Lights go out on potential Muckrakers comeback

WALNUT CREEK -- Somebody somewhere has absolutely no appreciation for the dramatic. Just when the Muckrakers were poised to launch the mother of all comebacks, the lights were doused on Field 1 and the Rivergoats were handed a 20-11 victory.

The scrappy Muck-A-Lucks trailed by a mere nine runs -- a pittance in slow-pitch softball -- and had a man on (thanks to a Dave Belli bases on balls) with one down in the bottom of the fifth. Bob Leal (2-for-2) was at the plate when -- snap! -- the lights shut down and darkness prevailed. Game, set, match.

It finally took fate of an electrical nature to slow the Mucksters down. Certainly they could have quit after the Rivergoats piled up 15 runs in the top of the first inning, pounding groundball after groundball through the rock-hard Field 1 infield. Perhaps staggered by the early blow, the Muckenheimers went a quiet one-two-three in the bottom half of the first.

But the 'Rakers showed more resolve than the Heather Farm Park lighting system. They scored four times in the second, led by Matt Petersen's triple, then batted around in the third for six runs, with Chris Lopez doubling with the bases full to plate three. Mike Gale, Steve Moscatelli and Leal also had RBI safeties in the frame.

And they edged ever closer in the fourth as Darby MacEacheron plastered a triple to plate Dwayne Giron, although Darby was subsequently thrown out at home on the play.

Chase Bryson helped keep matters respectable with an outstanding catch in deep center in the fifth.

All omens pointed toward a visit to Comeback City, but the Walnut Creek electrical powers that be had the final say.