By Rob Potter
MONGAUP VALLEY — July 5, 2002 – And then there was one.
“One” as in one undefeated team remaining in the Sullivan County Women’s Softball League.
In a showdown between the league’s only unbeaten teams Tuesday night at Collins Park in Mongaup Valley, L & B Tack defeated Charlie’s Angels 12-8.
L & B broke a 2-2 tie with five runs in the fifth inning. The squad then added four runs in the sixth to build an 11-3 lead.
L & B, a B Division team in its first season in the league, then withstood a spirited comeback by the Angels in the bottom of the seventh.
In boosting its record to 13-0 on the season, L & B handed the Charlie’s Angels squad its first loss since the 2000 season. Last year, the Angels swept through their A Division schedule and the league playoffs to finish the summer with a perfect 28-0 record. This year, the Angels had won their first 11 games before losing to L & B.
“This is a really big win,” L & B Coach Jon Kurtz said. “We had a really big win last night against CES, another A Division team. The girls played well tonight, they deserved to win.”
L & B took the lead for good in the top of the fifth inning. With two runners on and no outs, Sherry Clouser hit a looping fly ball that eluded Angels left fielder Cindy Ellmauer. Barb Stubits scored on the play to give L & B a 3-2 lead.
An Angels’ error later in the frame allowed Lacy Dalrymple to score and make it 4-2.
After Lisa Krom hit a bloop single to left field to load the bases, Moe Johnson singled to right to bring in two runs.
L & B took advantage of another Angels’ error to make it a 7-2 game.
Charlie’s Angels scored a run in the bottom of the frame. But L & B answered with four runs in the top of the sixth. The big blow was a three-run home run by Rene Green, which gave L & B an 11-3 lead.
In the bottom of the fifth, Terri Hess stroked an RBI single to cut the L & B advantage to 11-4.
After L & B scored a run in the top of the seventh, the Angels mounted a rally in their last at-bat.
Leadoff batter Jo Walls started the inning with a single and Nicki Krom and Christine Decker each followed with a single.
Tonya Ackerley ripped an RBI single to center and the next batter, Deb Ackerley also singled to center.
With one out and the bases loaded, Leanne Mangabang hit a bloop single to center to score Decker and cut the L & B lead to 12-7. Twila Herbert then added another RBI single to make it a 12-8 game.
The next batter, Hess, lined out to L & B third baseman Dalrymple for the second out. Dalrymple then tagged Deb Ackerley, who had taken a step off of third, for the final out of the game.
“We didn’t play our game,” said Walls, who is the player/coach for Charlie’s Angels. “They played a good game. They got the hits and made the defensive plays tonight and we didn’t.”
The victory should provide momentum for L & B going into next week’s action, when the team faces two more A Division teams. (Each team in the league plays the other squads in its division three times during the regular season and plays one game against each of the teams in the other division.)
Like most new teams that join the league, L & B is playing in the B Division in its first season. At the end of the season, the teams with the best won-loss records are placed into the A Division for the following summer. Therefore, if L & B continues to play this well the rest of the season, the squad may very well be competing in the A Division in 2003.
“They have been playing well together all season,” Kurtz said of the players on the L & B roster.