Sunday, August 01, 1999
Storm moves on in Metro
Fortner's HR wins in extra innings in B
BY SAM MELLINGER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
After scoring seven runs before playing the field, the Storm would not have been expected to need extra innings to beat Endurance Siding.
But it took Junior Fortner's three-run home run in the ninth inning for the Storm to advance in the B Division at the Bud Light/Metropolitan softball tournament Saturday at Rumpke Park.
“We knew that seven runs wouldn't win the game,” Fortner said after his team's 16-12 win. “But even with that being so, you still sit back a little bit, sometimes that happens.”
The Storm relaxed enough to find itself down three runs entering the sixth inning. Steve Dinser scored Dave Garrison with an infield single, and in the seventh Mike Cooke and Larry Moore added RBI singles, tying the score at 12-12.
Eight of the next nine batters were out, setting the game for Fortner's big hit. With men on first and second, the wind picked up toward right field, and Fortner knew what to do.
“With no outs and the wind blowing out like that, I just wanted to get up there and hit it hard in the air,” he said. “If it goes out, great, if not, the runners can move up.”
Steve Klute made it back-to-back with a solo homer to right and even added a head-first dive toward the dugout, just for fun.
“The adrenaline gets pumping in that situation,” Klute said before addressing the celebration. “I do that all the time, I didn't really get that from anyone, I just do it to relax the guys and get them laughing with crazy stuff like that. I usually do it before the game, they just got an extra slide today.”
The Storm are now in a similar situation as Western Hills Window, which beat Paul R. Young Funeral Home 26-20in an A Division game. Donny Hughes led Western Hills with two grand slams, Tim Boeding had three home runs, Dan Duggins two and Sam Luckett added a solo homer.
Western Hills will play Hamilton Softball at 11:10 a.m. today. The winner of that game must win three more today just to reach the semifinals Monday. Most of today's games will be before the evening, so Western Hills must contend with the expected 90 degree heat as well as other teams in the losers' bracket.
“In heat like this, you just have to stay up the whole time and realize that every other team we'd play tomorrow, except the last one, has to play just as many games as us,” said Donny Hughes, who had nine RBI Saturday. “We've got the desire and we can do it.”
Hughes' confidence stems from his team's performance in last year's Triple Crown Tournament, also played at Rumpke. Western Hills had to play through the losers' bracket then as well and played 11 games total, including seven in one day.
“It's all about reaching one goal at a time,” Hughes said. “Our goal yesterday was to make it to today. Our goal today is to make it to the finals Sunday. We truly believe we can do it.”
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