The Hood upended Downtown, 14-6 despite being super nice by providing a catcher to their undermanned opponent.  OF Joe Gelzhiser (3-4, 2B, 3B, 4RBI) paced The Hood offense and had a key 2-out, 2-run triple in their 8-run 5^th inning while SS Greg Andreola (3-4, 2B, 3R)and OF Tony Porciello (3-4, 2B, 2R) contributed as well.  P Shawn Peters (7IP, 7H, 3ER) gutted out the win on 1-leg and, with 2 on and 2 out, made a great diving catch of a low pop-up down the 3^rd. base to end a Downtown threat. 

The Hood’s Shawn Peters (on knees) is congratulated by his 3B after his great catch.

The game marked the return on “Covid Pete” Warren (2-3, R) who opened the scoring for Downtown by running through a stop sign and scoring from 2B on a single like a cement mixer trying to make a yellow light.

Downtown’s ‘Covid Pete” headed for home despite the 3B coach’s efforts.

In front of pack housed on Father’s Day, Johnson North used the home crowd energy and nipped DYR, 22-3 as RF Dave ‘Big Tree’ Lyskowski (4-5, 2 HR, 2B, 7RBI)turned Damigella field into Flagg Field while teammate Ben Swarts (4-5, HR, 3RBI) joined the HR party too with is 2-run blast in the 3^rd.  LF Jarrad Jordan (4-5, 2B, 3RBI) tracked down everything hit in his direction and finished with 31 put-outs.  P Tom McMahon (7IP, 6H, 2ER) was in complete control all night as DYR failed to get anything going offensively for the 2^nd week in a row. 

DYR had no chance with this crowd supporting the Johnson North dads.  It was like being in Death Valley on Saturday night for an LSU football game.  Happy Father’s Day, indeed!

In the late game, Jasper Rock walked off Kingz, 11-10 as Jasper rookie, IF Jared Esposito (3-4, 2B, 3RBI) belted a bases loaded double in the bottom of the 7^th for the win. Kingz jumped out early to a 7-0 lead thanks to a 3-run bomb from 3B Ross Dubuc (3-4, HR, 4RBI) into the playground. Jasper chipped away in the middle innings thanks to RBI doubles from 3B Doug Hermann (3-4, 2 2B, 3RBI) and 1B Neil Kuchman (3-4, 2B, 2RBI) to cut their deficit to 3. In the 6^th, Jasper scored 3 to tie it at 9 but Kingz scraped across 1in the top of the 7^th to take a 10-9 lead. Jasper then started the 7th with 3 consecutive singles by C Greg Williams (2-4, 2R) then OF Tom McCugh (2-4, R, RBI) and finally 2B Steve Peters (2-3, R) to set the stage for Esposito heroics.

Jasper’s Jared Esposito is mobbed by teammates after his walk-off double.

Brentwood beat Lions, 13-4 as P Doug Schmidt (7IP, 5H, 2ER) was masterful in the circle for the winners while 1B Brad ‘Twinkle Toes’ Lucas 

(2-2, 2B, 2R) paced the offense despite showing up in the 3^rd inning.  Seems dance recitals are his thing and Sunday was a big one: The Spin Squad was at the Garden! 

The Spin Squad in action!  Can you really fault Brad here?

OF Garth Fondo (3-3, 2B, 2R) thwarted a Lions threat in the 5^th with a laser throw to 3B Mike Budway to nail a runner trying to advance. Play of the game here was in the 6^th.  Bases loaded 1-out for Lions and OF Ernie ‘the hit man’ Tomacelli laced a liner up the middle that Brentwood 2B John MacFadyen (2-3, 2R) snared out of the air and doubled off the runner at 2^nd to end the Lions threat.

Brentwood’s John MacFadyen makes a diving snag of a line drive off the bat of Tomacelli..

Kampersal pounded South, 22-3 as P George Kampersal (7IP, 7H, 2ER) overcame his wildness from last week and issued zero walks in the win.  C Brian McShane (4-5, 2B, 4R, 2RBI) continued his impressive year at the plate as his off-season cage work at the Kampersal Dominican Softball Complex along with his commitment to ‘nutrition’ with a Bay-Area company called BALCO has really paid off. 

Apparently, Brian is not much of a reader.  We’ll see how the league responds to this..

South only had 8 so Kampersal took full advantage by spraying the ball to all fields to build an early lead.   Playing catcher for their undermanned opponent, Kampersal’s Mike DeFazio caught a foul tip off the bat of teammate/slugger Alex ‘The Big Hurt’ Kampersal in the 4^th prompting the big guy to seek out his teammate in the dugout at the end of the inning:

Alex Kampersal letting teammate Mike Defazio know how he feels about the teammate-on teammate crime Defazio committed by catching his foul-tip.

Up by 20 in the 7^th, manager Tom Kampersal felt comfortable enough to put McShane in fair territory and South veteran OF Dave Franco (3-4, 2B, 2RBI) promptly launched one over the new right fielder’s head for a 2-run double to cut the lead to 18.  OF Denis Dietz (2-4, BB,2R) continued his consistent outfield play with 3 put outs in the win.

Braggville knocked off Dalton Rd,  10-3, behind P Johnny Marsell (7IP, 7H, 3ER)and some stellar D behind him.  SS Jason Cooper (3-4, 2B, 2R) and 1B Ted Mottor (3-4, 3R, RBI) flashed some leather in the early innings to keep Dalton scorless through 4 innings while OF Dan Kittridge (2-4, 2B, 3RBI) had a busy night in the outfield w 6 putouts.  Interesting twist at the post game Braggville team cookout at the Mottor Compound.  Seems a surprise guest showed up to partake in team bonding festivities.  Could the dust up in the Kampersal dugout motivate one of those participants to look for a new home? If so, which one? 

My sources remain mum on the guest who showed up to the Braggville cookout but they did confirm it was a Kampersal player. I’ll have more as this story develops.

Mudville edged Anthony’s, 10-7 creating a 1^st place tie in ‘B’ with the men from Anthony’s as P Eric Higgins (7IP, 8H, 4ER) dropped a 3^rd strike right on the matt w 2-out and runners on second and third for a walk-off ‘K’ win.  3B Eric Kuharich (3-4, 2B, 3RBI) paced the Mudville offense while OF Rob Klimeczko (2-4, 2R) extended his strikeout streak to 2 weeks when he was caught looking in the 5^th. 

Mudville’s Rob Klimeczko left holding his thoughts after he was caught looking in the 6^th.

GAME OF THE WEEK for WK #10 (6/23/24))

Downtown (3-6) vs. DYR (3-6) at Damigella 6pm

• Wk #1 of new playoff format and both teams are scuffling offensively.
• Can DYR break out of their offensive funk?
• The team that plays better defensively will win this one as the offenses are similar (pathetic)..

*Prediction: DYR 2 Downtown 1

’24 Record (5-3)

WEEK 1 OF 2-wk PLAYOFF FORMAT:

‘A’ Division Match Ups:

‘B’ Division Match Ups:

Division A Standings through 16 Jun

Position	Team	Won	Lost	Tied	Pct	Runs For	Runs Against	Opp Wins
1	Kampersal	9	0	0	1.000	173	68	42
2	Braggville	8	1	0	0.889	116	60	33
3	Dalton Road	6	3	0	0.667	103	90	22
4	Johnson North	5	4	0	0.556	99	89	15
5	South	5	4	0	0.556	94	86	18
6	Downtown	3	6	0	0.333	85	95	7
7	DYR	3	6	0	0.333	88	104	8
8	Jasper Rock	2	7	0	0.222	59	102	9

Division B Standings through 16 Jun

Position	Team	Won	Lost	Tied	Pct	Runs For	Runs Against	Opp Wins
1	Anthony’s East	5	4	0	0.556	105	81	20
2	Mudville	5	4	0	0.556	100	93	15
3	Kingz	4	5	0	0.444	90	111	13
4	The Hood	4	5	0	0.444	91	121	9
5	Lions	2	7	0	0.222	80	103	7
6	Brentwood	2	7	0	0.222	50	130	6