Team White edges Team Blue 7-4 in Ed Rife Memorial game

TOTS Senior Baseball Network

60-and-over baseball

Team White held on to beat Team Blue 7-4 today at Udall Park in the Ed Rife Memorial game.

Lloyd "Baby Bull" Barzell, 65, went the distance for Team White and out dueled Team Blue right -hander 69-year-old Danny "Pigpen" Price, thanks mainly to a three-run first inning and a three-run sixth. Five of the six runs were unearned and key hits included RBI singles from Dave "Money Rhoades, Pistol Pete Peters and Barzell. Lead-off batter Dennis Crowley added a couple opposite field hits to aid the Team White cause.

Barzell, who struck out one and walked three, kept Team Blue's power hitters -- Tim Tolson and George Staas -- off the bases. Barzell walked Tolson intentionally in the top of the sixth inning and then got out of a bases loaded jam on a ground out to end the inning and in the top of the seventh, with the tying run at the plate, he  coaxed the final Team Blue hitter into grounding out to third for the last out of the game.

Price walked three and and struck out the hard-hitting Peters  twice -- once on a called third strike in the second inning and on a swinging third strike in the sixth. Peters is in striking distance to become the second player this year to break the single-season hit record, set in 2005 by Chico Bigham (228 hits). Barzell broke the record last week when he hit safely twice for his 229th and 230th hit of the  year.

The game was played in honor of TOTS' teammate Ed Rife, who passed away last fall. Rife, who played 14 years with the organization, was a talented shortstop, known for a smooth release and his  accurate throws to first base. The first inning of today's game was played without a shortstop. Cones were set up between second and third base and any ball hit through the cones was an automatic out, honoring the TOTS' hall of fame shortstop.

A crowd of seventy -- including members of the Rife Family, were on hand during and following the game for a cookout as Ed's wife, Nancy, and members of Ed's family also took a moment before the start of the sixth inning to spread Ed's ashes along the third base line. Nancy summed up the ceremony by saying, "Ed is heading home."

Photo: Ed Rife

Play of the Day: Team White catcher Pete Peters picked the runner, Brian Reilly, off first base in the sixth inning to snuff out a Team Blue rally.

Photo: Pistol Pete Peters