Co-ed league holds first four games of 2016

On Monday, July 18, Malta's Co-Ed Softball league kicked off in a surprisingly competitive fashion right off the bat. The action continued Tuesday night.

Tuesday's game featured a couple of blowout games as Judd / Thompson (JT) took down Young's Floor Covering 18-4. Malta Recreation took down the R & G Feeders 13-1.

Malta Recreation scored 12 in park homers. Three by Ostin Welch, two by Beth Welch, Tyson Carney and Barry Southard and one by Jerry Benge, Jerry Welch and Jenny Crowder.

Malta Rec's Jo Tharp hit a triple and Crowder had a double.

On Monday's league opening day Anderson / Yeadon (AY) team was able to take down (JT) 7-3 and Young's Floor Covering was able to defeat the R & G Feeders 15-3.

Young's had the lead throughout the whole game, with a pretty high powered offense led by Casey Knudsen and Jesse Young.

"I think we've just been focused on getting base hits and not hitting it out of the park," Lance Webb said. "We got two practices in before this game so we were prepared."

Webb pointed to a couple of key players for the team that night, naming Tyanna Dunbar and Knudsen.

"She doesn't have a lot of experience playing but she's really improved a lot since we started," Webb said. "Casey has been hitting well and pitching well for us."

Early in the game Knudsen had an in park home run, that also scored the team a RBI (Run batted in).

"I was really tired afterwards," Knudsen said. "I haven't ran that much in a long time."

Though Knudsen hit the ball pretty deep into center field, he had no clue he could score on the hit.

"Absolutely not," he said. "I thought I was out like always."

The AY – JT game featured strong defenses from both teams in a game that was low scoring for people that haven't played in years.

"I'm pretty surprised actually for a bunch of old people," Anderson Young team captain Shane Anderson said. "I think our average age is pushing 40."

The other AY team captain Dean Yeadon displayed quite the skill at shortstop, racking up double plays throughout the game.

"He's something else," Anderson said. "I don't know how many stops, double plays he had. He was all over at shortstop. Nothing was getting by him."

Anderson pointed out Yeadon as a key player but he also gave credit to the ladies on the team.

"You know in this league you have to have girls and five guys on the field," Anderson said. "Most of these girls are our wives and not many of them played but Andrea (Lien) made a couple of awesome catches at third base which is one of the scariest places to play."

Lien was solid at third base snatching a few outs on the night and not allowing much of anything to go past her in the "Hot Corner."

"Ashley Stuart made a nice grab to end the game," Anderson said. "They all hit the ball today and everybody did pretty well."

In the top of the seventh inning AY's Jake Stuart hit an in park homer. It's a wonder that Stuart didn't get a full cycle with the way he was hitting.

"It feels good to get a run in and it's nice to see softball back in Malta," Stuart said. "We were of in a little bit of a drought (scoring) so I decided to go to center field instead of left every time. It had a sidespin on it. I though Nick (Oxarart on JT) had it but it slipped out of his grasp."