Big Hits and Big Win

Hello ECC Softball fans. Can you remember the last tiime you heard about your local diamond dwellers? Let me refresh your memory. It has been 3 weeks since ECC played a softball game. Way back on May 12th, the covenanters took the field against the young Mudhens and St. Therese. Thanks to an unpredictable wind and a thin roster of 9 players, the Mudhens outlsugged ECC winning 28-16. In the second game, one more player arrived for our boys to give Coach Quinlan a full squad on the field but the result was the same as St. Therese won 22-7. Fortunately for ECC, the schedule makers allowed for an adjustment period with a bye followed by the Memorial Day weekend.

Now, we come to last Monday where a light drizzle seemed to fall all night long as ECC faced Ridgewood Church and Westwood Gray. The first game started out with Ridgewood getting out to a quick 3-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning. By the third inning, Excelsior had erased that deficit and even took a brief 4-3 advantage highlighted by first baseman Craig Butler's 2 run double over the right centerfielder's head. However, that lead was short lived as Ridgewood plated 8 runs in the bottom of the inning to ultimately put the game away. Over the remainder of the innings, our boys mounted a valiant comeback highlighted by LF Brian Wiersma's first homerun of the season but the team eventually lost 12-9.

The second contest of the rainy evening began with Westwood jumping out to a 5-0 lead against pitcher Pete Bjorlin. However, the first inning proved beneficial for both teams as the covenanters scored 4 runs of their own to trim the deficit to one. The lead changed hands several times in the middle innings highlighted again by Brian Wiersma hitting his second round tripper of the night and the season giving ECC a 10-7 lead in the bottom of the fourth inning. However, by the bottom of the sixth, the score was Westwood 13 ECC 10 and it looked Coach Q and the team were going to start the 2008 campaign 0-6. Nothing could be further from the truth because the never say die covenanters mounted a huge comeback. The boys scored 5 runs compliments of another ringing 2 run double by Craig Butler, and RBI double by Brian Wiersma and a RBI triple by shortstop Mike Mrosko. Final score ECC 15 Westwood Gray 13. A special thanks goes out to Dave and Bonnie Clawson, Dan and Carleen Wiersma and Marvin Bjorlin for coming out to support the team despite the rainy conditions.

Next week, the team tries to continue their winning ways at Excelsior Commons starting at 6:30pm and 7:30pm. Hope to see you there.

JQ