MONDAY, July 7—The Hoboken spring coed softball championship between the Slingers vs. Where My Pitches At? hit hard at Mama Johnson field.
 
The game looked to be over after the 2nd inning due to Where My Pitches At’s red-hot hitting in which their bats put 10 runs on the board to give them a 10 to 1 lead.  On top of their offense, Pitches’ stopstop Greg Fuchs was a human vacuum being responsible for 16 of the 27 outs.  In addition to Fuch’s glove play, outfielders Mike Jamgotchian and Todd Filipps made several great catches at the warning track. 

The odds were stacked against the Slingers to overcome a 9 run deficit with a good chance the mercy rule was going to take affect after 5 innings of play.  However, Slingers took a page out of Rocky Balboa’s playbook being an underdog against an Apollo Creed type opponent like Where My Pitches At?.  Slingers were down but were not out.  They did the impossible of making one of the finest comebacks in ABL history defeating Where My Pitches At? 17 to 11.

There is no question about it that Jesse Duanno’s homerun hitting was the turning point in the game for the Slingers.  Jesse first helped his team get on the scoreboard with a solo homerun.  His next at bat in the 3rd inning he hit a crucial grand slam.  Then in the 7th inning he belted a 2 run jack to get his team within 2.  Overall, Jesse’s homeruns accounted for 7 of the first 8 runs scored.  He gives all the credit to his pregame ritual of eating turkey meatballs.

In the 8th inning, the Slingers’ bats started to come alive from the backing of Jess Lesko, Joe Rockhill and Danny Miller.  They did a great job swinging making the presence of the offense known.  There was one hit in particular that gave the Slingers a 13 to 11 lead.  Jason Orr hit a shot giving him a 3 run double.   The emotions of what was at stake were heard as he gave out a cheer on 2nd base knowing his team took the first lead of the game.

The defense did an excellent job after the 2nd inning only giving up 1 run in the remaining 7 innings of the game.  The credit in the outfield goes to several catches made by Ryan Hall and Kate Burns, robbing their opponent of extra base hit opportunities. The infield of Laura Tomana, Alicia Mattiello, and James Amadeo casually did what they always do, which is to make great plays look routine.

The Slingers refusing to call it quits when they were down made them win the prize fight to become the coed softball spring league champions.  The only thing that was missing was ADRIAN!!!