By Rob Potter
WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS — August 22, 2003 – The first game of the Sullivan County Fire Department Softball League championship series featured a few home runs and exciting play throughout all seven innings.
When the dust on the basepaths settled, the host White Sulphur Springs Fire Department team held on for a 13-10 victory over the Swan Lake Fire Department team at Gary A. Bradley Memorial Field. With the win, W.S.S. took a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three series. The second game of the series is scheduled to be held Tuesday night in Swan Lake.
Down 13-7 heading into the seventh inning, Swan Lake rallied in its last at bat. Ryan Edwards led off the top of the seventh with a double down the left field line and Mike Parks followed with a home run over the fence in left field to narrow the White Sulphur Springs’ lead to 13-9.
Two batters later, Jim Parks hit a solo home run to make it a 13-10 game.
But White Sulphur Springs pitcher Ryan Calkin got the next two batters to fly out and ground out, respectively, to end the game and preserve his team’s victory.
Swan Lake grabbed an early lead when John Gorr hit a two-run home run in the top of the first.
White Sulphur Springs tied the game in the bottom of the first, however. Carl Yaun and Matt DeWitt led off with consecutive singles to put two runners on with no outs. Although the next two batters grounded out, Yaun and DeWitt were able to score on those outs to knot the score at 2-2.
White Sulphur Springs broke that tie with five runs in the bottom of the second. A two-run single by Yaun, an RBI triple by Joe Decker, an RBI single by Darren Day and Calkin’s sacrifice fly enabled White Sulphur Springs to grab a 7-2 lead.
In the top of the fifth, Swan Lake – which added a run in the third – scored three times to pull within 8-6. Three consecutive doubles by Edwards, Mike Parks and Gorr brought those runs across the plate.
After Calkin’s RBI single in the bottom of the inning pushed the White Sulphur Springs lead to 9-6, Swan Lake responded with a run in the top of the sixth. Rick Nichols, who singled earlier in the inning, scored when Steve Sochinski hit a ball to the outfield that could not be handled cleanly.
In the bottom of the sixth, White Sulphur Springs scored four runs – two of which came on a home run by Josh Schwartz – to take the aforementioned 13-7 lead.