Staff/Faculty Team Cruises Past Students in Slow-Pitch Softball Game
Published 04.28.2015
News
A team of Penn College students, taking on a staff/faculty squad in the annual slow-pitch softball challenge, struck first Monday as it scored in the top of the first inning thanks to a single by Tommy Walton. The employee team responded in the bottom of the inning, as John McNichol hit a two-run triple and Eric Tupper added a single to bring him home. That made the score 3-1 in favor of the staff/faculty. The students struck again in the second inning, thanks to a few fielding errors by their opponents, and Rich DeJesus hit a two-run single to put the student's up by a 4-3 tally. The bottom of the second was a different story, with the staff/faculty team batting around the order to erupt for 13 runs! The scoring was led by McNichol and Scott Kennell, each of whom had 3 RBIs in the inning. Derrick Winters and Jeremy Bottorf added two RBIs, and Matt Blymier, Eric Tupper and Gabriel Nepita-Mejia added one each. Chester Rogers then took the mound again with a comfortable lead and dazzled as the students were held scoreless in the third, fourth and fifth innings. Staff/faculty bats cooled off in their half of those innings, as well. Rogers came out in the top of the sixth looking to continue his gem of a game, but the students weren't going down without a fight. Fueled by a Nathaniel Brown-led rally in the dugout, students scored five times in the sixth inning. Mike Cliggett, Walton, Andre Torres, Tim Stasulli, Andrew Zwigard, Rich Wood and Brown each had big hits to cut the staff/faculty lead in half (18-9). The staff/faculty team added some insurance: Winters led off the inning with a single, Blymier hit into a fielder's choice and Kennell followed with a triple. McNichol, Bottorf, Tupper, Nepita-Mejia and Rogers all added singles to put the staff/faculty team up 21-9 – a winning edge that Rogers preserved by pitching a 1-2-3 seventh inning.Photos by Bottorf, coordinator of intramural sports/campus recreation