“I’d Hit That” Hits Really Big!

With the season drawing to a close, there was a lot of hitting going on at Navajo Fields at the Yorktown Sports Complex with 2 high-scoring games on Sunday.

The 9 AM game featured a matchup between Who’s on First and New York Bada Bing, with Bada Bing winning the close contest by a score of 11 to 10. Joe Lombardi of New York Bada Bing shared these comments after the game: “Great competitive game between both teams, one run made the difference. I know ‘The Bada Bing’ will be taking Who’s on First very seriously in the playoffs. Great plays were made by both teams, especially special team player  John Mancuso, making some great picks at second base and Shawn crushing the ball. Special thanks to Joe for filling in at left field…”

In the 10:30 game, I’d Hit That hit for a decisive 12 − 6 victory over Fahgettaboutit, with the 2 teams headed for the playoffs at seeds 2 and 3 respectively. I'd Hit That co-captain Stephanie shared her insights into the game and the season. “Our team has finally begun to work out the kinks in our lineup. Our hitting has improved tremendously and came through on Sunday; within the first inning we scored 6 runs. We later scored 6 more runs to win the game 12-6 against Fahgettaboutit. We had a few shaky innings but with some great plays from our second baseman Jeff, pitcher Ricky and short stop Ivan we were able to hold Fahgettaboutit to only 6 runs. I would also like to thank Al from Bada Bing for helping us out on Sunday.
Finishing the season with a win has given us the drive we need for the playoffs next week since we will be going up against a team who we are pretty evenly matched with (Fahgettaboutit). I know Fahgettaboutit is going to give us everything they've got but if we play like we did this Sunday we will definitely be seeing The Comeback Kids again who are the team to beat.”

Fahgettaboutit captain, Dave Balzano reflected on the game and the upcoming playoffs: "After losing this game 12-6, falling behind quickly 6-0 in the top of the first, it's become more clear than ever that we need to get off to a quick start and contain our opponent so we're not playing catch-up all day. In many respects we were our own worst enemy, making uncharacteristic errors in the field, myself included, and the 6 runs we scored were good enough to win versus I'd Hit That in our previous 2 games, but if you give up 10+ runs, you better be prepared to score plenty of your own. The best I can say in this case as with last week is that after falling behind big, we did manage to make a game of it, both cases in a losing cause. However, this team is more designed to keep the game close all the way through, and not make too many mistakes to dig too deep a hole for us. I'm pretty certain that type of play won't do us any favors if we were to win our playoff game and have to play the lock tight defense and hitting represented by The Comeback Kids. They did live up to their name by storming back when down big versus Bada Bing, and won a close game versus Who's on First, so they can be tested, but to beat them will take better execution in all phases of the game on our part if we get to them in the finals…we get to play I'd Hit That again this Sunday in a game that is earlier than most of their games this season, so maybe that will throw them off. Any edge is a good edge, and after losing our last 2, we'll take any advantage we can get. However, we can't rely on the game's starting time to offset errors in the field and a lack of clutch hitting. This is crunch time, and the next game, and hopefully second game will ultimately define our season. We have an opportunity, being in the playoffs. Now it's our time to get back to what made us a winning team to begin with. We can do it, but, as we've seen, we can also have lapses, so it'll be a challenge, and it's one that team Fahgettaboutit looks forward to in the upcoming playoffs."

The playoffs are next weekend, with the quarter-final game between Who’s On First and New York Bada Bing on Saturday. The semi-final and final rounds will be played on Sunday with Fahgettaboutit and I’d Hit That matched up in the first semi-final round. See our website at http://ysaleagues.com/softballWestchester.html for game times and details.