Grand slam sparks Snowhawks’ comeback win

Rain washed away last week’s snowshoe baseball game. This week, fans were treated to a close contest with no precipitation.

“What a gorgeous night. I just knew it was going to be a really nice night for softball,” player/coach Jeff Smith said. “If you don’t have a rain forecast, it brings everybody out. The excitement was there. It was nice to see that. Just a great night for a ball game.”

The Snowhawks came from behind to beat Black Bear Bar 15-11 on Monday.

Black Bear Bar came out with aggression. They have a Thursday Night League team it showed as they were particularly effective at hitting.

Three straight singles loaded the bases. Brady Bruhl hit a two-run double down the right field line that got the scoring party started. Ryan McEnroe backed him up with a single to left that plated two runs.

A quick four runs gave Black Bear Bar a 4-0 lead.

“That’s a good team. They’re missing a few guys last night from their normal Thursday night team. As a whole, they came ready to play,” Smith said. “They hit the ball very well. We’ll probably have them on the schedule again next year. A lot of nice guys to play against, too.”

Tod Niemuth managed to get one of the runs back for the Snowhawks in the bottom of the first. He hit an RBI single to right that scored Smith. 

The Snowhawks left a couple of runners on base with two straight fly outs.

In the bottom of the second, Matt Weaver, making his Snowhawk debut, hit a two-run single to close the gap on Black Bear Bar’s lead. 

“Matt’s practiced with us, and he’s part time. (Nick Pitterle) — he’s pretty familiar with shoes and then he said yes and Matt — this is one of his days he could make it,” Smith said. “We ended up with 12 on our team, a couple extra guys just in case.”

McEnroe had another successful at-bat in the third inning. He got a run home with a sacrifice fly.

“We played from behind most of that game. We could not get guys on base, couldn’t get them in,” Smith said. “Quite a few more fly balls than when guys played Fourth of July.”

Back came the Snowhawks. Jesse Robinson started a small two-out rally with a single. Cole Punches delivered with an RBI single to shallow center. 

The Snowhawks were getting closer, but still trailed 5-4 after three innings.

Both teams went scoreless in the fourth and fifth innings. The Snowhawks were having trouble making solid contact against Black Bear Bar’s Dom Caroselli.

“(Dom) pitched … a soft ball and when they come in real slow, a different way or style he pitches,” Smith said. “When it comes in like that, all of our swings were out in front. We started saying in (those) middle innings ‘hey, move up in the box a little bit or drive the ball.’”

A drop in the field came back to haunt the Snowhawks in the sixth inning. Gunner Dunbar, who usually suits up for the Snowhawks, reached first base on a drop for Black Bear Bar. With two outs, Jerome BigJohn drove Dunbar in with an RBI single down the left field line.

Finally, the Snowhawks put together a big inning with a big hit in the bottom half of the sixth. Four straight singles to left scored a run. The final of the four singles came courtesy of Dustin Schowalter. 

Next, Paul Miller had a flair for the dramatic. He hit a ball to deep right field that landed in play. Using smart base running, Miller ran all the way around the bases. He sprinted home. On what looked to be a close play at the plate, Miller slid in safely on a ball that got away from Black Bear Bar.

Miller ended up with an inside-the-park grand slam. It gave the Snowhawks a 9-6 lead, their first of the game.

“That was something else. We had bases loaded — one guy here, one guy there. He comes up with that hit. That was our fifth run. That put us ahead and put us ahead for the rest of the game,” Smith said. “That was a great moment. I was happy for Paul on that.”

Black Bear Bar had an answer. They scored three runs to tie the game at nine apiece. Brett Slavinski hit an RBI single to center with the bases loaded. Dunbar and Bruhl also had RBI hits. Unfortunately, Black Bear Bar left runs on the board as they stranded the bases loaded.

Up 11-9, the Snowhawks put together a strong eighth inning to give themselves some insurance runs. 

Robinson reached on a shortstop error that scored one run. An infield single by Dustin Schowalter scored another for the Snowhawks. With two outs, Ryan Schowalter had an infield RBI single. Dave Nance kept the inning alive with an RBI down the left field line.

“That was big. The momentum (was) kind of swinging between each team, and it could’ve went their way. Those were huge, kind of gave us a confidence booster,” Smith said. “If they hit the ball, they hit the ball. If we can make plays, that really put us in a good spot going into the top of the ninth.”

The Snowhawks held a 15-9 lead going to the ninth inning.

Able to score as many runs as possible, Black Bear Bar needed at least six to tie in the ninth inning. Slavinski had a double down the left field line to put runners on second and third with two outs. They weren’t done yet.

Next, Dunbar reached on an error when Niemuth was unable to make a catch on a potential groundout. Black Bear Bar took advantage when Bruhl doubled to right-center field. Another run came home to score. The game ended on a McEnroe flyout.

Up next, the Snowhawks (4-0) go up against an old rival in Zimmy’s All-Stars. The game takes place Monday, July 24 at Snowshoe Park in Lake Tomahawk. First pitch is set for 7:30 p.m.

“They’re just as good as the last team, if not better. We’re going to have to be on our toes. We’ve been playing Zimmy’s 10-12 years. It’s been a long time,” Smith said. “Good players at every position, we’ll have our hands full next week. They’ve beaten us before, we beat them. We trade off, it goes back and forth.”

Brett LaBore may be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].