Yes, it’s been a long wait, but the Pen & Pencil Club softball team is back in the Center City Softball League playoffs, which only took a 30-14 win over Old City/NCC on Tuesday evening and a semi-strange reshuffling of the entire CCSL universe this season.
Not that we’re complaining, and not that we don’t intend, once invited, to make ourselves lengthy guests in the postseason. We’re in and we’re going to stick around.
Well, 30 runs. The Management is in its sixth season and this represents a record during its (his) tenure for offensive production. Those who have followed us closely are not surprised by that, but we also put up that number in five innings, going scoreless in the sixth and seventh innings, which is kind of remarkable.
Let’s reflect a moment on making the playoffs, which touched off a wild celebration and led to the popping of champagne corks – oh, all right, cork, singular, and it was fucking sparkling wine and not real champagne, but fucking sparkling something or other.
We have clinched at least third place in our division, whatever its name is, and are probably headed toward a first-round showdown with our old friends/foes from the Bishop’s Collar. That will be a great one, but that is down the July road and not to be played just yet.
The new divisional split of the CCSL worked against us this season – no surprise – but we should all feel good that we overcame the forces of evil and made the postseason despite having the cards stacked against us. Now we make them sorry for letting us hang around.
As for the clinching game, Old City was coming off a narrow (sorta) loss to the Collar the night before and was looking to set some records of its own. Well, we helped the expansion franchise set a new record for runs (14) and runs in a single inning (8), and on another night things might have gone differently.
We led 13-0 going into the bottom of the third before surrendering the above-cited 8-spot, which was a combination of good Old City hitting and some dodgy P&P fielding. That briefly made it a game, but only until we scored 12 in the top of the fourth and added five more in the fifth to lead 30-8.
At that juncture, the game had lasted at least two presidential administrations and we moved quickly toward a conclusion, lest sundown and gunfire from Diamond Street precede the final out.
Highlights? Well, we got four hits from Kerry O’Connor and Mike Galan, and four more from Steve Lynch, including two home runs. Three hits for Russ Krause, George Miller, Dan McElhatton and Brian Donlen, including a pair of bomb triples. Among the ladies, Sheila Ballen and Kathy Matheson had two hits each, as did Liz Gabor. At least, I think so. The book is not usually this crowded with hits. And we hit it a lot, scoring 19 runs combined in the third and fourth innings. Let’s keep doing that in games to come.
So, we’re in, and we are in with three regular season games left to play. Let’s have some fun with those and get ready for the big games to come. This wasn’t our last taste of champagne. Hopefully, Leroy won't slobber on the next bottle.
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