Buccos stumble to 'Killa-bruisers' in senior softball semis

Photo shows left to right: Bottom row Bob Cirillo, Gary Schwartz, Mike Pivarnick, Sy Badener; top row Dave Aguilar, Norm Friedman, Bill Tarrant, Eric Badener, Ernie Schwartz and Raul Aguilar. Photo by Donna Sloan

By Bill Tarrant

I was standing on second, after ripping a double down the left-field line, the Buccos mounting a one-out rally in the fifth. With the lefty Norm Friedman up, I was thinking I’d dash to third if he hit it to the right side. At least draw a throw there, before scrambling back and allowing Norm to get to first.

And so it was. Norm grounded to second. I dashed to third, looked back, saw the Killabrews second-baseman fire a throw to third, and turned back toward second. But why was everybody screaming at me to run to third? My 70-something body responding to the conflicting voices in my head glitched and crumpled to the ground, badly scraping a knee. I struggled to my feet bewildered and ran to third where I was tagged out.

I hadn’t seen the ball being thrown wildly to third. I didn’t know, too, that in my “feint” toward third to draw the throw, I had crossed the “commitment line.” Now, this is not the line when your girlfriend says you are now in a committed relationship. It is a line in the middle of the running lanes between bases, which when crossed is a bit like Caesar AT the Rubicon River– there’s no going back.

The play killed the Bucco rally and whatever momentum the team had in this semifinal game against the superior Killabrews, the number 1 seed in the Los Angeles County Senior Softball League playoffs. The Buccos were trounced, 17-10.

The stumble-bum play also encapsulated a game in which the Buccos relentlessly shot themselves in the foot. The Killabrews did a marvelous job of finding holes in the Bucco defense -including the ones in our gloves.

“We had a lot of two-out rallies, where your errors extended the innings,” said Killabrews third-baseman, Greg Waskul.

A team that acquired the nickname “Killa-bruisers” after leading the league in runs scored by a wide margin, featured good hitting from their entire lineup.

That had been the case for much of the season for the Buccos, and a good part of their secret sauce for success. But like the suddenly porous defense, the bottom half of the order bucked the season trend and did little against the crafty Anita Haisten, one of the best pitchers in the league.

At least part of that was because the Buccos were missing their rightfielder/first-baseman, the reliable Bill Barnard, along with “Big Mark” Weber, one of the best low-rated players in the league. Right field and first base saw more than a half-dozen errors by their substitutes.

“We needed Bill B and Mark as well,” said shortstop Eric Badener, who led the offense on a 4/4 day, including a triple. Mike Pivarnick went 3/4 with two runs scored and Raul Aguilar was 2/4, including a double, with two runs scored.

In the other semifinal, the Softball Junkies cruised to victory over the surprising White Sox, setting up a battle between the top two seeds this week in the LA County seniior softball League

I’m taking a break from managing, so the Buccos will be dormant this summer. This will be the last post of “Pittsburgh Bill and the Buccos” and here’s the musical accompaniment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=McCDWYgVyps

..