Kankakee Valley Post, Volume 19, Number 32, DeMotte, Jasper County, 8 July 1949 — FIRE DEPARTMENT SOFTBALLERS GETTING HOTTER [ARTICLE]

FIRE DEPARTMENT SOFTBALLERS GETTING HOTTER

Manager Bob Walstra’s Fire Department softball squad should naturally like things hot so it’s no big surprise when they improve as the weather gets hotter and knock off the luckless Boys Scouts, 7-0. Manager Walstra took over the pitching duties himself and mixed up his tosses well enough to keep the Scouters swinging and popping up much of the time. The game, played last Tuesday night shoved the Fire Department boys into second place next to the still leagueleading Christian Reformed nine, whose game with the American Legion, second on Tuesday night’s schedule was called by the umpire in the first half of the fourth inning because of rain. The score at that time was 3-0, in favor of Christian Reformed. Managers Jabaay and Van Keppel of the two opposing teams have not yet reported their decision on the disposition to be made of the called game. Last Friday’s first game provided the fans with plenty of softball when the Legionnaires tangled with the First Reformed nine and squeaked by to win 5-4. First Reformed scored one run in the first, while the Legion tied the count in the second. After that it was a scoreless battle until the Legion took its last bat and belted in four counters to take the lead, 5-1. But the First Reformers,. in the second half of the inning, the fifth, turned on the pressure and brought in DeVries before the first out, then Sfassie and Schoonveld before the Legionnaires could rack up the last two outs to end the game. The second game on Friday between American Reformed and Methodist was a good one after a heartbreaker first inning at the expense of Manager Kikkert’s American Reformed team. The Methodist outfit ran wild while the American Reformers ran in circles, it seemed, and the score at the end of the inning ducked out from behind the “skeeters” and whimpered, 9-0, favor of the Methodists. It was then that Mgr. Kikkert steadied his boys, who proceeded to outscore Henrich’s Methodists, 8-6, for the rest of the ball game, but that still was short of overcoming the 9 run deficit. Final score: Methodists 15, American Reformed, 8. Starting on a tentative date of Tuesday, July 19, the league will launch its “sudden-death” single elimination tourney, with two games being played each Tuesday and Friday night ■as usual. On the opening night the drawing calls for’ First Reformed vs. American Reformed, and Christian Reformed vs Methodist. On Friday, July 22, the schedule will be the Fire Department vs. American Legion, and the Lions Club vs the Boy Scouts. On Tuesday, July 26, the winners of game one and game two will play each other, and the second game of that evening will bring together the winners of games three and four. The championship game will be played on Friday, July 29, between the two winners still remaining in the tourney after the games on Tuesday, July 26. A preliminary game before the final championship game will be announced later. League Standings: W L Pct. Christian Ref. 4 1 800 Fire Dept. 4 2" 666

Am. Reformed 3 2 600 Lions Club 3 2 600 First Reformed 2 3 400 Am. Legion ,_2 3 400 Methodist 2 3 400 Boy Scouts 1 5 166