Lily Nagle bats for the Grilled Cheeselers against the Chautauqua Belles, Tuesday, July 3, 2018 at Sharpe Field. RILEY ROBINSON/ STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
Chautauqua women’s softball league opened Tuesday with a doubleheader and winners on both sides of the spectrum.
The first game of the double header was the Grilled Cheeselers v. the Belles.
The Grilled Cheeselers are a group of girls with a lot of energy. The team started out the game listening to music and dancing in the dugout. Their youth and experience showed in the beginning of the game, where they went down 5-2 after three innings.
“First time playing for some of the girls, and we were really rusty to begin,” said Julia Koron, team captain.
To start out the fourth inning, Grilled Cheeselers showed off great hitting and took a commanding lead. Due to errors by the Belles’ elders, the Grilled Cheeselers all went to bat twice.
Going into the bottom of the fourth inning, the score was 15-5.
“I think we are definitely an end-of-the-game team,” Koron. “Then we started to click, and we were like, ‘Let’s go!’ ”
After the Belles lost the lead, they had a chance to answer back and go on a run themselves. But, The Belles were held scoreless in the bottom of the fourth inning.
With the Cheeselers scoring eight more runs in the top of the fifth inning, it was getting close to the mercy rule. But the Belles closed out and got another chance to put some runs on the scoreboard.
It was 24-5 going to the bottom of the fifth inning. The Belles ended up getting two quick outs with runners in scoring position. They scored one run and lost the game.
The game ended with a final score of 25-6. The women’s league only play five innings or an hour of play, whichever comes first.
The second game of the double header wasn’t decided until the last out.
The Moms v. Hot Chauts started out the season very competitively. The Moms came out the gate quick with a 2-0 lead from an in- the-park homerun, but the Hot Chauts came back in the next inning with great hitting and base-running to tie the game 2-2 going into the third inning.
“We had excellent defensive plays from our short-stop and outfielders today,” said Kathy Chubb, player for the Moms.
Both teams played great defense in the third and fourth innings to keep it tied going into the last inning. The Moms led off the fifth inning with great hitting and got the bases loaded. They ended up getting four runs going to the bottom of the fifth inning, and looked to continue playing defense to get the victory. Struggling to get players on base, the Hot Chauts ended up only scoring one run and leaving players stranded on the bases.
The Moms won the game with a final score of 6-3.
The winning teams had two different expectations for the season.
“We expect to repeat as champions and win every game,” Koron said of Grilled Cheeslers, while the Moms were more subdued.
“Not get injured,” Chubb said. “That’s big for people our age playing softball.”
