After a season marred by continuous inclement weather, the intramural softball season has finally concluded.  Champions were crowned in the men’s open division as well as the new elite league Tuesday night on Miller Fields.

“Where My Pitches At?” won the men’s open championship, downing the overall top-ranked team 18-10.  Timely hitting and defense were the keys to the team’s success as they prevailed from a field that originally included 49 teams.  Junior Brent Lalas provided stout defense in center field and had two clutch hits for “Where My Pitches At?”.

 ”We’ve put up a lot of runs all season,” Lalas said.  “We started off slow tonight but we made a nice play on defense that fired us up and really got our bats going.”

After trailing 3-8 in the fifth inning, the bats came alive for “Where My Pitches At” as they strung together 11 straight hits with two outs, resulting in nine runs.  The big fifth inning pushed the score to 12-8 and the team never looked back. “Where My Pitches At?” added six insurance runs in the sixth inning to win by the final score of 18-10.

“We decided to start hitting singles instead of swinging for the fences every time,” Lalas said.  “We were able to string together some big hits and it definitely paid off for us.”

Following the conclusion of the men’s open championship, “Where My Pitches At?” re-tightened their laces and headed back onto the field to play for the elite league championship.  Lalas and Co. squared off against last year’s men’s open champions, the Black Mambas.

Armed with a superior offense, the Black Mambas struck first, scoring four runs in the top of the first inning to go up 4-0.  After “Where My Pitches At?” responded with a run of its own, the Black Mambas had another big inning, scoring four runs in the third.

The Black Mambas’ Warren Atkinson blasted a towering fly ball over the heads of the opposing outfielders for a two-run home run.  Not to be outdone, junior right fielder Jeff Owens followed with a two-run single up the middle to push the score to 8-1.

 ”We made great contact with the ball from the get-go,” Owens said.  “We were able to sit back and put some good swings on the ball.  I guess it was just one of those days where everything goes right.”

“Where My Pitches At?” answered with two runs in the fourth inning to pull within four runs.  However, the Black Mambas responded in the fifth inning, scoring four insurance runs to extend their lead to 12-4.

A valiant comeback attempt ended short for “Where My Pitches At?”.  The team scored four runs in the sixth inning before the Black Mambas’ captain, Nick Balogh, closed the door with a remarkable catch in the infield to preserve a 12-8 victory.

 ”We played pretty well all-around,” Balogh said.  “I thought we played great defensively and had some timely hits that led to runs.  It just feels good to win.”

 The win gave the Black Mambas their second championship in two years, but first championship in the first ever elite league.

 ”We’ll be back here in the championship next year for sure,” Atkinson said.  “Who knows, we might even form a Co-rec team.”