By CONSTANCIO MARTINEZ, JR.
Special to the PRESS
This past Wednesday, July 8 the Laguna Madre Sports Park officially kicked off its Men’s Softball League with an exciting opening night of competition. The league which features men of all ages, is made up of the following eight teams: Swingers, Coming in Hot, Ballaholics, Cantu’s, Texas Made, Hopper Haus, Bandidos, and Brew Crew.
The night began with a pair of games that got underway 7pm. After playing their hour-long contest, those four teams took a break while the remaining four teams competed in the 8 pm games. The action continued with additional games at 9 pm and 10 pm, allowing each team to take the field twice.
I arrived at the park in time for the second round of games. After a quick stop at the concession stand, I headed to the bleachers to catch the Bandidos and the Brew Crew square off.
As the game got underway, the Bandidos got on base rather quickly but only came away with a 1-0 lead, after a handful of flyouts ended their “at bat”. In the bottom of the first, the Brew Crew managed to take a 2-1 lead on Daniel Martinez’s hard-hit single which brought in the two runs.
Neither team was able to score in the second inning as both defenses stood strong.
In the top of the third inning, the Bandidos couldn’t catch a break as the pop outs and flyouts continued. On the other hand, the Brew Crew displayed a little more offense as they managed to jump out to a 4-1 lead behind a double by Jeremy Martinez.
The Bandidos started to get heated up in the fourth inning as a base hit single made it a 4-2 game. On the next play, Cesar Ochoa’s base hit double brought in three more runs as the Bandidos retook the lead 5-4. The hits came coming as the final out had the Bandidos with an 8-4 lead. The Brew Crew closed out the inning with one run scored to make it an 8-5 game.
In the fifth in final inning, the Bandidos opened the inning on an indoor homerun after a misplayed ball got by the outfielder. More offense led to two more runs as extended their lead to 11-5.
With their backs against the wall, the Brew Crew got to work as they logged in some singles and doubles to make it a 11-8 game. After hitting a double, Darren Cisneros managed to steal home to make it a one point game, 11-10. Unfortunately, the final out came on a fielder’s choice, bringing the game to a close.
Sports Coordinator, Tuffy Martinez was pleased with the start of the league. Via social media, “Our men’s softball season got off to a pretty good start last night! Had to go to Wal-Mart to get some WD40 to get some RUST off some of these older players that had not played in 4 years! But men’s softball is back and a lot of new young faces out there last night. It’s such a blessing to have seen some of our community and neighboring communities come out to support our league!” Stated Martinez.
As the nights games came to a close, the current standing are: Cantu’s (2-0) and Hopper Haus (2-0) remain unbeaten atop the standings, followed by Swingers (1-1), Coming in Hot (1-1), Texas Made (1-1), and Bandidos (1-1). Rounding out the standings are Ballaholics (0-2) and Brew Crew (0-2), both looking to break into the win column next week.
League play will continue every Wednesday in July, with each team playing two games beginning at 7 p.m.