MARYSVILLE — The Longhorns of Marysville recreational softball league took the long road to the men’s spring championship game June 26.
The Longhorns, who were second in standings coming into the league playoffs, defeated Uncle Rico’s All-Stars in the night’s first game, winning by 10 runs. Then, they took on the boys from the New California in a bar brawl for their second game.
New Cal took a one-run lead in the second inning, but the Longhorns countered with five runs in the bottom of the second. Cal added a run in the third, fourth and fifth innings, but were 10-runned 14-4 in what had been a close rivalry through the regular season.
“We’ve split them every single series but we really brought it this time,” said team manager Leon St. Onge.
Thanks to a three-run triple by C.J. Freeman in the fourth inning, the Longhorns scored eight runs in the inning to bring the game to an early end.
Then, they drew Rampage for the championship.
With just one loss during the regular season, Rampage was the No. 1 seed through the playoffs.
“When you’re No. 1 seed and stay in the winners bracket and wait around for somebody to play. They only lost one game all year and it was to the Longhorns,” said Marysville athletic coordinator Dave Hall.
Rampage was rested for the game. So while the Longhorns took an early lead, Rampage bided its time and took advantage of Longhorn errors.
“Then Rampage basically had one big inning where they had 15 runs in one inning and they 10-ran the Longhorns,” Hall said.
The team managed by Nolan Davis pulled off the 24-10 win and won the Friday men’s league spring championship.
“There’s several guys on their team that have played on different teams. This is the first year they all assembled under the name Rampage. But they’ve all played with us before,” Hall said.