Patience a Bad News Virtue

Making their long-delayed Central Park debut, it was patience at the plate that paid off for the Bad News in an 8-6 win over Team Tuttle. The Bad News worked a total of eight walks (several coming on full counts) over the course of the game -- and half of which would eventually go on to score.

Chrissy Korney got the job done at the top of the order, reaching base three times on a hit and two walks, while Alicia Korney and Frank Stingone both contributed a pair of RBIs to the offensive effort. But the Bad News was still down by a run entering what would be the fifth, and final inning. Fortuitously, the team responded by playing smart small-ball, stringing together a series of walks and singles to get the insurance runs any away team wants to have headed into the bottom of the last inning.

That's actually when, in a surprise to even himself, Stingone was involved in the Defensive Jewel of the Evening for the second week in a row. Playing with a single contact lens and somewhat questionable depth-perception, Stingone still managed to gun down a Tuttler at third base to record the much-needed second out of the inning after she foolishly tested his arm in an attempt to reach third from first following a hit to left.

SM refugee Julie Murphy made her long-anticipated homecoming to the Bad News, contributing her trademark cat-like reflexes and proffering a general sense of scrappiness behind the plate. And in an impressive return from the nearly 120-day DL, DH Dave DaCosta contributed to every category on the stat sheet, in the process earning a key walk in the last inning to get on base as the tying run.



Next game: The Bad News plays back-to-back games next week. First up is a newly scheduled game against the Legal Aid Society, on Tuesday, June 26, 6 p.m., at Heckscher Ballfield #2.

Then, on Wednesday, June 27, 7 p.m., at East River Drive #7, the Bad News will take on Team Tuttle in a rematch.