By Tim “Shoe” Sullivan

In the final week of the regular season at Moore Barn Memorial, Airport Bar remained perfect for the year by downing the Sloppy Swats, 10-5.

In the other game in the Monday Night “Buddy Berry” Coed League at Doug’s Sports Pub, Kim’s Barrel Inn clinched second place by squeaking past the Shoe Crew, 15-12.

Jesse “The Legend” Higgins and Codi Klismith were the men in blue.

The evening began with the playing of the National Anthem, a Moore Barn tradition prior to the season’s finale. Monday was also “Final Score Night”, as the Score’s owner Jim Billings was on hand to witness the action. Billings declared the night “Stanley Downs Bobblehead Night”, although Stanley got hung up at the Score and couldn’t make the games.

Billings put up a Final Score banner and announced that he was buying pitchers of beer for the four teams in action. He also gave out free fish fry certificates at the Score to the “MVPs” of each team in the two games. The winners were Kyle Krieger of Airport, Jake Roy of the Swats, Morgan Oppor of KBI, and Andy Horst of the Crew.

The Swats took a 3-0 lead over Airport in the bottom of the first. The key hits were singles by Rachel Graves, Jake Roy, Jen Eggleston, Evan Volm, and Pat Scheele’s double.

Airport also failed to score in the second, and Mr. Billings boldly predicted a Swats’ upset. As soon as he did that, Airport scored four runs in the top of the third to take a 4-3 lead.

“I think I jinxed that other team,” Billings said.

And he did. The Swats only scored two more runs the rest of the way. Kelly Barden singled to drive in Evan Volm in the fourth and Nate Pezewski’s sac fly plated Volm in the sixth.

Airport (12-0) dropped the hammer in the top of the seventh with five game-clinching runs. The rally included singles by Sue Gruba, Tyler Mader, Meg Lee, winning pitcher Richard Blue (no relation to Vida), Stephanie Jackson, and Kyle Krieger and a triple from rightfielder Adam Lee.

Airport manager Meg Lee noted, “We’re very proud of our 12-0 record. We overcame a rash of injuries throughout the season, and this league has some really tough teams. We can’t wait for the league tournament to start, even though we won’t be playing for three weeks.”

(Airport has a tournament bye on August 29, is off for Labor Day, and won’t play again until September 12.)

Pat Scheele of the Swats said, “I gotta hand it to Airport. They play great defense. But everybody starts out 0-0 in the tournament, and I think we’ll be ready to go. Our game with Kim’s Barrel Inn should be a dandy.”

AIRPORT STATS: Abby Rottier: walk, run, great catch in center. Adam Lee: double, triple. Sue Gruba: walk, sac. fly, single. Tyler Mader: two singles, back off “I.R.”. Meg Lee: two singles, run. Richard Blue: single, run. Stephanie Jackson: walk, two singles. Josh Swan: single, double. Kim Schmitz: single, run. Kyle Krieger: three singles, two runs, two RBIs, great plays at first base. Won a fish fry from Final Score.

SLOPPY SWATS STATS: Rachel Graves: single, run. Jake Roy: two singles, double, run. Pat Scheele: double, single, run. Jen Eggleston: single. Evan Volm: two singles, double, almost won fish fry. Nate Pezewski: single, sac. fly. Kelly Barden: single, walk.

TIME OF GAME: 58 minutes.

QUICK NOTE: Erin Laffe of Team BAMF is starting a women’s fall league. The games will be at Iverson Park. The season will start on Thursday, September 1 with two and possibly three games.The season will run through October. Interested players may contact Erin at 715-340-2193.

The second game on “Final Score Night” was a slugfest. The Shoe Crew had 19 hits, three walks, a grand-slam homer, and still lost, Kim’s Barrel Inn banged out 16 hits, three triples, two doubles, a home run, and coaxed seven walks.

Kim’s Barrel Inn scored an amazing eleven runs in the first on only five hits. They were singles by Morgan Oppor, Jack Mortimer, another single by Oppor, Bobby Sullivan, and a double by Nic Dulmes. Mixed in were seven walks and an error.

“Man, those walks really helped; we almost ended up blowing the game.” Left-fielder Kevin Hurd said.

The Shoe Crew got right back in it with seven runs of their own in the second inning. Jared Shilka, Tammy King, and Max Delap all singled and came in on base hits by Melissa Dombrowski and Andy Horst and a walk to Jenni Brandt. With the bases loaded, Joe Kinsella followed with a long grand-slam homer to deep center.

“I got it all,” Big Joe said.

The Barrel added two more runs in the fourth on hits by Dulmes, Jazmin Soto, Kassie McGettigan, and Kevin Hurd. They scored one in the fifth when rookie shortstop Bobby Sullivan went yard and tacked on one in the seventh on back-to-back triples by Oppor and Dulmes.

The Crew scored four more from the third inning on after trailing, 13-8. They had two-run outputs in the third and seventh. Key raps were Jared Shilka’s double and base-knocks by Max Delap, Amber “Chipmunk” Hintz, Kyle Norwood, Andy Horst, Jenni Brandt, and Kinsella.

15-12 was your final.

Tammy King of the Crew noted, “Everybody starts out even in the tourney next week. Our first task is to beat BAMF in the play-in.”

NOTE: Megan Wiczek made her 2016 debut for KBI and did an awesome job
behind the plate.

Plate umpire Jesse Higgins said: “I thought Codi Klismith made some terrific calls at second base.”

TIME OF GAME: 53 minutes.

KIM’S BARREL INN STATS: Jake Mortimer: walk, run, winning pitcher. Morgan Oppor: two singles, two triples, three runs, Game MVP. Nic Dulmes: walk, double, single, triple, MVP runner-up. Jazmin Soto: walk, double. Bobby Sullivan: walk, single, solo homer in fifth. Kassie McGettigan: walk, single. Kevin Hurd: two singles, sac fly. Megan Pollack: walk, run, found a batting glove in the dugout. Jack Mortimer: three singles. Megan Wiczek: walk, run, great two plays at catcher.

SHOE CREW: Kyle Norwood: walk, two singles. Melissa Dombrowski: two singles. Andy Horst: four for four (all singles); won fish fry. Jenni Brandt: walk, single. Joe Kinsella: grand slam homer in second, single. Jared Shilka: two singles, double. Tammy King: single, run. Max Delap: three singles. Amber Hintz: single, walk.

FINAL RECORDS FOR REGULAR SEASON: Airport Bar: 12-0. Kim’s Barrel Inn: 7-5. Sloppy Swats: 6-6. Shoe Crew: 3-9.
Team BAMF: 2-10.

LEAGUE TOURNAMENT: Monday, August 29: 5:30: Shoe Crew vs Team BAMF (play-in game). 6:30: Sloppy Swats vs Kim’s Barrel Inn.

No games September 5 (Labor Day).

September 12: Airport Bar vs winner of game one.
September 19: Winner of that game vs winner of game two for championship; also league party.