Seminole Blasts Central Security

Led by 76-year-old Harley Smith's pitching, fielding and hitting, the Seminole Tire team rolled to a 25-16 victory over Central Security team in Lake Placid Senior Softball league play on Wednesday at the Lake June ball fields.

The Port Huron, Mich., native, Army veteran and retired political science professor from St. Clair Community College in Port Huron, Smith not only pitched an outstanding game, but made several critical plays in the field and was 3-for-3 at the plate.

Like most men in the league, the longtime winter resident of Highlands County has played baseball or softball since his youth and took up senior softball after his retirement.

Seminole had hot bats throughout the lineup, with Gary Vann going 5-for-5, Cliff Bluml and Tom Walsh went 4-for-5, Ed Engler and Jeff Stanley hit 3-for-4 and Glenn Minnick was 3-for-5. Stanley had 2 doubles and a triple for his hits and Bluml had a triple for the winners.

Central Security's bats were not silent with Dana Hurlbut blasting a home run and three doubles. John Miller added a home run and double, Richard Rivera had three hits and Dave Hoffman had a triple and double in the losing effort.

Play on the other field saw Michelle Yates Insurance team pull out a 12-11, come-from-behind victory over Schooni's Family Resturant.

Leading by two runs going into the bottom of the last inning, Schooni's watched as usually light-hitting George Quay and Art Miller delivered key hits to spark the comeback.

Paul Brand was 3-for-4 and the combination of Dusty Hensley and Larry Lane (Lane substituted for Hensley for a short time due to an injury) was 4-for-4 for the Insurers. Schooni's did not go down easily as Howard Carney, Mike Jurmu, Darrell Richards and Bob Sheets were all 3-for-4 and Rod Palmer had a run-scoring triple.

On Monday, Lake Placid Marine cruised to a 22-8 win over Schooni's.

Carl Hensley watched from a gurney as his team mates scored five runs in the first inning and never let up the rest of the game. Tom Giownik, Duke Hensley, Victor Rodriquez, Kyle Saunders and Don Ward all had three hits each with Rodriquez and Ward having triples and Hensley banging out two doubles for the winners.

Don Ward and Paul Smith combined pitching to hold Schooni's in check. Bob Fox was 3-for-3 with a double and Paul Stephenson and Darrell Richards were each 3-for-4 for Schooni's.

Play on the other field saw a very rare shutout, as 84-year-old George Quay pitched a 16-0 victory for Michelle Yates Insurance over Central Security.

Quay gave up a total of eight hits in the game. From 1943 to 1946, the Pottstown, Penn., native was one of 325,000 Navy Seabees in WWII.

The Seabees usually followed the first waves of Marines ashore. Quay and his fellow Seabees island hopped across the Pacific quickly building air strips, roads, bridges, supply facilities, bases, etc., frequently under fire. Quay moved to Avon Park in 1987 and helped form the senior softball league there and then moved to Lake Placid in 1993 and was one of the founding members of the Lake Placid Senior Softball League.

The offense of the Insurers was led by Dave Hollowy (4-for-4) and Dusty Hensley, Ray Heissenberg and George Lavoie who were 3-for-4 each. Hensley knocked two doubles and a home run among his hits while Heisenberg had two doubles. Richard Rivera had three hits for Central Security with five other players having singles.

The end result of play for the day was that Central Security and Schooni's continued their slide with three-game losing streaks.

Lake Placid Marine now leads the league with a record of 6-4, followed by Central Security, Schoonis, and Seminole Tire at 5-5 and the hard-charging Yates team at 5-7 in this well-balanced and competitive league. League play continues through March.