Enrique Soto crushed a 1-0 pitch off of Cobras reliever Angel Rosa for a walk-off two-run homerun in the bottom of the eight to propel nine-time defending champions, Just For Fun, to a 7-5 victory in an extra-inning thriller at the Renholdt Jackson Sport Complex.
The champs started the season with three losses in a row, but then won the next two, so that going into the contest with the Cobras, just for fun was within a game of climbing back to .500.
In Wednesday’s contest both starting pitchers, Jun Belardo and Manuel Jose, were tough on opposing hitters, but in the end Belardo’s offense was able to pull him through.
After the Cobras failed to score in the top of the first, JFF opened with two runs in the bottom of the inning on a sacrifice fly by Raymond Cintron and an RBI ground out by Rael Sackey to take an early 2-0 lead.
The Cobras got on the board in the top of the second, picking up a run on an RBI single off the bat of Edwin Rivera to cut the lead to 2-1. JFF picked up an unearned in their half of the inning to push the lead back to two at 3-1.
Three runs in the top of the third gave the Cobras their first lead of the game at 4-3. They scored on RBI singles by Rosa and Armondo Benitez and an RBI ground out by Carmelo Torres. JFF would have no answer in the bottom of the inning and neither team would not score again until the bottom of the seventh when JFF came up with the game tying run.
A pitching duel would ensue from the fourth inning up to the last half of the seventh as both pitchers had their best stuff working. However still trailing 4-3 in the bottom of the seventh inning, JFF got a game tying, two-out RBI single off the bat of Sackey to send the game into extra innings.
The Cobras retook the lead right away in the top of the eighth on an RBI single off the bat of Rory Schneider to now lead 5-4, setting the stage for JFF’s comeback victory. Sylvester Blake tied the game with a sharp single to left. After pinch hitter Gary Molloy flied out for the first out, Soto stepped to the plate. The hard throwing Rosa was a welcome change from the off speed throwing Jose for the JFF third baseman. Soto exploded on the second pitch he saw from Rosa, ripping it high and far over the left field fence for the walk-off, two-run round tripper.
Belardo got the win on the hill for JFF while Rosa took the loss for the Cobras. Top batters for the JFF were Blake, 3 for 4 with one RBI; Soto, 1 for 4 with a home run and two RBIs; and Sackey, 1 for 4 with two RBIs. For the Cobras Rosa was 2 for 4 with two RBIs, Rivera 1 for 3 with an RBI and Jose was 3 for 3.
