The Macdonald’s Rug and Carpet’s Rug Sox (2-3) exploded for eight runs in the third inning and continued to pull away from the winless Vineyard Complementary Medicine’s Shady Ladies (0-4), winning 19-6 in the first game of a Martha’s Vineyard Women’s Slowpitch Softball League (MVWSSL) doubleheader Tuesday night at Veterans Memorial Park in Vineyard Haven.
In the nightcap, the undefeated and defending league champion Mama’s Girls (5-0) broke open a tight game against the Wharf’s Honeys (1-3) with two late-inning explosions that sealed a 22-15 win under some of the murkiest lights in night baseball.
The six-team league, which includes Mocha Mott’s Creamers and Long and Meehan’s Snaps, begins its 11th season delivering a signature pastiche of high-quality, competitive play and unrelenting joyfulness from 100 or so players, most of whom are related or are Island-grown BFFs. There are teenagers and 40- and 50 somethings, moms and daughters, two sets of three sisters (the Mama’s Willistons and Rug Sox Clarks) who play the game seriously but accept outcomes with equanimity.
If you were there on Tuesday night, you would have observed the following:
- Two players, Sam Cleland (Rug Sox) and Katie Davey (Shady Ladies) hopping down the third-base line on one leg to score on injured ankles before being helped off the field.
- Mama’s catcher Hayley Panek taking a relay throw smack in the middle of her forehead while dealing with a sliding runner at home plate. After receiving medical attention from her sister Jaci (“I kissed her boo-boo. She’s good”), Hayley popped up, but later in the game delivered two RBIs.
- Honey’s shortstop Sarah Wennes employing a defensive shift against Mama’s slugger Danielle Pappas to rob her of extra bases in a bases-loaded situation. (“She’s a left-handed hitter, so I played behind second base,” Ms. Wennes explained.) Ms. Pappas would later deliver a grand-slam homer that no one could catch, which sealed the deal for the Mama’s.
- Honey’s third-sacker Martha Scheffer picking hot shots all night, two on successive plays, to keep her team in the game.
- A group hug between baserunners and defenders following a major collision at second base.
- brilliant nicknames, like “JameDog,” “Zip-Zip,” and my personal favorite, “Pigpen.”
They come to play, not to make fashion statements, although funky, knee-high baseball socks seem to be favored. Shady’s outfielder Maggie Sarmiento won the coveted MVTimes “Best Baseball Socks” award for her blue and white tie-dye ensemble on Tuesday night.
MVWSSL has speed rules in play. Hitters begin with a one ball/one strike count, there’s an enlarged strike zone, and two foul balls with two strikes become a strikeout. There are surprisingly few strikeouts or bases on balls, although a patient Sam Smith managed to work a pair for the Mama’s.
Veteran umpires Don Herman and Rich “Ripper” Roy displayed two distinct styles: Mr. Herman uses a conventional stance behind the catcher at home plate; Mr. Roy stands several feet to the left side of the plate for lefties and off the right side of the plate for right-handed hitters. “I get a better sight line for the foul lines, and I can hear strikes, which have to hit the plate, so no problem there,” he explained.
The Rug Sox–Shady Ladies tilt was dominated early by good infield defense, with the Shadys leading 2-1 after two innings. Softball is a game of outs, they say, and the Shadys got two quick outs in the third, but couldn’t get the third, as the Rugs erupted for eight runs to take a 9-2 lead, featuring a three-run bomb from Jenny Ingraham and RBIs from Liz Clark, Julie Pringle, Mariah Duarte, Carol Bayley, Miranda Tokarz, and Sam Cron.
The Shadys roared back to tighten the contest at 9-6 on RBI hits from Heather Gibson, Meg Lizotte, and Sue Sanford, but the Rug Sox pulled away 12-5 in the fifth inning on Miranda Tokarz’s third hit of the evening. Mariah Duarte added a three-run homer later in the contest.
In the nightcap, Mama’s Girls and the Honey’s traded one-run leads several times until the Mama’s exploded for five runs in the sixth and four in the seventh inning to extend their lead to 22-12, before Megan Buchanan’s three-run bomb in the Honey bottom of the inning cut the final margin to 22-15.