Frankie's Upends
Currency Club

By Frank Rizzo
MONGAUP VALLEY — August 22, 2000 – An inspired Frankie’s Restaurant crushed regular season champ Currency Club in two straight games to win the Monticello Men’s Softball League’s B division championship.
On Tuesday night, Frankie’s buried Currency 26-7 and clinched the title on Wednesday with a 7-3 win at Edward Collins Memorial Park in Mongaup Valley.
Wednesday was a good day for the Monticello eatery; its women’s softball team won the Monticello ladies’ title on the same field earlier that evening (see story this page).
Currency Club — a number of whose players played for now-defunct Roark’s Tavern — started off Wednesday’s contest with an aborted scoring chance.
Joe Staudt led off with a single, and went to third when Ed Rodriguez’s high fly was dropped in left field.
Mark Carnell bounced to Chris Malley at short, and he whipped the ball to catcher Pat Creegan to nab Staudt at home.
Pitcher Kevin Gannon then got dangerous cleanup batter Dewey Cabrera (a veteran of the county’s dominant team, Roche’s Garage) to line to Jim Miller at second, and he doubled up Rodriguez to end the threat.
Frankie’s struck back in its half of the first against CC hurler Mike Greco. Chris Malley walked and went to third on a groundout before scoring on a two-out double by Dan Malley. Frankie’s then loaded the bases, but Greco got Creegan on a fielder’s choice for the third out.
Frankie’s doubled its lead in the second as Joe Giangiacomo’s single scored Kevin Weatherly, who had walked and stolen second.
In the fourth Creegan doubled, and after Kevin Weatherly drew a walk, the catcher advanced to third on Giangiacomo’s sky to right.
Weatherly stole second and Toby Stiles then flew out to score Creegan. Gannon reached on an error, which scored Weatherly and put Frankie’s up 4-0.
Miller provided a cushion in the fifth, his two-out homer to deep left center scoring Doug Campbell, who had singled.
CC finally got on board in the top of the sixth as Ralph Lugo tagged Gannon for a three-run blast to score Carnell and Cabrera — both had reached on errors.
On the bottom of the frame Kevin Weatherly singled, stole second, moved up on a groundout, and closed out the scoring when Gannon reached on an error.
In the opener on Tuesday Frankie’s had gone up 6-0 and 10-3 when CC made it close with four runs in the six. But in the top of the seventh Frankie’s exploded for 16 runs against losing pitcher Jo Jo VanKeuren to put the game out of reach.
Dan Malley drove in five runs in the rout and had three hits, including a double and a triple.
Keith Kisza and Giangiacomo added three RBI each while Doug Campbell was 2-for-3 with two RBI.
Gannon picked up the win, aided by a hitting attack that featured four doubles and three triples.
This was Frankie’s second year in the league. It lost the finals of the B division to Currency Club last summer and lost to CC twice this past regular season.