As luck would have it, right in the middle of the B-Crew Vs Old Forge playoff game, a fire broke out in Hinsdale. Since several players on the team are volunteer firefighters, they had to leave the game to address the fire. Though the team was down by 14 runs after 3 innings of play, this incident leave B-Crew short of three players. This would also force the team to forfeit the rest of the game, handing the win to Old Forge.

But Old Forge agreed to allow B-Crew to round up any players they could and to make the outcome of the game stand, win or lose. And with that, A-WOL was recruited to play for B-Crew for the remainder of the game.

Because of the fire, the B-Crew infield had a new squad of infielders. (1B, SS and 3B.) With this, A-WOL was assigned to first base, a position he hadn’t played all season. Though B-crew had not choice, mixing people that haven’t played together in the infield is usually asking for trouble; tonight would be no exception.

B-Crew yielded 11 runs in the fourth as the infield had trouble with a slew of ground balls. In the bottom half of the inning, A-WOL introduced the “rally mask” in hopes of spurring a rally. It did net a run after the inning was over.

After A-WOL requested a change to a position he was more comfortable with, he was moved to short in the fifth. He lead the inning with a force out to first and almost made a terrific leaping line-drive snag that deflected of the palm of his glove. Old Forge only got a run back in that inning.

B-Crew second base woman at bat. (Wolan)

In the bottom of the fifth, A-WOL introduced the “rally camera” after an Old Forge photographer started taking photos. It must have worked as the team netted 4 runs. A-WOL ended the inning with a close force-out at first.

A-WOL was assigned to the outfield in the sixth, but it didn’t help as the team gave-up several runs anyways. Their offense went down quickly in the bottom half of the inning.

In the seventh, A-WOL and the SS from the sixth inning traded spots. A-WOL managed to record a force out at second and the team escaped by yielding either 0 or 1 run. B-Crew tried to rally back in the bottom half of the inning, as they got back 4 or 5 runs. A 2-run ITP HR into right field by A-WOL capped this inning. Obviously, this was not enough as B-Crew fell by 20 or so runs.

“And to think, I only came outt here to watch a softball game because I got fed-up watching the sox go down 5-0 on TV after 3 innings,” commented A-WOL after the game. “All of a sudden, at around 9:00pm, I was in a game. Pretty wild.”

The B-Crew team skipper and his son got into a heated argument after the game. “If I understand correctly, the team captain felt they had a chance to come back from a 14-run deficit, but blamed his son for tweaking the infield in the fourth. If you recall, the team gave up like 11 runs that inning, putting the game well out of their hands.”

“In my opinion, when you are down by that much and you introduce 3 players that have not played on the team before, it’s really asking for a lot to ask them to help overcome a 14-run deficit. The most you can realistically hope for is for them to help hold a lead or help eat away at a small deficit.”

“I gave it 100%, but I found it a bit discouraging that the team skipper lead the seventh inning with what everyone felt should have been an ITP only to net a double. What was really discouraging was that he was forced out at third on an outfield hit on the net play. It didn’t seem as if he was trying anymore. Yes, I know, the team was down 20 or more runs, but you could at least try and lose by a smaller margin.”

“In any event, I just hope the team skipper and his family settle their softball argument: it’s not worth dividing a family over a softball game. If they think they have team issues, then I should introduce them to the BS I had to endure at the start of my team’s 2005 season!”

Andy Wolan is a reporter for MLSB.com. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Softball or its clubs.