Friday, April 13th, 2012
OTHG Opening Night
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Play Ball... and our new Player of the Week Feature

Farmingdale's Over the Hill Gang softball league opened its 37th season Friday night at Allen Park. This year the league is showcasing its fantastic talent with a new Player of the Week award.

This week's winner, the first ever OTHG Player of the Week, is Changing Times outfielder Dave Thornburn. Dave led off the game with an opposite field homer and kept on hitting all night long. He went 5-5, hitting for the cycle. In left-center Dave was equally impressive, with several exceptional catches, including a "layout" grab that helped beat down a McCourt & Trudden Funeral Home rally late in the game. Congratulations to Dave and to our Player of the Week runner-up, Lockie and Nowachek's Butch Flecker. Butch went 4-4 which included a monster, fence-clearing homer.

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7:00pm - Singletons versus BK Sweeneys - 60ft field

BK Sweeney's started the 2012 season by pounding out 30 hits and scoring 24 runs, beating Singletons 24-11. Mike Magro, Billy Sutherland and George Moerler all hit homeruns and Byron Bodine and Mark Hemminger contributed with 3 hits each. The first game of the season also marked the return to the field for George Cohan who was severely missed in 2011. It was great to see George back on the field.

8:20pm - Lockie & Nowachek versus Barco Construction - 60ft field

For Lockie and Nowachek Family Chiropractors, Flecker was not the only hot hitter in their 29-19 win over Barco Construction. By the end of the third Barco was up 15 – 9, but in the 4th, L&N scored 8 runs on two grand slam home runs, one by Ron Schwabe and the other by James Doyle. It was a complete team effort, everyone had at least 1 RBI. James Doyle also was 4 for 4. Rookie Rich Apollo was 3 for 3 with 4 RBI. Mike Quigley, Ben Greco, and Pete Cestare each had three hits.

9:40pm - McCourt & Trudden versus Changing Times - 60ft field

Changing Times Pub got off to a good start beating McCourt and Trudden Funeral Home 27-17. The team was sparked by Dave Thornburn, who was the catalyst that the rest of the team fed off of during the game.

9:400pm - LaCorte Family Auto versus Paradox Cafe - 90ft field

In the late game, Paradox Cafe beat LaCorte Family Auto 21-16. The hitting stars for Paradox were: Bill Gonzalez 3/4 with 2 home runs, 3 runs and 5 RBIs, Steve Fanelli 3/4 with 3 runs and 1 RBIs, Lenny Balestrieri 3/4 with 3 runs and 3 RBIs, Mitch Maghakian 2/3 with 1 run and 3 RBIs. James Mignone 1/2 with 3 runs and 2 RBIs and Tony Scime 3/3 with 2 runs and 2 RBIs.

Fielding Stars go to: Mickey Newbeck. who raced deep into RF and over to the line to make a great reaching grab on a long fly ball that was tailing away from him. Gary Innes, playing 2nd base and laying out to his left to field a ground ball to get the out at first. And finally Bill Gonzalez completed his fantastic night in left field with an all out sprint to track down a bomb hit over his head to make a running over the shoulder catch to end the game in left field.