America League Opening Day 10/28 

The sky was blue, the air was warm and the softball was awesome! 

Game 1: Western Bank VS Liberty Buick Western Bank couldn’t find a run for the first 5 innings as Liberty Buick displayed some great glove action on defense. Liberty retired the minimum batters 15 in first 5 innings with 2 double plays a 1-6-3 and a 4-6-3 plus 2 diving flyball outs as LC fielder Al Renico made a backhand stab and Steve Mason made a forehand play in the gap in RF. Western held Liberty scoreless in first 2 innings before Matt Schacht drove in the first run after Steve Wolf and Steve Mason both singled. Lynn Johnson doubled off the wall to score Mason and Schacht from first, 3-0 after 3 innings. The Cars added 2 more runs in 5th with singles from Semanie, Renico and Lorentzen followed by back-to-back sac flies making it 5-0. Both teams added solo runs in 6 inning Westerns Bob Hull 2B and Griffins RBI 1B, Liberty Max Beckner RBI 1B drove in Kirkman. 6-1 after 6. Top of 7th, the Bankers made a 3 run deposit after doubles by Jeff Upton, Bob Kuehl with 3 singles splashed in between before the Cars finally closed the Door with a 6-4 win. 

Western Bank: Bob Kuehl 1-3 2B Bob Hull 2-3 2B Dan Griffiths 2-3 

Liberty Buick : Matt Schacht 2-2 BB George Lorentzen 2-3 Steve Wolf 2-2 Sac Jerry Bartholomaus 2-3 Max Beckner, George Semane 2-3 

Game 2: Edward Jones vs Home Smart 

Both teams scoreless in the first, followed by one run each in the second. 1-1 after 2 complete. Edward Jones were blanked over the next 3 innings as Home Smart put up 6 runs. 7 straight hits in the 3rd including an off the wall 2B from Buckley Simmons plated max 4 runs then in the 5th a double from hall of famer Orie McDonald followed by Brant Williams & Buckley Simmons RBI’s, added 2 more. 7-1 after 5. Top of 6th - back to back doubles by Steve Merrill and Randy Coutts scored 1 run but Home Smart answered with 3 runs on 4 hits, a walk and fielders choice 10-2 going into 7th. Jones found some spark scoring 3 runs before Home Smart locked up and set the Alarm for final of 10-5. 

Edward Jones: Steve Merril 3-4 2B Randy Coutts 2-4 2B Ron Scrivner 2-2 BB 

Home Smart: Orie McDonald 4-4 2B Buckley Simmons 3-3 2B George Semanie 2B Jeff Tyler, Brant Williams 2-4 

Game 3: Camino Del Sol VS. Classic Car Wash 

This game was all one team early and all one team late. Camino held a 2-1 lead after 3 complete innings. Dan Gates with both RBI’s for Camino and RBI from (sub) Rich Egan for Car Wash. In the top of the 3rd and 4th the Gravediggers poured on max 4 both innings looking like this was going to be a closed casket affair. 13 hits including a Mark Sertic 2B opened up a 10- 1 lead. Classic car wash turned on the hot wax, answering with 4 runs in the bottom of the 5th to close the gap 10-5. The inning opened with 3 walks followed by 3 hits. Classic then shut down Camino in top of 6th, adding another 4 runs in bottom half to tighten game to 10-9 Camino. Top of 7th after the first 2 batters were retired Camino put together 5 straight hits to push some insurance runs across to go ahead 12-9. Classic last at bat, lead-off single was nullified with a fielders choice, 1 out. A BB puts runners on 1st and 2nd as Greg Lowery stroked a line drive 2B into LF scoring 2 runs cutting the lead to 12-11 with still 1 out. Camino retired the next batter for out number 2. Greg Simon stepped in and singled to tie the game 12 all. (sub) Egan followed with another 1B moving the winning run to 2nd with 2 outs. Eric Lainhart calmly singled to RF to score the winning run 13-12 Classic. 

Camino: Greg Bisnett 3-4 2B Dan Gates 3-4 Mark Sertic 3-4 2B Conrad Milan 3-4 Mike Cross 3-4 

Classic: Greg Lowery 4-4 2B Mike Brach 3-4 Eric Lainhart 2-2 2-BB Greg Cummings 2-3 BB 

Standings: 

• Liberty Buick 1-0 
• Home Smart 1-0 
• Classic Car Wash 1-0 
• Western Bank 0-1
• Edward Jones 0-1
• Camino 0-1