the season in the first round, falling to HDH 1, co-sponsored by Angies House, 18-6, Mike’s 12-Pack rallied from a another 12-run deficit in the seventh inning to beat Diablo, 20-19.
“We finished with a walk-off grand slam after time expired,” head coach Tarrin Walz said. “Total team effort. No one gave up and everyone kept playing hard.”
Walz’s team will play HDH 1 a fifth time this summer for the championship and rubber match of the season series. The game will begin at 7:15 p.m. on Softball Field 1 at Riverfront Park.
For the full story and men’s and women’s league scores, please see the Wednesday, July 1, issue of the Cottonwood Journal Extra.
