THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, October 12, 1994 TAG: 9410110105
SECTION: VIRGINIA BEACH BEACON PAGE: 14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Sports
SOURCE: BY GARY EDWARDS, CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Medium: 100 lines
IT WAS BASEBALL A bit out of the ordinary Sunday morning at the Fairlawn Elementary School diamond in Norfolk.
Play It Again Sports defeated the Mustangs, 7-6, to win the inaugural championship of the Tidewater Women's Adult Baseball Association. Play It Again Sports rallied from a 6-2 deficit to score five runs in the sixth inning and take the lead and the trophy.
It was quite a comeback for PIAS. They finished with a 5-5 regular-season record, good for third place in the four-team league.
What was so unusual about the game?
Well. . . .plenty.
The women pitch from 55 feet, instead of the men's distance of 60, and the bases are 80 feet apart, not 90. But those aren't the things that made this particular game so different.
What did? Consider the following:
The third-base coach and the catcher from the winning team are getting married on October 28.
Long-stemmed roses in the dugout of the home team.
A catcher telling her pitcher, ``That was a lovely pitch, Margaret.''
A game-ending triple play.
The Mustangs right fielder wore fingernail polish under her huge outfielder's glove.
Who needs major-league baseball? Was it ever this interesting?
The Mustangs won the regular-season title with a 7-3 record and looked strong in the early going. Pitcher Kathleen Hotte, a hard-throwing righthander, struck out the side in the second inning.
Hotte surrendered a run when PIAS shortstop June Sonosky singled to right in the third and scored second-baseman Charlene Gollihur.
The Mustangs took a 3-1 lead in the bottom half of the inning on a RBI-single by Melinda Carr and a throwing error by PIAS catcher Renee Westbrook.
Ken Devins, coach of the championship team, said of the throwing error: ``I've told them about throwing the ball around. They've got to run toward the base with the ball.''
Devins said this firmly but quietly. After all, the coach didn't want to be to hard on the catcher/bride-to-be, who will wed coach John Stronach.
The Mustangs added a run in the fourth to go up, 4-1.
Their coach, Jeff Horn, had presented each of them with a long-stemmed rose before the game.
Horn also articulated considerable mock-anger toward his team.
When one of his hitters laid down a beautiful bunt, Horn pulled his cap off and rolled his eyes. He said, ``I never know what they're going to pull out of their hats. I didn't give the bunt sign.''
His wife Eileen smiled and told the truth on her husband: ``He loves coaching them. He made up awards for every one of them.''
Rhonda Koenigsberg, the right fielder who plays with nail polish if not defensive polish, is the ``spiritual glue'' of the team, said Eileen Horn.
Said Koenigsberg: ``I'm not a good outfielder, but I love playing.''
Meanwhile, out on the field, Gollihur scored again after singling to make the score, 4-2, in the fifth inning.
The Mustangs pushed two more runs across to take an apparently safe four-run lead into the sixth.
Hotte was still throwing hard, but the PIAS hitters started getting around on her heat. They batted around, scoring five runs to take a 7-6 lead. Third baseman Bridgett Seute and Gullihur both knocked in two runs.
The Mustangs looked like they were ready to mount a rally of their own in the seventh and final inning. The Mustangs put runners on second and third with no outs.
That's when the rarest play in baseball saved the game for the Play It Again Sports ladies.
Shortstop Sonosky gloved a line drive that had centerfield written all over it. She raced over and tagged second base, then whirled and threw to third for a triple play. The game-ending grab snared the title for her team.
Sonosky had played ``softball forever. This is the first time I've played baseball.
``I had just asked blue (the umpire) how many were out. So that's how I knew to make the play. I stuck my glove out and there it was.''
One more item from the department of the unlikely: Sonosky is the mother of the bride-to-be, Renee Westbrook and third-base coach, John Stronach's, future mother-in-law.
Sonosky hugged her championship trophy. Stronach hugged her and his fiance.
Many of the women will head west for the Women's World Series in Phoenix, Ariz., starting Oct. 21, according to adult baseball league president Richard Spano. ILLUSTRATION: Photos by GARY EDWARDS
Play It Again Sports shortstop June Sonosky, above, lifts the
championship trophy for the Tidewater Women's Adult Baseball
Association. Play It Again Sports rallied from a 6-2 deficit to
score five runs in the sixth inning and take the lead and the
trophy. At left, second-baseman Charlene Gollihur, left, and third
baseman Bridgett Seute both knocked in two runs. Many of the women
will head to the Women's World Series in Phoenix, Ariz., starting
Oct. 21.
by CNB