Dunkirk Aviation Dodges Bullets

It looked like the Colorado Silver Bullets women’s bsaeball team was going to win its second straight game and up its record to 9-26 Saturday, but the Dunkirk Aviation Yankees of the Men’s Senior Baseball League rallied with two runs in the bottom of the eighth to record a 4-3 victory.

The game at College stadium had to end in the bottom of the eighth because of time resgtraints.

“We’ve won more games in the last inning this year,” saif Yankees manager Charlie LaDuca, who also was his team’s starting pitcher. “I wish it could have gone one more inning to give them a chance.”

The Silver Bullets scored three runs in the second and held the lead until the Yankees rallied in the eighth.

Todd Norton led off the Yankees’ eighth with a double but was then thrown out between third and second on a heads up play by the Bullets on a bouncer to the right side by Bart Carruth. Carruth moved to second on a single by Joe Pucciarelli. Jim Noto followed with an RBI single to tie the game. Then Jack Alonge dropped a double inside the right field line to drive in Pucciarelli with the winning run.

“It seemed like a curve ball,”Alonge said.

That made Carruth the winning pitcher. The loser was Cara Coughenour for Colorado.

The Yankees opened the scoring in the first when John Ferrara singled with two outs and went to second on a throwing error. He scored on a single by Carruth.

The Silver Bullets loaded the bases with two outs in the first but failed to score. In the second they took the lead. Stacy Sunny singled, went to second on a balk and scored on a single by Missy Cress. Cress stole second and scored on a two-out single by Camile Spitaleri. Spitaleri stole second and scored on a single by Kim Braatz to give the Silver Bullets a 3-1 lead.

The Yankees got a run back in the fifth when Bill Shaw led off with a double and took third on an error. He scored on a sacrifice fly by LaDuca.

Jim Noto led the winners with three hits while Chuck Noto and Norton had two each. The top Silver Bullet at the plate was Braatz with three singles.

The women displayed some fine defense with a double play, a picked-off runner at second and a runner thrown out at third when he tried to advance extra bases.