A crazy 6th inning at Udall

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

A little over 500 miles away the temperature in Death Valley is expected to reach 130 degrees, a 100 miles north in Phoenix the temperature is expected to reach 115 and at Udall Park in Tucson, sometime this afternoon, the temperature will reach 110.

So, the 60-and over Tucson Old Timers decided to play a six- inning baseball game instead of seven.

Makes sense. A first pitch at 8:30 this morning, get the game in and then the TOTS will head home, lower the dial on the air conditioner and watch an afternoon MLB game on television (without fans in the stands, of course).

The TOTS will be hard pressed to find a game on the tube that'll muster up to what happened at Udall this morning.

The game started as a pitching duel for five innings. The two Doc's locked horns -- Team Blue's Ernesto "Doc" Escala and Team White's DeLon "Doc" Thompson. Escala gave up two runs in the first inning and a lone run in the third, while Thompson carried a shutout into the fifth. Pigpen Price, who had struck out on a Thompson curve ball in the third, singled over the head of third baseman John Mathews in the top of the fifth for Team Blue's first run to cut Team White's lead from 3-0 to 3-1.

And then along came the sixth!

Thompson needed just three outs to put Team Blue away, but Mike Steele led off with his fifth hit of the game, Bill Mishler singled and Reed Palmer followed with a two-run, ground-rule double, the ball bouncing on one hop over the right field fence. Escala followed with an RBI-single and his third run-batted-in of the game, while Mike Dawson followed with an RBI-single and his third hit of the game. Before the top of the sixth was in the books, Team Blue had batted around and plated eight runs for a 9-3 lead.

Team White came to bat in the bottom of the sixth and Escala needed just three outs for the come-from-behind win. Suddenly, Team Blue couldn't get an out. What followed were three infield errors, a single by Ken Nebesny, a walk to Dennis Crowley, a double by Tim Tolson, a single from John Mathews, a single from Pete Peters and the clincher: a double from Ron Ryan -- allowing the tying run to score followed by the game-winner as Peters, on his way to third, collided with Team Blue's shortstop, Dawson, and was awarded third and home, allowing Team White to escape with a wild 10-9 walk-off win.

The TOTS will have a hard time topping today's game. But, they will certainly try with two more  scheduled games this week on Wednesday and Friday at Udall. The fun begins with a first pitch for both games slated for 8:30 a.m.

Way to go, TOTS!

Today's boxscore:

Photo: Team Blue's Mike Steele went 5 for 5 for Team Blue today at Udall Park and Team White's Tim Tolson went 4 for 4 as 15 runs were scored in the sixth, and final inning, with Team White escaping with a 10-9 win.