Boston church upsets No. 1 team in its division

Riding a two-game winning streak, Berean Free Presbyterian Church’s softball team headed into Monday night’s game seeking an upset, taking on Trinity Lutheran Church of West Seneca.

TLC, which went into the game with an 8 – 2 record, ranked first in the Southtowns Church League’s third division, despite a loss to BFPC on Thursday, June 7, a game BFPC trailed 13 – 8 heading into the bottom of the final inning. “We need to be on top of our game,” Manager Drew Payne of Springville told his team, before taking the field.

During the first inning, with two outs and a runner in scoring position, Boston resident Scott Overhoff drove in a run for the first tally of the game. Next up, Payne got on base, but the Rev. Phil Owen failed to keep the momentum going on his at-bat. The Boston team went into the bottom of the inning up 1 – 0.


During BFPC’s first play, in the bottom of the inning, Overhoff and team pitcher Wesley Ellis both reached for a pop-up that ended up on the ground, allowing a TLC runner to make it to first. TLC took a 2 – 1 lead in that inning.

Although TLC was leading going into the second, the team would never again hold the lead in this matchup. Ellis began a rally that ended with 8 runs in the inning – the second-highest single-inning total for his team so far this season – when catcher Brett Moody of Chaffee struck out, for the third out. TLC responded with 1 run in the bottom of the inning and BFPC led 9 – 3 against the division’s No. 1 team going into the third.

The first two batters had reached first base by the time East Concord resident Jared Owen stepped up to the plate. In his previous at-bat, Owen swung at a pitch that was above the strike zone and was rewarded with an out. This time, Owen smacked the pitch straight into the outfield for a triple, bringing home 2 runs. One more run would score before TLC got the three outs, leaving the home team with a 9-run deficit.


TLC scored 1 run in the bottom of the third, leaving the No. 1 team trailing. That margin of defeat grew wider in the fourth, when six BFPC runners rounded the diamond before the third out. BFPC was now in position to end the game after five innings, because of the 12-run mercy rule.

TLC’s first batter in the fourth was caught out, while the second hit a single. With the help of a few stolen bases – thanks to a dropped ball in the infield that allowed the runner to steal home – that runner ran home, to make the score 18 – 5, but every other batter failed to reach first base.

For the first time this season, the Boston team had scored in each of the first four