The 19th Annual Rich-Mich Softball Game was held at St. Luke’s School on Sunday, October 2nd. Playing for the Michno Maurauders, George Bennington, Roger Bolton, Rick DeNey, Will Fornshell, Kevin Wilder, Charlie Woodman and captain Tim Michno.
The weekend (and weakened) warriors of the 2016 Rich-Mich softball game. Contributed
For the Richey Recidivists were: Rick Kilbride, Steve McCardell, James O’Hora, Jim Petrus Luke Tashjian, Chas Timberlake, David Woodman and captain Keith Richey. This once a year men’s softball game has become a New Canaan tradition. The teams are picked at random from those weekend (also weakened) warriors who show up to see if they still have the right stuff, generally local men in their 40s to 60s.
The Recidivists broke out early, with a leadoff home run by Jim Petrus, setting the tone for a barrage of hitting. The Recidivists scored in every inning but the fifth and led throughout. In batting order, the hit parade was Petrus with 3, Kilbride had 5 hits and scored five times largely because he was followed by Timberlake who was the leader in RBIs (7) with a triple, three doubles, and a single, Woodman, 4 hits, triple, McCardell, 2 hits, double, O’Hora, Tashjian, and Captain Richey, each with 3 hits.
The Marauders had a few defensive moments with Woodman making a great running catch in left field with two out and bases loaded to end one threat, Michno made a nice catch of a deep Petrus drive in right center, and Bolton took a double away from O’Hora in right field. Offensively, however, other than Wilder hitting a pair of screaming line drives along the 3rd base line to drive in a couple of runs, the Marauder offense was largely throttled by the Recidivists’ effective infield play, until the seventh inning when the Mauraders broke free for a 7 run come-back attempt that fell short.