APRIL

The Pen & Pencil Club softball season got under way on Wednesday with an opener that was delayed by one week and then postponed for another day so that sufficient water could accumulate on the fine fields of the Center City Softball League.
The result was a very soggy Edgeley 4 (in a game moved from Edgeley 3 because our spiffy newly-permitted field was submerged) and a night that ended somewhat soggily for the Red Inks. We opened against our old nemesis, the South Philly Tap Room, which eliminated us hastily from last season’s playoffs. This time around, it was a better game, although a 19-10 loss when the sun finally set on Lake Edgeley.
The game marked the start for us of the Wood Bat Era in the CCSL, a safety precaution that requires the use of wooden implements for ball-striking for males 54-years-and-under. The Management, being legally qualified to park in the handicap zone, displayed his spirit for the game by using a wood bat, anyway, and was rewarded with an 0-for-3 day, including this unfortunate result that probably would have made it through the infield if aluminum-aided.

In any case, we lead the league, if in nothing else, in males who can wield weapons of mass destruction. Dan Rubin, who didn’t mind doing so, began his season with a mammoth home run to deep right field in the first inning to cap a six-run outburst that put us in an early lead.
Our first five hitters reached base safely and we had two RBIs in the inning from Brian Donlen, who doubled, one from Mark Nevins, and two on Rubin’s blast. We scored the final run that inning when Chris Yasiejko singled and later scored on a Tommy Rowan base hit.
Well, that was a good start and the game remained close through the middle innings. We had some empty innings at the plate and gave the Tap a few extra outs in the field, and that’s never a good combination. But we still trailed by just 11-9 after five innings.
We leaked oil badly after that, and couldn’t figure out what to do with John Benson, who had a 5-for-5 day. Their MVP might have been No. 2 hitter Robin Blair who got on base five times, scored three runs and tripled in her first at-bat.

On our side, leadoff whiz Russ Krause was 4-for-4, and three hits each for George Miller, Donlen and Yasiejko. Two hits for Nevins and Rowan. In all, we had 20 hits to go with our 10 runs, but the Tap trumped that with 31 hits, according to scorekeeper Tom DiNardo.
As starts go, it was one, and it does seem that we adjusted to the wood bats and that, judging by Elmer’s fly ball outs, teams that rely on mashing home runs (not our specialty, anyway) will find themselves playing a slightly different game.
We’ll see how that turns out as the season progresses, which it does quickly, with games Monday and Tuesday next week, our only doubleheader week of the season. News about that, and about our Saturday scrimmage versus P&P Lite in our next edition.