The Central Florida League started the new year with an old time and a new venue.
Going back to playing on Tuesday mornings, the league moved to the recently opened Everglades Softball Complex to play its Winter 2020 softball season.
In the first week of competition, Synergy Wealth, the fall 2019 regular season champs, started the new year off with a close victory over Team Koller, 7-6. Synergy scored a run in the second on a hit by Herb Lauer, and another run in the third on a hit by Jim White.
The fifth inning saw the first four batters get hits and score on hits by Ed Moriarity and White. The final run saw Jim Creed score thanks to hits from Jim Gordon and Lauer.
Team Koller had the early lead as it scored three in the first with hits from Josh Sheldon, Al Mahar, Kevin Saunders and Mike Waters. Rocky Spottswood drove in another run in the fourth as Saunders and Waters connected for back-to-back singles. Spottswood scored the last run of the game in the bottom of the seventh as the tying run was left on base.
Sammy Joe’s, the tournament winners for fall 2019, also got off to a great start in the new year by besting Babiarz Law, 11-8. Sub Vern Benson and Mike Raines led Sammy’s with three hits each. Bob Kelly had a home run as the first batter of the game and a single in the second as he joined manager Jack Nesci and pitcher John Ashby in contributing two hits each for the winners.
Babiarz saw Alan Zahm hit a single, double and a triple, while Mark Hildebrand had a double and two singles. Kevin Moore, batting in the leadoff spot, had two hits, as did Paul Isenberg.
The new team in the league, Team America, got off on the right track with a 9-4 win over Fross & Fross. Team America had three hits each from Tony Whittaker, Wayne Heiman and Mike Arnella. Bob LaFrance hit a home run to lead off the second inning. Fross Manager Don Melcher led his team with three hits, including two doubles. Also stroking a pair of doubles was Rick Duemler, while Bob Riley had a double and a single.
Despite giving up 14 walks, Pie O’ Mine escaped with a come-from-behind 24-23 win over Palm Ridge Dental. Rich Bergman led Pie O’ Mine with four hits. Adding three hits each were Craig Dahlquist, Todd Sugarman, Jim Kitzler, Dan Linn and Rich Vena.
Kitzler had the walk-off single, scoring the winning run. Palm Ridge Dental had a three-run homer from Doug Nantais, a pair of doubles by Chris Iorio, and Jim Morton had a single, double and a triple. Bob Greenwalt, Leroy Yoder and Mike Bernbach all had a pair of singles.
Softball’s R Game got off to a quick start by scoring in every inning as it defeated Paul Davis Restorations, 26-16. Tom Ramberg and Paul Schaffer led SRG with four hits, while Manny Sanchez, John Kushner, Bob Holbert, John Charles and Bud Ramsey all had three hits.
Kushner, Charles and Rick Brown all had triples, while Sanchez, Holbert, Schaffer, Jim Lambert, Art Anton, Ramberg and John Wyks hit doubles. Paul Davis got four hits from sub Rick Fredieu and Ken Atkinson and Bill Steiner had three hits each. Phil Palma had a triple and Don Brozick a double as they each had two hits. Also getting a pair of hits were Bill Stutters, Gary Luck and Jack Nagle.
In Week Two action, Team America continued its winning ways with a 14-13 win over Paul Davis Restorations. Tony Whittaker led Team America with four hits, including a pair of doubles and a home run. Wayne Heiman also had a homer, as did Kevin McCormmack. Mike Arnella and Bob LaFrance each had three hits as Heiman, Gary Nicolay, McCormmack and Greg Quattlebaum added a pair apiece.
Paul Davis had a home run by Don Brozick in the third. Don Evans stroked two triples, while Bill Steiner and Ken Atkinson also had triples. Atkinson, Steiner and Phil Palma all had three hits. Fred Dennis chipped in a single and a double, driving in two runs in the loss.
Palm Ridge Dental scored 23 runs again in week two. But it wasn’t enough as Team Koller scored 25 runs in this slugfest. Koller got four hits from Rocky Spottswood, Al Mahar and Kevin Saunders. Josh Sheldon stroked two home runs and drove in five runs. Saunders had a homer and drove in four runs. Mike Waters and Scott Marshall had three hits for the winners.
The Dental squad got four hits from Chris Iorio and Bob Greenwalt. Charlie Clare, Cal Driskill, Jim Morton, Neil Marple and Eric Fromhulzer all had three hits. Clare had a two-run homer in the first and Iorio had the first over-the- fence homer with a man on in the seventh. Palm Ridge scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth and seven in the bottom of the seventh as it staged a late inning comeback attempt.
Softball’s R Game managed to hold off a comeback by Babiarz Law and came away with an 11-7 win. Jim Lambert led SRG with three hits, including a two-run homer. Manny Sanchez started the first inning with a solo homer and added a single for two hits. Also smacking two hits each were Bob Holbert, Steve Atkinson, Paul Schaffer, Art Anton, and pitcher Bud Ramsey.
Babiarz had four hits by lead-off man Kevin Moore and John Barracato. Mark Hildebrand had a pair of doubles and Alan Zahm, Dick Smith, Mark Goodwin and Scott King also had two hits.
Fross & Fross got on the winning track with a 18-9 win over Synergy Wealth. Manager Don Melcher had four hits including a double and a triple to lead his team. Steve Keck had three hits with a two-run homer. Pat Kirk, Dale Neff and Mark Isom also had three hits, with Neff stroking a double and Isom a triple.
Synergy started the game hot with five runs in the first as Will Kutter, Rick Fredieu and Jim Creed drove in runs with hits. Peter Daub drove in the last two runs of the inning. The Synergy bats then went quiet as they failed to score in the next four innings.
In the sixth, Jim White drove in a run and Herb Lauer drove in two with a single. Ed Moriarity sent home the last run of the game with a single in the bottom of the seventh as the comeback came up short.
The league’s Pizza Bowl saw Sammy Joe’s defeat Pie O’ Mine, 9-5. Sammy Joe’s took advantage of control issues as Pie O’ Mine’s pitcher gave up three walks to start the game, which led to three runs.
Sammy’s other big inning was the fifth as the first three batters in the lineup got hits. Tom McGann, Steve Deluca and injury sub Mike Arnella all drove in a run. Pie O’ Mine got three hits from Mike Gillen as it out hit Sammy, 15-8. Monty Mitchell, Jack Finley, and Vin Stebbins all had two hits. Pie O’ Mine scored all of its runs in the top of the fifth.
