Denise Rockenstein
Staff reporter
CLEARLAKE — Lake County Fire Protection District finally enjoyed the sweet taste of victory Saturday burning the Clearlake Police Department in the annual “Guns and Hoses” softball game. The win was far overdue for the firefighters, whose record against the Clearlake cops is now 1-9.
The Hoses worked for its win in a bout well-played by both teams but a 9-run bottom of the sixth proved to be the explosion that put the game out of reach for the cops.
The Guns led the game for the first 2 1/2 innings, scoring four runs on eight hits including a triple by Travis Lenz.
But the Hoses kept in range and going into the bottom of the third, they had one on the board by Billy Inman Jr., whose triple put him in position to score on a single by David Estep.
The Hoses took nine batters to the plate; the bottom of the third saw three score on Tommy Heywood”s first home run of the day and William Swan score on a double by Jesse Jaehn.
After turning a double play on the Guns” third batter in the fourth, the Hoses were back to bat to see Heywood”s second 3-run homer.
The Guns started to close the gap in the fifth scoring two on hits by Brad Middleton, Lenz and Dave Meadows. However, the Hoses answered back with three runs, including two batted in on a double by Benjamin Sheridan.
The top of the sixth saw only Mike Ray score for the Guns and nine batters score for the Hoses.
Estep led the inning hitting for a double and scored on a double by Heywood. Marc Hill locked into a triple and then scored on Swan”s double. Shelby Harris came up to hit one to Guns pitcher Lee Lambert and was thrown out a first.
This brought up Jaehn, who singled and later scored on a triple by Tony Velasquez. Bruce Procits brought around Velasquez with a double and Procits scored on an Inman double.
Zach Pindell got a base hit and Estep followed with another double. Heywood then hit a fly ball that was caught deep in the outfield for the second.
Pindell scored with Estep rounding the bases close behind. The Guns made the throw to catcher Kristen Celli and while Estep beat the throw to the plate, he was called out for not sliding in a close play and the inning ended.
The Hoses kept the Guns to four more and ended the game after the top of the seventh, winning 20-11.
The Hoses included David Estep, Jesse Jaehn, Marc Hill, William Swan, Bruce Procits, Benjamin Sheridan, Zach Pindell, Tony Velasquez, Shelby Harris, Tommy Heywood, Bill Inman Jr., Arsen Barbeau and base coaches Brice Trask and Bob Minenna.
Playing for the Guns were Brad Middletown, Travis Lenz, Dave Meadows, Tim Celli, Andrew Jones, Lee Lambert, Mike Ray, Martin Snyder, Samantha Lambert, Kayla Meadows, Kristen Celli and Nicole Newton.
