Young children ran unsupervised, wild and free behind the
softball backstop at Rancho San Justo School Wednesday as the
Hollister Recreation co-ed softball first half playoffs forged
ahead.
On the diamond, the Galaxy All-Stars, behind some timely
no-fence home runs, outlasted Natural Selection 12-7 in a first
round D-III playoff game.
Young children ran unsupervised, wild and free behind the softball backstop at Rancho San Justo School Wednesday as the Hollister Recreation co-ed softball first half playoffs forged ahead.
On the diamond, the Galaxy All-Stars, behind some timely no-fence home runs, outlasted Natural Selection 12-7 in a first round D-III playoff game.
In fact, Galaxy’s Mike Soto opened up the scoring with leadoff homer to start the game. Mike Sullivan powered a three-run roundtripper in the top of the third with Sullivan speeding around the bases in about five seconds. That put Galaxy up 6-1.
Natural Selection added three runs in the scorebook in the bottom of the third. Jared Forth singled to start the rally, while brother Corey Forth singled in a run. Brian Lenois plated two runs on a two-run single.
Steve Salcedo led off the fourth with an infield single as the ball got by Jennifer Baker at first. Salcedo took the turn to second, but changed his mind. Baker, however, was able to retrieve the ball and tag out Salcedo, who hadn’t returned to the first base bag. That didn’t slow down Galaxy’s outburst. Trisha Ocampo singled in one run, then George Ocampo lined one past the outfield for a three-run home run for Galaxy’s biggest lead of the game at 10-4. Ocampo showed good speed despite being ribbed by someone on the Galaxy bench, who lightheartedly called George “an old man”.
Baker’s sac fly in the fourth plated Kyle Lomanto. Corey Forth singled in a run. Forth was eventually thrown out at the plate trying to score on Hillary Lomanto’s single. The relay came from the strong-armed George Ocampo at short to the pitcher, Sullivan, who was constantly covering home.
Lenoir singled in another run in the fifth, cutting the score to 10-7.
Arthur Castro singled in a run for Galaxy in the sixth for some insurance.
Rudy Torres, who entered the game late for Galaxy, was involved in two crazy plays. Lenoir tagged out Torres at the plate on a close play in the top of the seventh. Then in the bottom of the seventh, Torres hauled in a fly ball after he originally bounced it off the top of his glove. It was a play for the video camera.
Then again, so was the play of the youngsters playing in the dirt behind home plate and running all over the place carte blanche.
