After nine weeks of play (6/11), the lead story for the OTH League continues to be the play of Singleton's, as no team has been able to step up to defeat "Big Red." The latest Singleton victim being Bar Boy, in a match-up of division leaders, fell victim in an exciting game but with the same results of the previous eight challenges. This definitely wasn't a low-scoring pitcher's duel as were Singleton's last two wins, as they broke out with an early 6-4 lead before both teams started pouring it on. Singletons put up 7 more in the 5th only to have Bar Boy answer with 4 of their own. Again in the 7th, Red scored 5 with BB putting up the same in their half, ending the inning with Singletons up by 5. Singleton's bats roared again in the 9th for another 5 only this time Bar Boy was unable to respond resulting in a 23-13 win for Red, dropping Bar Boy to 3rd with a 5-3-1 record (.610 percent). For Singletons, defensive stars were OF Tom "Tino" Sorrentino and IF Dennis Passaretti. Leading the offense were Dennis Passaretti with 7 RBIs, Bob Davis with 5 RBIs, and Tom Sorrentino & Paul Canalattos with 4 RBIs each. Contributing with 3 clutch hits apiece were Al Veneziano & Tom "Satch" Camarda. Moving into 2nd place in the National Division with a 6-3 record (.670 percent) was O'Sheas with a 29-10 win over M&T. O'Sheas bats again pounded out a slew of runs as they were led by Rob Kirk, 4-5 2 HRs 7 RBIs, Jay Donovan, HR 4 RBIs, and Carl Willemin, triple 3 RBIs. Pitcher Bob Meyers returned from an injury to pitch 4 innings, only giving up 4 before turning the ball over to Bob Thompson. O'Sheas defense sparkled as both the infield & outfield continued to make terrific plays in keeping their opponents off the board. Now leading the National Division with their 3rd win in a row is Mers, now 5-2-1 (.690 percent). Mers defeated Barco in a seesaw battle by the score of 17-13. Barco opened the game with 3 in the 1st but Mers responded with 4, and then opened up an 11-5 lead before Barco tied it up in the 7th. From that point on it was all Mers as they outscored Barco 6-2 over the last 2 1/2 innings. Leading the way for Barco was the hot Kevin Moloney, 3-4 3 RBIs, Dennis Ryan, 4-4 double & triple, Dave Ringer, triple 2 RBIs, and Bob "Woody" Diamond, 2-2 double (before going out injured). The loss dropped Barco to 6-3 and into 3rd in the American Division. In an attempt to keep pace with Singletons, 2nd place (American) Synergy improved their record to 6-1-2 with a 16-15 nail-bitter win over Changing Times. CT lead off with 8 in the 1st, then added another 6 in the 4th to take a commanding lead before the semi-green (Bob's description) team bounced back for the win. Bob Joyce came in to relieve starter Denny Oehl and all but shut down CT enabling Synergy bats to catch up. John Penza was on fire at the plate with four hits at crucial moments. Larry Lembo was a perfect 5-5, while Bob Joyce, Big Mike Mormino, Bob Cruickshank, Denny Oehl and Joe Lutz banged out 3 hits apiece. Tom Vanasco, nursing a bum knee, and Bob Cruickshank both hit HRs. Incidentally, Synergy now has Al Devine (fractured ankle), Bill Fitzpatrick (bad back), and Rich Dargie (knee injury) on the DL. Heal fast guys. Steve Johnsen, Tom Bagnasco, and Ed Cullen led Changing Times, all with good games. All was missing for CT was that last key hit as the game ended with the tying and winning runs in scoring portion as the game ended after 8 due to time restraints. Results from other games had Moby edging Bethpage PT 10-8 and Hampton Air beating B&M 18-6.

Can any team stop manager Rich Brancaccio's Big Red Machine? It didn't happen on 6/18 as Singleton's dismantled M&T 17-2 to continue their perfect season (10-0). Singleton's jumped out to an early 5 run lead which ballooned to 14 runs after 5 as M&T was never able to get on track. Hitting stars on the evening were Rich Smindak, Dennis Passeretti, Tom Sorrentino and Bob Davis, all banging out 4 RBIs each. John Gannon also contributed to the win with 3 key hits. In the other early game, Mers won their 4th in a row with an exciting 21-18 win over Bethpage PT. PT jumped out to a 12-2 in their half of the 2nd but Mers responded with 9 in their half to bring the score to 12-11. Entering the 9th and trailing by 1, Mers tied the score on Ed Healy's 3rd hit of the game. Two batters later, Tom Vella (3-4) hit a 3 run "walk-off" HR to give Mers a 6-2-1 record. Also for Mers, George Cohen was 4-4 with 6 RBIs, 3 on his 5th inning HR while Joe Girmonte was perfect at the leadoff spot, going 4-4 with 2 RBIs. Joe Fanning, Tom Fitzpatrick, Barry Booth and Bob Rozakis all contributed to the win by going 2-3 with an RBI each. B & M Electric broke out of its season-long slump Friday night to post a much-needed 14-6 win over Synergy. "Rookie pitcher" Brian Tinney was a big contributor in this game. Besides pitching well, Brian was also the defensive player of the game, stopping numerous grounders that looked like certain hits. "Rookie catcher" Kris Solberg settled very nicely into his new position in the field and in the batting order, pounding out 4 hits in a perfect night at the plate. Other hitting stars: Rich D'Amico (3-5), Jerry Mazza (3-5, HR), Joe Cipolla (2-3, Sac), Tom "T" Ball (2-4), Beno Reverberi (2-4), Tom Bailey (2-4) and Brian Tinney (2-4). Defensively, Joe "Lt. Dan" Algerio filled in at shortstop and played brilliantly in his new softball shorts. Changing Times got back into the win column with an 18-14 victory over O'Sheas. O'Sheas led most of the game but fell to late game miscues. Early in the game, the O'Shea gang must have thought they were in the year-end HR Derby contest as Bob Thompson, Bruce Kubert, Andy Cohen, Robbie Kirk and Al Celeste (with two) hit four baggers, but in the end CT prevailed. Not to be out done, going deep for CT were Bill Wahl and John Ochwat. Also having big games were winning pitcher Danny Haus, 3-3, and Ron Fox, who went 4-4. Barco regained their winning form as they defeated Moby 28-3. Moby jumped out to a 2 run lead in the top of the 1st but it was all Barco after that. The Barco Boys were smoking, especially Kevin Moloney (4-4), Dave Ringer (5-5 7 RBIs), Dennis Ryan (4-5 2RBIs), Phil Tripoli and Gentleman Tony Falcone (both 3-4 2 RBIs). Just a special note to rookie Dave Sauer, even though you had 6 RBIs including a triple, it still doesn't prevent getting your "Swinging K" mentioned in the article. Also Kevin, you can't ask for a pinch runner when you stop at 1st, Dave promised he would try not to hit you. The final game of Bar Boy vs. Hampton Air had no reported results/highlights.