Senior Softball League in Sylvania, OH

6:15 Games:

Fricker’s Blue 20 – State Farm 16

State Farm: The Insurance men fell to Joe Beham’s tough Blue squad in the season opener after failing to score in both the 6th and 7th innings. Left fielder George Hilfinger was lost to an injury in the first inning.. our hope is that George is able to fully recover and join us later in the season. Mike Dye pitched a solid game and good defense was turned in by Jase Sweede, Phil Naylor, Todd ” Mig” Migliori, and Bubba Bates. Naylor also led with 4 hits which included an OTF HR. Denny Miller, Mig and Dye each contributed 3 hits and all 3 blasted OTF HR’s. Leading hitters: Phil Naylor ( 4-4 2 R HR 3 RBI), D Miller ( 3-4 2 R HR 4 RBI), Mig ( 3-4 3 R 2B HR 3 RBI), Wayne Stumm ( 2-3 R RBI), Jase Sweede ( 2-3 2 R RBI), Jeff “Spottsy” Spotts ( 2-4 2R RBI), Matt “Fireball” Ciecka ( 2-4 R 3B RBI), James Carlozzi ( 2-4 R), and Tim Kuszmaul ( 2-4 R).

Blue: Opening night is always a special night and it was great to get the 2026 season started on a cool Thursday evening.  In a back and forth game, Fricker’s Carolina Blue beat a very good State Farm Insurance team coached by the softball legendary coach and player Gary Downey 20 -16.

Fricker’s Carolina Blue played a great defensive game  with nice catches in the OF by Jeff Wags in LC , Joe Beham in RC as well as a beautiful over the shoulder long arm stretched out by Ric Bonfigio in RF.  Also we had a huge DP in the 7th inning as Fricker’s Carolina Blue went to a 6 man infield and got a DP Johnson- Beham- Batanian.  Jamie Crothers played a great SS and Carl Clark made a big play at 3b with two on and two out in the 7th inning to end the game. John Correa pitched a  great game.  Hitting was led by the ageless one , Hall of Famer Johnny Johnson who was 4-4 with  three 2b’s  and an OTFHR.  Ric Bonfiglio “Fig” was 4-4 with two OTFHR bombs and added a 1b and 2b.  Scotty “Too Hotty” Dheel was 3-3. Jeff Wags 2-3 with a Sac Fly; Ed Reed 2-4 with a  2b; Joe Beham 2-3 with two 2bs; Carl Clark 2-3; Jeff Batanian, John Correa and Marty Harrison all added one hit each.

Pastorek 30 – TERRAFIRMA 15

Pastorek: On a cold and windy night softball was back and it felt good. Pastorek’s bats were hot on this cool night scoring in every inning and plating 8 in the final one. The ball left the field at a record pace with 9 homers by our top 7 batters with GRONK leading the way with 3 . Everyone scored at least once and getting a hit , one of the highlights of the night was speedster Joe Pastorek legging out a legitimate triple. We  started out our 7th with 3 straight homers and added 1 more for 4 dingers.

TERRAFIRMA:

Distillery vs Sidelines 24 – Distillery 16

Sidelines: Opening night of the 2026 season was a little chilly but Sidelines bats were pretty hot! 5 runs in the first kinda set the tone for the game. We held the lead and added to it pretty much every inning with a solid 5 more in the 6th to give us the gap we needed. Good start to the year! Eric Sitter and Mike Miller both went 4/4 with dingers. Aaron Young was 4/4 also. Bruce Klostermeier had a perfect game going 3/3 and welcome Eric Novak to the league with a HR on his first swing!

Distillery:

7:30 Games:

Pastorek 22 – State Farm 21

Pastorek: The bats were on fire again to start the second game of the night  with us scoring 5 runs in the first 4 innings then we went scoreless in the 5th and 6th letting the hard hitting state farm catch up and leading us by 1 run going into our bottom of the 7th . It didn’t look good for us with 2 outs and 1 guy on until Todd Grohnke got up to bat and went the distance to seal the win with a 2 run HR. it was Todds only hit of the second game and finishing the night with 4 homers .  It was another team effort with Breed , Gronk , Kennedy , and LaPoint with hrs. Solid hitting by everyone .

State Farm: State Farm fell to Jeff Aiello’s talented Body Shop team in a barn burner as they came up with a 2 out, 2 run HR in the bottom of the 7th for the win. We trailed 20-11 after 4 but showed some resolve and mounted a nice comeback to take the lead into the  bottom of the 7th. We have a great group and I know these two losses aren’t going to phase us going forward. Leading the hit parade was the indomitable Denny Miller with 4 hits including 3 long OTF bombs, one of which measured 379 feet.  Mike  “The DJ”  Dye also had 4 hits and another long OTF HR, as Mig had 3 hits with 2 doubles and a tape measure HR of his own.  Bubba Bates, James Carlozzi and Fireball all had 3 hits each and played well defensively, with Fireball adding a nice ITP HR and JC added 2 doubles. Offensive leaders: Denny Miller ( 4-4 4R 3 HR 5 RBI), Mike Dye ( 4-4 4R 2B HR 4 RBI), Mig ( 3-4 3R 2 2B HR 3 RBI), Fireball ( 3-4 2 R HR 2 RBI), James Carlozzi ( 3-4 2R 2 2B 2 RBI), Bubba Bates ( 3-4 2 R), Phil Naylor ( 2-4 2 R RBI), Tim Kuszmaul ( 2-4 RBI), Wayne Stumm ( 2-4 R RBI) and Spottsy ( 2-5 R 2 RBI). 

Fricker’s Black 21 – Fricker’s Maroon 20

Black: FRICKER’S Black won their opener 21-20 on a walk-off – walk in the bottom of the 7th. With one out and Ed Sharek on first, Bill Gau and Larry Hack walked – loading the bases. Dave Obert drew a walk -driving in the winning run. Top hitters: LF Scott Nichols hit a grand-slam homerun in the first, going 2/2, 2-W, 4-RBI’s, SS Matt Kwiatkowski, 4/4, HR, 4R, 3-RBI, LC Eric Zing, 1/2, HR, 2-W, 3R, 2-RBI, P Jeff Baker, 3/4, 2R, 1RBI, M/I Terry Patterson, 3/4, 3B, 3R, 1-RBI, R/C, Larry Wilczynski, 2/3, 2R, 2-RBI, C Mike Beale, 2/4, 1R, 2-RBI, 3B Bill Gau, 2/3, 3-RBI, Sharek, 1/3, 1-R, 1-RBI and Obert, 1/1, 3-W, 2-R. ( MIA: (injuries),Bob Ruckman and Craig Killinen; fractured wrist. Terry Patterson subbing for Killinen.)

Maroon: Fricker’s maroon put up a hard fight against freakr’s black slow start in the first got the rust knocked off.. We got it going after that. Then we got the defense going had great catches in the out field by Jeremy Jondro and Max Isrow. Wih the help of the from Jt Barnes going 3-4 and the long ball from Rodney Allen and timely hits by others got us back into the game.As a team we looked good and i can not wait to see how the rest of the seasons turns out

Sidelines 24 – TERRAFIRMA 18

Sidelines: Game 2 for Sidelines was an adventure with several guys pulling muscles from the cold weather the game seemed like slow motion just trying to survive the night. Terrafirma took the lead and everytime we chipped away they would gain it back. Being down 3-4 the whole game it kinda seemed that’s how it would end but we gained a second wind and put up a 9 spot in the top of the seventh and managed to give them a goose egg in the bottom to hold on with a 10 run victory! Eric Sitter stayed perfect going 5/5. Made him 9/9 on the night! Rodger Marciniak was perfect 5/5 also. Mel Edmonson, Brian Klump, Greg Powell, Aaron Young and (sub) Ed Reed all chipped in 4 hits.

TERRAFIRMA: