It’s only mid-July and probably a bit too early to be keeping tabs on the standings in the Molson St. John’s Senior Men’s Softball League, but the NTV Hitmen are opening a comfortable first-place lead in the four-team circuit.
The Hitmen improved to 4-1 Tuesday night at Lions Park with a 10-3, five-inning trimming of 3Cheers Pub.
3Cheers, The Bigs and defending champion Kelly’s Pub Molson Bulldogs are all 2-3.
Robbie Greene (5IP, 3R, 3H, 1HBP, 3BB, 7K) pitched the win for NTV, while Colin Walsh (4.2IP, 10R, 9H, 2BB, 5K) suffered the loss. Jason Hill (0.0IP, 0R, 0H, 0BB, 0K) pitched some relief for 3Cheers.
Rylee Costello and Chris Murphy both had two hits for the winners. Jeremy O'Reilly hit a two-run home run.
In another game, Sean Cleary fanned 14 and went two-for-three at the plate as the Bulldogs beat The Bigs 6-4.
Cleary allowed six hits and issued four free passes. Nick Pittman (2IP, 4R, 2H, 5BB, 3K) started for The Bigs and was tagged with the loss. Mark Power (4IP, 2R, 2H, 1BB, 7K) pitched in relief.
Shane Boland hit a solo home run for Kelly’s. Bryan Clarke homered for The Bigs.
In the second inning, the Bulldogs’ Jon Kelly hit a sacrifice fly to score Boland. Kelly now has 299 career senior league RBI, and is just one shy of becoming just the second player in senior league history to collect 300 RBI. Ward Gosse is the all-time RBI leader with 364.
Two games are set for today at Lions Park. At 6 p.m., NTV plays The Bigs followed by Kelly's Pub and 3Cheers Pub at 8:30 p.m.
