The Pub wins first CC Men’s Softball League Tournament title

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — It looked as if it was going to be “Déjà vu all over again”.

Or rather “Déjà tu (2) all over again”.

In the championship round of the Charles City Men’s Softball League postseason tournament, The Pub/Changeups needed to win one game before DeRailed won two.

That was not a good spot to be … for The Pub.

Last season under the same circumstance, DeRailed managed to ‘double-dip” The Pub in the championship round while seizing temporary ownership of the league’s championship cup.

DeRailed won the title on a “walk-off” home run … hit by The Pub as the team had already exceeded the five homer-over-the-fence limit.

This time around, it didn’t look good for The Pub early on as they lost the coin toss preceding the first game of the championship round granting DeRailed the option of being the home team.

(It’s always good to bat last in slow-pitch softball, especially if you have saved up several swing attempts for the fences).

Undaunted, The Pub struck early in the top half of the first scoring 7 runs. But DeRailed managed to rally back to tie the game at 9 going into the fifth inning.

The Pub managed to go up 14-10 through six innings, then added 3 more runs in the seventh.

With three home runs already hit during the game, DeRailed was allowed two more for its final at-bat. But a diving stop by The Pub’s second baseman Zach Mitchell recorded the second out in as many at-bats for DeRailed during the frame.

A 3-run homer managed to make things a little interesting for DeRailed, but that’s as close as the team got as The Pub prevailed, 17-13, to win the tournament title.

“Most of us have been playing in this league for a long time, but this is only the second year playing together on this team,” said Levi Klinkel of The Pub.

“They beat us last year, so this is nice.”

The Pub also won the regular-season title with the league’s best record.

Other team members from The Pub include Mike Brahn, Dan Caffrey, Rob Gillespie, Ben Klapperich, Tyler Mitchell, Dalton Reams, Joe Becker, Matt Lokenvitz, Cory Schmidt and Cris Parker.

The MVP of the tournament — as voted by team captains in the league — was Jason Reiff of DeRailed.

Reiff had a 3-run homer and a bases-loaded clearing double during his team’s loss to The Pub. He also robbed several Pub hitters with diving and shoestring catches while patrolling center field.

While celebrating their championship(s) at — of all places — The Pub, team members took turns taking sips of Fireball Cinnamon Whiskey from the traveling championship cup.

They did take some precautions beforehand.

“Better wash that cup out,” someone suggested, “we don’t know where it has been.”