Rattlers edge Aces

TOTS Senior Baseball Network

60-and-over baseball


The 60-and-over Tucson Aces let one slip away at Udall Park this morning.

The Aces led 6-0 after two innings of play, but tacked on just one run the rest of the way, falling to the visiting Arizona Rattlers, 9-7.

Chuy Rodriquez and Jerry Wessels singled in runs in the top of the seventh inning to break a 7-7 tie to give the Rattlers the two-run lead and then reliever George Gafner, who came on in the fifth inning in place of Wessels survived the bottom of the seventh inning after giving up a one-out double to deep center field to the Aces Jim Sears.

Unfortunately for the Aces, Sears ended up stranded at second as Dennis Crowley grounded out to third for the second out and Dick Ducklow flied to left field to end the game.

"We let another one get get away from us," said the Aces manager Jerry Hamelin. "That's two games in a row we've held big leads but couldn't finish it off."

Arnie White went the distance for the Aces and was saddled with the loss, while Gafner, a hard throwing right-hander, picked up the win for the Rattlers.

It looked early on like the Aces (1-2) would pick up their second win of the young season as they loaded the bases in the first two innings thanks to timely hitting from Tim Tolson, Pigpen Price, Lloyd Barzell, Bob Daliege, Dohrman Sinclair, Pete Peters, Sears, Crowley and Ducklow.

The Aces tangle with two south-side 60-and-over teams during the year. The Aces won the season opener with a convincing 11-3 win over the Rattlers back in January and dropped an encounter in February to the Old Pueblo Club, 15-14.

The Aces will be out to right the ship when they take on the Old Pueblo Club on Tuesday, March 25.