–FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE—
August 26, 2025 (Liberty Park Sports Complex)
Orange manager Duffy Vanderford stood in his sweatpants and warmup jacket on a 69-degree day in the last week of August in Alabama. Players ran friskily in the cool air, trying to get warm, and fans huddled together in the stands. Orange batted first in the early game versus Sky Blue and Mark Lilla hit Harold Hagler’s first pitch right at Chuck Killough for an out. Tom Wasmer followed with a walk and Mike Madden, Ken Sransky, Steve Entrekin, Jim Hill and Mike Richards got hits and scored 4 runs. Sky Blue’s leadoff batter, Bobby Watkins got a hit and Chuck Killough followed with a triple, but Bobby got thrown out at home trying to score. Bobby was puffing on his way to the dugout. “Runnin’ first to home ain’t easy. I gave it all I had but I shoulda quit at third base.” Larry Enzweiler, playing for the first time on his reconstructed knee, drove in Chuck, Royce O’Donnell doubled, and Rel Underwood drove them both in with a double. Neither team scored in the second and it was Orange 4, Sky Blue 3 after 2 innings.
Orange scored 5 in the third. Mark Lilla singled, Tom Wasmer doubled, and Mike Madden drove in Mark. Tom got cut down at third when Ken Sransky reached on a fielder’s choice, but Steve Entrekin got a hit, Jim Hill got an RBI on a fielder’s choice, Scott Wadsworth drove in two runs with a double and Mike Richards drove in Scott for the fifth run. Then Orange shut out Sky Blue in the bottom of the third and Sky Blue shut out Orange in the top of the fourth before David Ferguson and Steve Belcher hit back-to-back doubles to score a Sky Blue run in the bottom. Orange 9, Sky Blue 4 after four.
Orange added two more runs in the top of the fifth on a single by Mike Madden and a two-run inside-the-park Ken Sransky-runs-wild homer, but Sky Blue scored 5 when Dean Farris and Pete Manown hit successive doubles and scored on a Ron Allen fielder’s choice. Bobby Watkins, Chuck Killough, Larry Enzweiler, Royce, Rel, and David Ferguson got two-out hits to round out the five runs and tighten the score to Orange 11, Sky Blue 9. Orange couldn’t keep pace in the sixth and fell behind when Sky Blue added 5 more runs on a hit by Steve Belcher, a Rick Alston walk, a Dean Farris hit, a Pete Manown RBI walk, another hit by Harold Hagler, and Chuck Killough’s fourth hit of the game. The score was Sky Blue 14, Orange 11 at the end of 6 innings. Orange needed 3 runs in the open seventh inning to tie the game, but a fly ball, a Mark Lilla hit and a double play ended the game and Sky Blue had a come-from-behind, 14 to 11 win.
Sky Blue hitters were 20 for 34 with 4 walks for a .588 team batting average and a .632 on-base percentage. Chuck Killough was 4 for 4, and Royce O’Donnell was 2 for 2 with a walk. Orange hitters were 20 for 37 with one walk for a .541 team batting average and a .553 on-base percentage.
Red played Blue in the late game and runs were hard to come by for both teams even though both teams’ defenses stumbled around. Dale McWhorter was the only player to work his way around the bases in the first two innings so the score was one to nothing Red after two.
Red scored two in the third when Bill Lovell drove in Rel Underwood and Mike Richards, and Blue finally got untracked and scored 5 in their half. Holly Whitmire, Rick Erdimer and Doug Harper opened the inning with three straight hits and David Ferguson drove in two of them. Then Sid Hilton got a hit and Cecil Kwong drove in 3 more runs with a double. Red turned right around and scored 5 in the top of the fourth on hits by Bobby, Shelly Johnson, and Jim Hill, an RBI single by Wayne Sheets, a two-run double by Rel, an RBI hit by Ron Lentz and an RBI fielder’s choice by Mike Richards as Rel beat the first baseman’s throw home. Blue came back with 3 more runs in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game at 8 on hits by Carl Hall, David Brasfield and Buddy Cannon, a Pete Manown RBI fielder’s choice, and a Brian Gierlatowicz hit.
Neither team scored in the fifth and Blue shut out Red again in the top of the sixth before scoring two in the bottom. Cecil opened the inning with a hit and went to third on Carl Hall’s hit and home on David Brasfield’s single while Carl went to second. Buddy Cannon flied out and Steve Entrekin hit a ball to third to force out Carl at third. David Brasfield scored on Pete Manown’s double and Steve Entrekin went to third. Brian G got a hit but the runners didn’t advance and the inning ended on a fly ball. Blue 10, Red 8 after six.
Red needed two to tie in the open seventh. Ron Lentz opened with a double and advanced to third on a Mike Richards grounder to first. Earle Dunn drove in Ron with a single and went to second on Bill Lovell’s single. Then Jim Anderson hit a shot to third that forced out Earle. Bobby Watkins came to bat with runners at first and second and hit what looked like a three-run homer over the fence in left center field, but David Brasfield made a fine over-the-shoulder catch to end the game, Blue 10, Red 9.
Blue hitters were 19 for 33 with one walk for a .576 team batting average and a .588 on-base percentage. Cecil Kwong was 2 for 2 with a walk and Doug Harper was 2 for 2. Red hitters were 22 for 41 for a .537 team batting average.
Steve Entrekin was swatting dust off his clothes because he spent some time during the game rolling around in the dirt at third. He said, “This reminds me of when I was a kid. I thought I had some disease that required me to eat dirt every day. My older brother Marvin told me about it and made sure I got the dirt I needed.”