June 19, 2014 -- Softballs hitting the inside pockets of gloves could be heard as players from Weapons and Hard Chargers warmed up outside the fence line of Covella Pond Field, here, June 11.
The Hard Chargers had hoped to keep their undefeated winning streak alive, but was unsuccessful as Weapons won 12-11 during an intramural softball game.
In the first and second innings, the Hard Chargers scored only one run. Tony Hawkins, assistant coach, Hard Chargers, said the team started off slow and sluggish.
“We could not string our hits together,” Hawkins said. “We would get a hit here and a hit there.”
However, that was not the case for Weapons.
Weapons scored 10 runs, four in the first and six in the second inning. In the bottom of the second inning, with one out and the bases loaded, Chuck Peay hit a grand slam over the left field fence.
“All I wanted to do is to make it to first base,” he said. “It was the right pitch at the right time.”
Peay batted in five runs, accounting for nearly half of the Weapons’ score. He said the last time he hit a home run out of the park was in 2004.
“People were definitely happy about it,” he said. “They don’t see it too often. They have not seen it from me since I have been playing for Weapons.”
Gene Pender, Weapons’s coach, said Peay’s grand slam was the deciding factor of the game.
The coach said Peay was Weapons’ “big guns” for the night, the “howitzer” for the game.
Weapons, the oldest softball team in the base league, entered the third inning with a nine-run lead. However, the Hard Chargers mounted a come back.
In the third, the Hard Chargers scored eight runs bringing them within one run of tying the game 9-10.
“As the game progressed, we started tightening up and began to battle back,” Hawkins said.
In the top of the fourth, the Hard Chargers continued their momentum and tied the game at 10. But it was short lived as Weapons scored two runs in the bottom of the fourth, making it 12-10.
Although down by two runs in the top of the fifth, the Hard Chargers tried to make a second come back, but was only able to score one run.
As fate would have it, time ran out for the Hard Chargers as the umpire called the game due to the one-hour rule, ending the game 12-11.
Pender gave the Hard Chargers accolades for their performance.
“We knew coming into this game it was going to be tight,” Pender said. “I would say their team is one of the better and more established teams in the league.”
Continuing the sportsmanship, Hawkins spoke highly of his rival.
“Playing (Weapons) was kind of tough because they are normally the number one team to beat,” Hawkins said. “We did well, we just came up short.”