Results from the week of July 22 had Barco continuing to keep pace with Synergy with a tough 15-11 win over a resilient Singleton's team. Barco opened up a 13-zip lead after four before Singletons was able to get untracked, outscoring Barco 11-2 over the last four-and-a-half innings. In the first, Dave Ringer's fence-clearing three- run homerun put Barco on the board that was later duplicated by Kevin Moloney in the fourth. Adding to the clutch hitting was Terry McPartland who had three RBIs of his own, with the final six Barco runs being driven in by a different player. Such a team effort has been the reason for Barco's continued success, along with solid defense as demonstrated by sterling grabs by outfielders Dave Ringer and Dave Saur. Also having good games at the plate were Rick Pedone, Tom Burke, Kevin Moloney (each three for four) along with Gary Jambor (four for five). A tough Granny O'Sheas team took Synergy to the wire before Synergy came from behind to edge them out 18-15. It took a four-run rally in the seventh (the game's final inning) to secure the win for unbeaten Synergy. Leading the way for Synergy was rookie Benny Macchia with three hits including two crushed homers that were crucial to his team. Also with three hits for the night were rookie Aldo Balducci, rookie Bob Huebner, Bob Cruickshank (two triples), Bruce Coonan, Richie Dargie, and Big Mike Mormino. After winning, pitcher Richie Dargie ran from the field to the safety of his chair at Mers. Thanks to the Nardones for keeping plenty of cold ones ready us. For Grannys they finally brought their heavy lumber to the game and started off strong when Bob Thompson ripped a triple to left to open the game up 2-0 which Bill Manny followed with a SAC fly to make it 3-0. Mitch Maghakian opened the second inning with a triple who was driven home by Walter Hasemann with a SAC Fly. Al C. and Robbie K. then paired up with a double and single to drive home two more runs to open the lead to 5-1. From there the game went inning-by-inning with O'Sheas and Synergy trading runs back and forth. In the fourth, Bill Manny singled and Brian Mulcahy tripled with a fading gaper to center for an RBI which Gary Innes and Mitch M. followed with RBIs to tie the game at 8-8. Trailing 14-9 in the sixth Grannys then got some magic rolling from the middle of the lineup. Gary Innes had a two RBI single followed by Mickey Newbeck's RBI FC and Walter M and Al C. RBI singles which closed out a five-run inning tying the game at 14. In the seventh Grannys took a one-run lead on Dave A's clutch RBI single but it wasn't enough as Synergy scored four runs in the bottom as the game was called due to time limit constraints. Hampton Air is back. After a disappointing loss to Barco a week ago Air came back with a big win against BMB 16-5. Led by rookies Joe Auer and Chris Keep who went downtown, ageless veteran Bill Camacho who went 3-4 and newlywed Jerry Sutherland who was 4-4 (must have been some honeymoon), Air improved to 8-3. Also everyone sends their congrats to Lori and Jerry on their July wedding. Finally putting together a good, consistent offensive night, Bethpage PT bested M&T 22-9. Unlike previous weeks where Bethpage scored early only to lose steam, this time PT kept the pressure on. After M&T broke through in the 1st for a quick 2-0 lead, Bethpage responded with a five-run second on Jack Brosnan's triple and RBI hits by Rick Bugeia, "Long John" Leone (2 RBI's) and Bob Concessi. M&T scored two more in the bottom of the second to close to 5-4, but Bethpage was relentless with five more in the third on Mike Anzalone's two-run single, RBI hits by Mike Muscara, Mike Kochen and Frank Horoszewski. Not giving up, M&T came back with two of their own to close it to 10-6, but Bethpage scored two more in the fourth on Concessi and Nolan RBIs to make it 12-6. Once again M&T scored a pair to tighten the game again at 12-8 but Bethpage forged ahead with a big four spot in the fifth. Frank Aimetti singled (one of four hits) along with a hit by Mike Anzalone to open the frame, and then two straight big two-out hits by Horoszweski (one of four for him), and Jack Brosnan gave Bethpage some breathing room at 16-8. Things quieted down at that point, and Bethpage, up 16-9 finally put the game out of reach with six in the seventh. Other results had Mers beating Bar-Boy and Moby over Changing Times.

The July 29 games had Barco (11-1) squeaking out a win over Built-More-Builders (6-6) 15-14. For BMB this could have been a breakthrough game against one of the league's top teams, but it wasn't meant to be. After Barco jumped out to an early 2-0 lead on Kevin Moloney & Bill White's sac flies, BMB answered back with four first inning runs. The game then progressed into a well played, seesaw battle with both teams scoring just about every inning before Barco scored five in the seventh on Dave Saur's two-run double to take the lead for good. For BMB, the offense stars included Tom Dittmeier and John Defalco, who both went four for four. Dittmeier was robbed of a three-run homer by a big tree in the first inning and then he hit one even further in the third for a three-run homer. Bobby Shubert returned from his extended cruise and went three for four. Tom "T" Ball was two for three with a sac fly. Kris Solberg and Brian Tinney went two for three with Tinney contributing a pair of RBI singles. Jerry Mazza, Beno Revberi and Joe Cipolla also added two hits each. For Barco, Kevin Moloney had an RBI each at-bat (3-3 sac), who had help from Bill White (three RBIs, 3-3) and Steve Jacobson and Tom Burke (both 3-4). Division leaders Synergy and Hampton Air played a great game before Air (9-3) handed Synergy (11-1) their first loss. With Hampton Air jumping out to a 6-1 lead Synergy battled back to tie the game 7-7 before Hampton's Jerry Sutherland came up with an RBI single to break the tie who was then followed Big John Healy (Mr. Healy) who drove the ball over the l/f's head for a three run clutch homerun to give Hampton Air a four run lead. But it wasn't over yet, in the bottom of the ninth Synergy scored three runs and had the tying run on second base with one out when the next batter hit a sharp grounder to Ron Schwabe at third which he turned into a double play by stepping on third and throwing to first where Bill Camacho made a great catch to end the game. Also big for Air was Hal Edelman who pounded a three-run homerun in the third.

Mers Ale House had a dominating game in defeating Changing Times 30-4 to push their record to 8-4. A 39 hit night by the entire team was led by perfect nights at the plate by George Cohan, who went 6-6, and Bill Sutherland and Byron Bodine who both went 5-5. Cohan erupted for two monstrous home runs and five RBI's. Kevin Brosnan was 4-5 and five RBI's too. Jim Fileccia had his second big night in a row at the plate with a 5-6 night with a HR. Joe Fanning was 3-5 and pitched a strong game, held CT to 4 scoreless innings in a 7-inning game. The entire team played extremely well in the field with a couple of double plays involving Fanning, Cohan, Girimonte, and Fileccia with Ed Healy, who went 3-6, while playing a very strong third base. Joe Girimonte and Tom Vella were also 3-6 with Healy also going long for a four-bagger. Tom Fitzpatrick had four RBI's with a HR to his credit. Granny O'Sheas kept the bats in gear as they beat M&T 22-14 in the nightcap. Coming off a strong showing the week before, Grannys opened with 5 runs in the first. It was good to have Kevin Donahue back in the lineup to stroke a 2 RBI single and start things up. Both Jay Donovan and Brian Mulcahy followed that with their own RBI singles. It was 5-0 and Grannys didn't look back the rest of the night. The highlight of the evening occurred in the fourth inning when Dave Aitchison, Mitch Maghakian, and Bob Myers all singled to load the bases for Al Celeste. Al then cleared the bases with a stroke of the bat, pumping up Grannys with a grand slam. Bill Manny was up next, and not to be outdone, hit a solo shot of his own. By the end of the fourth inning, Grannys had built a 13-6 lead. Knowing a game is never over, M&T battled back to within 4 runs in the top of the ninth. With the score 17-14, Grannys added some insurance in the ninth inning on 5 RBI singles by Andy Cohen, Jay D, Brian M, Gary Innes and Dave A to helped close out the game. Who knows what will happen this week when Bruce Kubart returns from his brief hiatus, but it looks like Grannys is finally playing up to their potential. No results for Moby/Bar-Boy and Bethpage/Singletons were reported. Just a side note, ask Singleton's John Gannon about his penchant for winning gifts while at his daughter's orientation at Oneonta, especially the one for snoring the loudest during a presentation. It's rumored that his wife heard it, and she was home!