Toomey Beats Casey in Senate Softball League

Late-inning heroics lifted Hit It Toomey (Senator Pat Toomey’s softball team) over Scrantonicity (Senator Bob Casey’s team) in Senate Softball League play on Tuesday night.

The middle of Hit It Toomey’s lineup proved to be the deciding factor in Tuesday’s ballgame. Senator Toomey’s 3-4-5 hitters combined to go 9-12 with six home runs and 14 of the team’s 15 RBIs. U.S. Representative Pat Meehan supposedly made an appearance and took in a few frames while Hit It Toomey eked out a win and continued a trend by handing Pennsylvania’s senior senator a loss for at least the fifth consecutive year. Senator Casey’s team reportedly bested former Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter’s team each of the three times they met, but has yet to beat the team assembled by Senator Toomey.

An email from Senator Toomey’s deputy press secretary indicates that the Republican senator went 1-2 in yesterday’s game. A staffer from Senator Casey’s office said that the Democratic senator didn’t reach base safely.

According to Scrantonicity’s team scorecard, the Democrats fell behind early—surrendering four runs in the first inning and then a five-spot in the second. Six of Hit It Toomey’s 10 hits in those frames were for extra bases, including three home runs.

Scrantonicity kept it close, though, thanks to a four-hit, two-homer effort from the team’s three-hole hitter, who was a triple shy of the cycle.

Senator Toomey’s team put up its second goose egg of the game in the top of the fifth frame, but held a 12-8 lead. Scrantonicity managed to chip away at the lead with two runs in the last of the fifth and then hold the Republicans scoreless again in the top of the sixth. In the bottom of the inning, Scrantonicity’s eighth and ninth hitters got the inning started with back-to-back doubles. After the 10-hole hitter lined out, the 11th batter turned the lineup over with an RBI single that tied the game at 12. The lead-off hitter doubled in the go-ahead run and later scored on a sacrifice. Scrantonicity had clawed its way to a 14-12 lead.

Toomey’s three-hole hitter started the seventh off with a single. A Toomey legislative assistant, Mitch Vidovich, made it a game again by launching his second home run, knotting everything up at 14. A new inning—nobody on and nobody out—couldn’t calm the storm for Scrantonicity, though, as the team’s fifth hitter clocked another home run to get Hit It Toomey a slim lead. Scrantonicity surrendered another single before getting three consecutive batters out to keep the deficit at one heading to the last of the seventh.

Scrantonicity’s 6-7-8 hitters were due up. Pop-ups to left field and first base respectively, had Scrantonicity down to its last out, down a run, with no one on base. A two-out double gave them some life, but another fly out to left field wouldn’t get the job done.