Sports: New season of Red Hook Softball, by Brian Abate

The Red Hook Locals Softball League is back for a fourth season and began with a triple header on April 17.

In 2022, B61 beat Bait & Tackle to become champions and win the Colucci Cup, in 2023, Bait returned the favor and beat B61 in the championship, and last season B61 beat the Wobblies in the championship.

Unlike last season, when it was freezing on opening day, there was perfect weather to start this season. The league’s two newest teams, Hometown and MiniBar played at 6 pm at Dovey Diamond (Field 9.) Solid defense and pitching helped MiniBar shut down Hometown early and Hometown walked six consecutive batters in the first inning leading to two pitching changes without recording an out. A few clutch hits made it 6-0 and by the second inning, it was 11-0. MiniBar never looked back and cruised to a 25-4 victory.

Also at 6 pm, the defending champs B61 took on the Record Shop in a matchup between the teams with the top two records in the regular season in 2024. It was also the first game played at Field 1.

The Record Shop jumped out to an early 9-0 lead but B61 battled back to cut it to 15-9.

There was a scary moment in the 6th inning as B61’s pitcher Shawn Andrew was hit in the foot with a line drive. However, he stayed in the game and hit an opposite-field 3-run homer in the bottom of the inning to cut the lead to 15-12. In the top of the 7th, Kevin responded with a 2-run homer for the Record Shop and they closed the game with a 1,2,3 bottom of the 7th to win 17-12.

At 8 pm the league’s two original teams played under the lights at Dovey Diamond as the Wobblies took on Bait & Tackle. The Wobblies were patient and drew a lot of walks and they came up with a few clutch base hits to jump out to an early 7-0 lead. They kept adding on runs, while Bait couldn’t get anything going offensively for the first few innings. The Wobblies’ speed helped them beat out a few grounders and string together rallies. Bait got a few runs late but could never make it close and the Wobblies won 19-5.

On April 21st the Wobblies took on Hometown at Field 8. They jumped out to a 10-3 lead thanks to patience at the plate and clutch hits. They led 11-5 in the bottom of the fourth, then turned a triple play. With runners on first and second, Willy caught a line drive, stepped on second, and then threw to first as both runners took off running on the play. The Wobblies batted around for eight runs in the top of the fifth, including a two-run homer for Larry, and they won the game 24-5.

On April 24, MiniBar continued its impressive start. They played a great game last postseason but came up just short against the Wobblies, who won on a walk-off hit. This time they returned the favor against the defending champs, B61. Strong pitching and defense by both teams led to a close, low-scoring game and MiniBar walked it off for a dramatic 8-7 victory. Also, on April 24, the Record Shop continued its strong start, beating Bait & Tackle 11-7 to improve to 2-0.

On April 28, Hometown took on the Record Shop in the final game of the month. It was a low-scoring matchup with a few great defensive plays. Lars Fisk allowed just one run in four innings for the Record Shop. In the bottom of the fourth, two consecutive walks with the bases loaded and an infield single gave the Record Shop a 4-1 lead. Hometown scored two in the fifth to cut it to 4-3.

They threatened with runners in scoring position in the sixth and seventh innings but both times, clutch pitching by Edan Portnoy preserved the lead and closed out the victory.

At the end of April, the Record Shop is in first place at 3-0, the Wobblies are 2-0, MiniBar is 2-0, Bait & Tackle is 0-2, B61 is 0-2, and Hometown is 0-3.