CC Men’s Softball League employs home run mathematics

By John Burbridge sports@charlescitypress.com

CHARLES CITY — There are generally two scores kept during games played within the Charles City Men’s Softball League.

One is the score of the game itself; the other is how many home runs each team has hit.

Aside from when the former becomes the final, the latter score is often the most important.

Taking in account of hall-of-fame manager Earl Weaver often claiming that the best play in baseball is the 3-run homer, certainly the worst play in softball under CCMSL rules is the solo shot.

Each team in the league is allowed to hit five out-of-the-park home runs per game. Most teams in the league are well-equipped with enough sluggers in their lineups to reach that limit or get dangerously close to it. Any ball that sails beyond the outfield fence after a team has reached the limit is counted as an out.

And that rule has been a factor in determining league championships.

Last year, The Pub/Changeups defeated DeRailed in the league’s postseason championship, thus earning possession of the league’s traveling championship cup.

The year before that, DeRailed earned temporary ownership of the cup when it defeated The Pub in the championship with a “walk-off” home run — hit by a Pub player after the team had already reached the five-homer limit.

More recently in league regular-season action, DeRailed didn’t benefit from an opponent hitting too many home runs as the Thundercats used their round-trippers wisely as well as taking the ball the other way and finding holes within a four-infielder, four-outfielder defensive alignment on way to winning, 19-13, before real thunder and lightning arrived washing out the rest of the scheduled games that night.

The league plays Wednesdaynights at Westwood Park. Currently, the Bushwackers are in first place.

Double-elimination playoffs are due to start the second week of August.