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Highlands Today

Yates Rallies For Win Over Central Security

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Special to Highlands Today

Published: March 13, 2009

LAKE PLACID - The Michelle Yates Insurance team came from five runs down to squeak past the luckless Central Security team 9-8 on Wednesday during Lake Placid Senior Softball league play at the Lake June ballfields.

Shortstop Paul Brand led the winning effort in the field, where he laid out his body to catch a line shot and later to make a similar catch to start a double play. At the plate, he was 2-of-3.

The 60-year-old, multi-talented Brand, a Virginia native who has lived and worked in Minnesota for the past 30 years, is a newspaper columnist for the Minnesota Star Tribune and host of "Auto Talk" every Saturday and Sunday on KSTP radio in St. Paul, Minn.

Through modern technology, he is able to continue those activities during his time as a winter resident of the Lake Placid area with his wife Jeri, and in addition, works as an instructor at the Skip Barber Racing School at the Sebring airport.

Other than that, he's not very busy.

Dave Holloway and Harvey Jones were 3-for-3, manger Dusty Hensley was 2-for-3 and Harlan Newby made a rolling catch outside the third-base line to preserve the victory for Yates. For most of the game, it looked like Central Security was going to break their six- game slump. In spite of Dana Hurlbut, Larry Oser and Jim Hensley all having three hits each including doubles and Cal Bready chipping in his usual three hits, they came up short.

Play on the other field saw league-leading Lake Placid Marine squash a last-inning rally to top the Schooni's Family Restaurant team by a score of 19-16. Numerous fielding errors contributed to the high-scoring game, but there were also a lot of good hits.

Tom Giownik had a home run and three doubles, Duke Hensley had a home run, a double and a single, and Moe Pier had two doubles and two singles for the Mariners. Howard Carney had a home run among his four hits, Don Cunningham and Rod Palmer each went 4-for-5 and Bob Fox, Dick Heinback and Paul Stephenson had three hits each with Heinbach and Ray Hensley knocking out two baggers for Schoonis.

At the end of play for the day, a short memorial service was held in honor of long time league member, Carl Hensley. More than 100 former teammates, their families and friends were present to pay their respects and to celebrate Carl's life.

On Monday, in a battle of then-league-leaders, the Lake Placid Marine team pounded out a 14-5 victory over Seminole Tire, taking a half-game lead in the league standings. The Mariners were led by Duke Hensley who had two doubles among his four hits and Paul Smith and Kyle Saunders with three hits each, while Saunders drove in four runs. Moe Pier also added a triple in the victory.

Manager Carole Walsh said that her team apparently decided not to show up at the plate for the game as they only managed a total of 13 hits with no one getting more than two hits for the Tiremen.

Play on the other field saw a game go down to the wire with Schooni's Family Restaurant finally prevailing by a score of 16-14.
Central Security had the tying run on second and the potentially winning run on first when Gary Rankersley made an outstanding play on a drive up the middle by Don Thomas to nip the runner at third base for the final out to preserve the victory for Schoonis.

At the plate, the Restaurantuers were led by Howard Carney who was 4-for-4 and also made an outstanding catch down the left field line that prevented three runs from scoring in the next to last inning. Dick Heinbach and Mike Juru were 3-for-4 at the plate and Don Cunningham and Gary Hankersley each had a triple and a home run in the victory.

The Security men's bats were not silent as Dana Hurbut led the team going 4-for-4 with two doubles and Cal Bready, Bill Card, Dave Hoffman, Larry Oser, John Miller and Richard Rivera chipped in 3 hits each. Miller's hits included two triples and a double with his only out being a possible home run taken away by Carney's outstanding catch. Rivera had a three-bagger and a two-bagger among his hits as well as some excellent fielding plays.

Lake Placid Marine opened up a one game lead over Seminole Tire with records of 10-6 and 9-7, respectively. Schooni's follows at 8-8, while Yates is at 7-9 and Central Security at 6-10. League play continues through March 30.

Send summaries of your league's play to sports@highlandstoday.com.

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