Center Mass hits target, topples Swingers

Center Mass beat the nine-time base champion Swingers twice Monday to bag the 2016 Tinker Air Force Base intramural softball championship.

Center Mass coach Joe Sanchez called the Swingers a great team, but one they’ve been gunning for for a while.

“We’ve been at it for the last five plus years or whatever,” Sanchez said. “We tried to build a team to try to compete with them, and we finally did it.”

The regular-season undefeated teams (non-Recreational League) met for the first time this year in the best-of-three-games final at Champ Field.

Both games were hard-fought. Center Mass won both by two runs, 9-7 the first bout and 17-15 to take the crown.

Center Mass broke fast out of the blocks. Chris Baker (MVP at seven for seven) bombed an over-the-fence homer for two RBIs, giving the team a 3-0 lead in the first inning. The Swingers immediately matched those runs to tie.

Scoring picked up again in the bottom of the third. The Swingers strung together a triple, three doubles and a single to pull ahead 7-3.

Center Mass followed up next with an Eric Szymanski homer that banged off a light pole beyond the chain links. Three consecutive singles loaded the bases as Center Mass evened the score 7-7.

The Swingers capitalized on small hits, too, in the bottom of the fourth. They converted six singles into four runs for an 11-7 lead.

Center Mass replied in the fifth with six singles and loading the bases twice. Buddy Walton capped off that inning’s scoring with a triple off of a left field error that brought in three runs for a 13-11 advantage.

Defense on both sides kept scoring low as the teams entered the last inning 15-15. An outfield error turned into an in-the-park homer and RBI for Center Mass’s Ryan Gibbs. The two runs sealed the victory 17-15.

In the second game, Charles Harris got the Swingers swinging with an over-the-fence boomer and RBI in the first at-bat. Harris knocked the ball past the fence again in the third inning for two RBIs and a run.

The Swingers mounted their most significant threat in that inning. Three singles after Harris’s homer loaded the bases, but Center Mass defense sent them all to the bench. The Swingers nonetheless had mounted a 5-0 lead.

Center Mass busted out the bats in the bottom third. Three singles, two doubles and a Jonathan Cody (five for seven) triple with two RBIs launched Center Mass ahead 6-5.

Runs dried up for both teams until the bottom of the sixth when Szymanski cranked his second moon shot past the links for Center Mass. His two RBIs and an earlier run put the team up by four runs.

The Swingers made their last stand at the top of the seventh. A handful of singles brought in two runs, but the team fell short seven runs to nine.

Swingers coach Robert Mahan had predicted before the game that Center Mass would give them a serious challenge. Center Mass has a core of top regular players who have challenged the Swingers for supremacy in recent years, but the team changes its name each season.

“We ran out of bullets,” Mahan said. “Our big hitters just weren’t hitting. They hit and we didn’t. That’s the key to the game.”