Centurions vanquish Air Force firefighters

  • Published
  • By David Bedard
  • JBER PAO
JOINT BASE ELMENDORF-RICHARDSON, Alaska --  Soldiers representing HHC, 725th Brigade Support Battalion "Centurions," 4th Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division, defeated Air Force firefighters representing the Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson 673d Air Base Wing Fire and Emergency Services Department in the inaugural JBER softball championship.

The firefighters emerged from the softball tournament's loser bracket to face the Centurions in Monday night's championship game at Buckner Field, needing to defeat the paratroopers in two straight games to even the score and forge ahead in an attempt to claim the laurels.

The Air Force team got off to a good start, when their bench came out slugging in game 1, getting five runs on five straight hits before the Centurions got their heads together to retire the side in three consecutive outs.

The Soldiers could only respond with two runs in the first inning.

At the top of the second inning, 673d ABW's Kelly Lasaine hit a home run to score the inning's only run, with the firefighters holding the Centurions scoreless at the bottom of the inning.

The Centurions returned the favor, quickly retiring the Air Force side before putting four sticks on the board to tie the game at the end of the third.

Unfortunately for the paratroopers, the firefighters answered in kind at the top of the next inning with four runs of their own to forge ahead 10-6, once again holding the Army team scoreless at the end of the inning.

After keeping the firefighter's bench quiet with no runs scored in the top of the fifth, the Centurions pulled within one run after hammering in three runs.

A determined firefighter bench came out of the dugout with thunder in their bats, blasting in four runs before the Centurion defense could contain them.

The paratrooper's answered in the bottom of the sixth inning with one run to keep their hopes alive, but the firefighters dished out discouragement at the ends of their bats with five runs at the top of the seventh and final inning.

Facing a deficit of 10-19, the paratroopers swung with all their might, but to no avail, as the Army team could only put up six runs to ensure a 19-16 victory for the firefighters and force the "if" game.

After some stern words were exhanged in the Centurions dugout, the paratroopers emerged to put three runs on the board, with the firefighters only being able to answer with a single run.

It would be the their only chance to score until the fifth inning, with the Centurions' canny defense temporarily silencing the Air Force team.

For their part, the Centurions put up three runs in both the second and third innings before they could be contained by the Air Force defense, being held scoreless in the fourth inning and only being able to put up one run in the sixth.

Sitting at the precipice of elimination at 1-10, the firefighters' Lasaine led a chorus of hits in the fifth inning with five runs followed by two more in the sixth to keep the Air Force team's title hopes alive.

The Centurions couldn't get the insurance runs they had hoped for in the top of the seventh, only scoring once to maintain a lead of 11-8.

Hits from the firefighters' Andrew Morris and Justin Andreas scored a run, and it seemed the Air Force team was on their way to surpassing the paratroopers.

However, the Army dashed their cross-base rivals' hopes by closing their ranks and retiring the next three runners to make for a final score of 11-9 and clinch championship honors.

Centurion pitcher Billy Slagle said the team has made a habit all season of coming up short at first bite, but turning around their game when it mattered.

"Typically, all year, we haven't been first game players," he explained. "We didn't start off hitting and then we finally woke up in the second game, got our bats going late in the first game and started hitting in the second game, carrying us over to the win.

"Our strength is hitting because our defense is suspect at any time, but hitting has carried us the whole year."