April 3, 2007 — “The Heat was on” Monday night in the Bob Owens Softball League finals as Wyatt Heat burned Speak the Word, 22-21, to claim the 2006-07 championship trophy.
The Heat led, 19-6, after three innings, and it looked liked it was going to be an easy night for them, but beginning in the fourth, Speak the Word came all the way back to take the lead at 21-19. A victory would prove evasive for Speak the Word in the end, however, when the Heat’s Spencer “Mega” Hendrickson ripped the championship-winning RBI single up the middle to score Andre Ponce from second base.
Batting first, Speak the Word came up with three runs in the top of the inning on a two-run home run off the bat of Norbert Pickering and an RBI double by Carlos Morales. The Heat answered mightily, plating 10 runs in the bottom of the inning, and looked on the verge of making a laugher of the championship game. The Heat's first-inning onslaught came on four two-run round-trippers by Steven Rosario, Thomas Corcino, Paul Medlin, and Freddie Carrasquillo, a solo shot by Hendrickson and a Speak the Word error.
Carlos Morales’ sac fly in the top of the second brought Speak the Word one run closer at 10-4, but the Heat responded with an eight-run outburst in the bottom of the inning to extend the lead to what looked liked, at that time, an almost insurmountable 18-4 lead. A three-run bomb by Carasquillo, a two-run double by Dexter Desouza, and three RBI singles accounted for all of the Heat’s runs in the bottom of the inning.
Speak the Word, to the delight of their excitedly loud fans, began to mount their comeback in the top of the third with a two-run blast off the bat of Martin Charles to trail 18-6 at the end of three. The Heat managed a lone run in the bottom of the inning to now lead 19-6.
With the momentum plainly on their side, Speak the Word continued their comeback in the top of the fourth, plating eight runs on three-run blasts by Pickering and Karim Robles, and a two-run single by Jose Robles to now trail by only four at, 18-14. The Heat on the other hand seemed to have run out of gas and were barely hanging on.
A grand-slam home run by Speak the Word’s Pickering, his third round-tripper of the game, in the top of the fifth and the comeback was almost complete, as they now found themselves down by just one at 19-18.
Karim Robles’ second three-run shot of the game in the top of the sixth vaulted Speak the Word to a 21-19 lead in the seventh inning and looked primed to claim the come-from-behind victory. The Heat had other ideas, however, and they plated three runs in the bottom of the inning to win the championship, silencing Speak the Word until next season.
The game-winning tally started with a one-out, two-run single in the bottom of the seventh by Ponce that scored Dwayne Harvey and Dexter DeSouza to knot the game at 21. With Ponce on at second and first base open, Rosario was intentionally walked to invoke a force play at any base with Speak the Word looking for the double play. Moments later, however, Hendrickson foiled the Speak the Word strategy by lining a walk-off game-winning single to center to give his team the Bob Owens softball crown.
“Many of my players were upset with the moves I made during the game, but as the manager, I knew what I was doing. All they had to do was to have faith in me like I have in them,” said winning manager Allison Marsh. He continued, “Even when we got down, I did not feel like we would lose the game, I just tell them to just have faith and continue to play ball.”
David Oetken pitched the win for the Heat, while Ian Lewis got the loss for Speak the Word.
The Heat’s attack at the plate was led by Carasquillo (2-for-2, with two home runs and five RBIs), Rosario (3-for-4, with a home run and three RBIs), and Corcino (2-for-4, with a home run and three RBIs). For Speak the Word, it was Pickering (3-for-3, with three home runs and nine RBIs), Karim Robles (2-for-4, with two home runs and six RBIs), and Charles (2-for-4, with a home run and two RBIs).
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