The Rye Recreation Adult Softball season that began the last week of April came to an exciting end in mid-August.

By Melanie Cane

The Rye Recreation Adult Softball season that began the last week of April came to an exciting end in mid-August. Each of the four leagues (Men’s A, B, and C, and Women’s Sound Shore League) fielded six teams, and each team played 13 games leading up to the playoffs, which began July 23.

In the A league, Rye Liquor and Michael’s High Intensity finished regular season play tied for first, with 11 wins and two losses. During the regular season, these teams played each other three times and Rye Liquor won two of them. They faced off again in the championship series, which is two out of three games, but it only took Rye two games to decimate Michael’s, 12-6 and 23-10 or, as one player put it, “Rye Liquor beat Michael’s by a lot to a little.”

At the end of the B League regular season, the RGB Hackers were the team to beat, with a 9-4 record. The Wranglers and Kelly’s tied for second with 8-5 records. In the playoffs, Kelly’s eradicated The Wranglers in two games, 22-17 and 22-11, and The Hackers eliminated third-place Eastland Alarms 15-12 and 30-18. In the championships, Kelly’s upset The Hackers 9-8 and 11-5 to win the crown.

It took the C League’s first-place team, 2nd Chance Prestige Imports (12-1) three games to win the championship against second-place M-n-M (11-2), with whom they had split games during the regular season. The final scores were: 9-4, 5-8, and 11-3.

The women’s championship between first-place Poppy’s Ballbusters (10-2) and second- place Neri’s Bakery Hardrollers (8-5) went to three games, and ended on a controversial third-out call and the title going to Neri’s. During the season, these teams met three times, and the Ballbusters swept the Hardrollers 12-1, 14-7, and 14-4. In the final series, Neri’s stunned Poppy’s by shutting them out 6-0 in the first game. Poppy’s avenged the loss in Game Two, tying things up with a 7-1 win.

In the third and final game, Neri’s took a quick eight-run lead in the first two innings, but in the top of the seventh, Poppy’s staged a comeback and had the tying run on second and the go-ahead run on first with one out. The batter hit a shot to the shortstop, who threw it to the third baseman who then tagged the runner for the second out. The Ballbusters coach protested, claiming that the runner had avoided the tag at third. But the second base umpire concurred with his colleague, and Poppy’s was down to their last out, which came in the next play.