Centertown adult softball league gets rolling
Xander Lee had two homers as he got his team off to a hot start in the Centertown Adult Co-Ed Softball league Monday night.
Xander Lee dug in his feet, waited for the perfect pitch and didn’t miss it when he took a mighty cut. Just a few seconds later, the ball was disappearing into the dusk at Centertown, feeling like the official kickoff of the adult co-ed softball league.
On the first night of the league, Lee set the tone: If you want to win, you better be able to mash the ball.
Lee homered twice - coming in the same inning - as Team Gabby Monzon opened up the league action Monday night with a 13-6 victory. Offense continued to be the story of the night when Lynn Gann’s squad took down Team Shayla Bain 21-4 and Team Cody Lorance won a 27-17 slugfest with team Young-Jones to cap the night.
The league was supposed to kick off last Monday, but rain delayed the debut for a week. With the park all to themselves, the adults got to work this week, but the offense seemed like it took a moment to get started. Both teams quickly were retired in the first inning, but Lee sparked a 12-run rally for his squad in the second inning.
With three homers to use, Lee hit a bomb over the centerfield fence to jumpstart a major rally. Cody Esslinger decided to get in on the HR derby later in the inning, crushing a shot over the right-field fence before Lee capped the outburst with another missile to centerfield to take the early home-run lead in the league.
Team Miller tried to make it a game with a five-run third inning, kicked off by a triple from Will Wrisner and capped by a two-run single from Emily Winfree Lopez, but the bats went cold from there and allowed Team Monzon to get off to a hot start in league play.
Making sure they were going to get into the win column on opening night, Team Gann relied on the power duo of Kyle Thompson and Bryson Elrod to get a run-rule win in Game 2 Monday. Elrod finished 4-for-4, including a three-run HR in the first inning, while Thompson - long known in the area as a masher of softballs - went big fly in the fifth frame as Team Gann made it easy work on opening night.
A homer from Raleigh Woods was one of the highlights from Team Bain in the rout.
By the end of the night, Team Lorance was ready to cap it off with the biggest offensive explosion of all. The victors of the final matchup had four players finish with four or more hits, while Team Young-Jones got a 3-for-3 night from Layne Roberts - including a two-run HR - in a losing effort.
Action in the adult co-ed softball league will continue next Monday, June 15.
Simmons Says note: The teams, currently, are named after their team managers. Like everybody else, I hope they actually come up with team names before the season ends.
