The Montana Kid and the lefty from Boston

TOTS Senior Baseball Network

60-and-over baseball

It was a pitching duel of sorts at Udall Park on Wednesday morning.

Arnie White, the 72-year-old rancher from Red Lodge, Montana and the 64-year-old lefty from Boston, Dennis Crowley, locked horns for seven innings. Crowley, pitching for Team Blue, held a 1-0 lead through four innings.

The next three innings were a different story.

Crowley kept his shutout intact until the bottom of the seventh. Then a double by Thunder Tim Tolson and an opposite field single by Ron Carlson supplied the only run for Team White as Crowley and Team Blue won the game, 9-1.

The game was much closer than the final score indicates. The two teams collected seven hits apiece and surprisingly it was White who served up the blazing fastballs, while Crowley moved the ball around with his pitches, catching the corners of the plate while keeping the Team White batters from getting "extra wood" on the ball.

Crowley rarely misses a game with the TOTS, while White spends half of the year on his ranch in Montana. Crowley plays between 100 and 120 games a year with the TOTS, while White, a retired professor from the University of Arizona, plays 40 to 50 games -- mostly during the fall and winter months.

Crowley has the benefit year round of throwing to the catchers on the TOTS, while White keeps his right arm in shape by tossing the baseball to a target on the side of the barn, or (I'm joking with this next thought) keeps his cattle in line with a "plunk" now and then.

As for the game, it turned into one of the more competitive 60-and-over games for the month of April. Team Blue catcher Brian Reilly, 62, went 4 for 4 from the leadoff position and scored three runs, while power-hitter Tolson supplied the only extra-base blow for Team White. Tolson, arguably the toughest out on the TOTS, grounded out and struck out in his first two at bats off Crowley.

Said Tolson, "The strike out pitch was a bit high."

Crowley, of course, disagreed. "The pitch was right in there."

The TOTS will be at it again on Friday morning.

Photos: (top) The Montana Kid, Arnie White, (bottom) The "Lefty" from Boston, Dennis Crowley.