Labor Day thriller at Udall goes to Team White, 3-1

 

Tucson Old Timers (TOTS)

60-and-over baseball

Labor Day Game

Team White edged Team Blue 3-1 in a Labor Day thriller at Udall Park today.

A couple of bad hop singles in the bottom of the first inning led to three runs for Team White and Doc Thompson pitched four strong innings to earn the win, while Ernesto Escala hurled two shutout innings in relief for the save. Reed Palmer, Brad Vermeer and Thompson knocked in a run apiece to complete the Team White scoring in the first.

As it turned out, it was just enough runs to get the job done.

Team Blue's Joe Opocensky shutdown Team White the rest of the way, but his team could muster just one run in the top of the third on an RBI-single from Mike Dawson.

Team Blue out hit Team White 8 to 7, but failed to score any runs after the third inning.

In the top of the sixth, Team Blue had a chance to tie the game after an infield hit from Tim Boyd and a single to left by John Mathews. With two outs, Escala pitched to Pigpen Price, who worked the count to 3-2. Escala fired a fastball right down the middle and Price grounded out to Palmer at short for the final out of the game.

"I was seeing the ball well, Price said. "But I just couldn't square up the ball."

Instead, it was an easy play for Palmer and Team White escaped with a hard-fought win.

Opocensky, Boyd and Mathews ended up with two hits apiece for Team Blue, while Escala went 2 for 3 for Team White.

The TOTS will finish out the week with games at Udall on Wednesday and Friday. Game time for Wednesday is at 8:45 a.m. and 8:30 a.m. on Friday. The Tucson Aces, the TOTS' farm team, which is comprised mostly of the "young studs" from the organization, will take on the Arizona Rattlers on Tuesday at Udall. Game time: 8:30.

As for the Labor Day game, it was a dandy. The TOTS and the Aces look for cooler weather the rest of the week with temperatures expected below triple digits for a few days. A welcome break from triple digits.

Today's Labor Day lineups: (Team Blue) Mike Steele, Ron Ryan, Joe Opocensky, Tim Boyd, John Mathews, Mike Dawson, Bill Mishler, Danny Price, Brack Whitaker and Joe Aparicio. (Team White)  Ken Nebesny, Ernie Escala, Tim Tolson, Reed Palmer, Doc Thompson, Brad Vermeer, Jesse Ochoa, Rob Morse, Bobby Long and Ron Carlson.