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Updated on Aug. 24: at 2 p.m. Because of an unfavorable weather forecast, the championship game has been re-scheduled for Wednesday at 6 p.m.
WESTON, Conn. Down to her last strike and her team trailing by a run, Bev Bonfoey of the Weed Whackers in the Weston Women's Softball League just wanted to make contact. She did, delivering a double down the left field line to drive in two runs and give the Weed Whackers a 6-5 victory over Peter's Spirits.
The victory in the first game of the championship round forced a winner-take-all game Thursday at Hurlbutt Elementary School. Peter's, the defending league champion, won with a similar dramatic rally in the winners' bracket final last week. But Tuesday night, it was the Whackers' turn for late inning heroics.
Bonfoey lined Karen Constant's two-strike pitch down the left field line. Karen Lummis breezed home from second while speedy Maria Monges never stopped running and scored the game-winning run. Bonfoey's hit capped a four-run seventh-inning rally.
"With two strikes, I figured the next pitch was going to be a strike,'' said Bonfoey, who has played for the Weed Whackers for 13 years. "I never had a doubt Maria would score. She's a fast runner."
Peter's scored a run in the first and two in the second. After the Weed Whackers responded with two in the third, Peter's scored one in the sixth and one in the seventh for insurance.
The Weed Whackers climbed back when Meg Brooks, Karen Hagen and Susa Molatella reached safely to open the inning. One run came in on Karen McMahon's fielder's choice. Lummis also reached on a fielder's choice, plating another run. Monges followed with a two-out single to extend the inning and bring up Bonfoey.
Kelly Saltzgaber had three hits for Peter's, and Mary Asphar had two hits and scored two runs. Val Saltzman added two RBIs. Constant scattered eight hits over the first six innings, allowing just one earned run going into the seventh.
McMahon pitched well for the Weed Whackers, retiring 10 straight batters in the middle innings. Tammy Link and Chanell Meijer delivered RBI singles in the second, while Hagen and Monges had two hits apiece.
"Our winning combination is no practices and no coaches,'' Bonfoey said. "Look, you don't see any husbands out here. This has been a fun season." And it's not over yet.
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