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07/26/2021 12:00 AMThe Deep River Horseshoe League packed a few matches over the past week to catch up from its streak of rain outs, and the Game 11 and Game 12 contests shuffled the standings quite a bit. As the League barrels down the home stretch of the regular season, there are still plenty of teams vying for their place in the playoff picture.
In the first of the two most recent slate, the Reds padded their lead atop the standings by taking a 5-1 contest against the Marlins, who fell from fourth place into a three-way tie for fifth with the Red Sox and Yankees. The Reds’ Andy Perna, who lives in Chester, scored his season-high series at 141, which also led all B players. The Marlins’ Karen Perna, who also lives in Chester, tallied 94 points for third best in the C Division.
Division A player for the Rangers and Deep River Horseshoe League statistician and media liaison Joe Heery was surprised to see the Marlins falter, when week after week, Marlins’ Division A player, Mark Goodale, who lives in Clinton, had been stringing together top-scoring performances. According to Heery, a series can easily get away from anyone for a variety of reasons.
“Part of it is the weather conditions and the pit conditions. I was soaked after my match from the heat and humidity. Sometimes you’re right in the sun when you’re throwing,” said Heery. “I don’t think the pressure gets to Mark. He has such great mechanics, but he might just be a little bit off. It’s the little things in the delivery that makes the difference. If you don’t keep your arm in the pendulum swing, or crook your elbow, or step the right distance, it can have an affect. There’s so many little things.”
The Red Sox climbed from eighth-place tie with the Yankees into that fifth-place position due to a 6-0 sweep against the Pirates, courtesy of strong showings from Billy Beckwith’s Division A leading tally of 149 and Deep River resident Ed Turner’s 119, which was good for second place among all B players. That 5-1 loss from the Pirates came despite Deep River resident Sheryl Serviss turning in the top score among Division C at 107.
The Yankees also pulled a sweep against the Orioles to keep pace with the Red Sox. Fellow Deep River residents Brian Walsh and Bob Cifaldi put up potent numbers for the Yanks. Walsh notched 130 and Cifaldi tallied 110, and both scores were good for third best among Division A players and Division B players, respectively. Heery believes that the Yankees are really starting to put it together of late.
“Yankees pulled off a sweep against the Orioles, so they climbed the standing. That came down to Brian Walsh and Bob Cifaldi. When your A and B players are in the top-3 that makes a big difference,” said Heery, who lives in Old Lyme. “My team played them in Week 10. They scored 327 against us, but we split. That’s the result of us having a few good players on your team.”
Essex’s Tony Cutone and the Angels moved from fifth place into second place with a 4.5-1.5 win against the White Sox. The third-place Dodgers went up against the Rangers and the teams came away with a split. Deep River’s Scott Allen, Jr., of the Dodgers, put up a score of 98, which was the second best series among C players.
The Tigers pulled even with Cards in a tie for eighth place. Ivoryton’s Vinny Joynas, of the Tigers, went up against league-leading scorer Mike Zanelli, Sr., who had 131 in his series for second best among Division A players. Joynas had a solid showing himself, only trailing Zanelli, Sr. by 12 points total.
The Deep River Horseshoe League usually plays on Thursday evenings, but during this mad dash for make-ups, the League has added some Monday games. Heery has noticed that this run of matches every few days has seemed to hone some of his fellow throwers’ games.
“All those rain outs were tough, but it’s also been interesting. The scoring actually went up. The A scoring and the C scoring was up. People were throwing like crazy,” Heery said. “I think maybe the more routine and playing that close together helped. Everyday is different. You can get there and play on a pit, and you may not like how it’s hitting. There are so many little oddities that you have to account for, so sometimes, you just have to throw your shoe.”
As for Game 12, the Reds increased their lead out to eight games, which is a solid cushion in that even a sweep at the hands of an opponent would still have the Reds in first place. To pad that lead, the Reds took on another strong team in the Pirates, who second among the league in total scoring yet eighth in standings after two tough weeks. Andy Perna claimed the top spot among B players for the third consecutive week with a score of 130. The Pirates got a bit from Serviss’s series score of 114, which was good for second best among C players, but the Reds’ Tim Weselcouch, who is a relatively newer thrower, managed to keep pace with Serviss for much of the contest. Heery thought the Reds capitalized well against the Pirates.
“With Sheryl, the Pirates give up a lot of handicap against another C player. When they lost 5-1 to the Reds. Sheryl didn’t have a spectacular game, but she wasn’t bad either,” said Heery. “Also, the Reds have Andy Perna. He’s been lights out over the past four weeks.”
The Marlins and Giants matched up, pitting the League’s two highest scorers against each other, and that match resulted in a 3-3 split. The Giants also added a new C Player in Chester’s Rudy Urban to retool their roster. In the marquee matchup of Goodale versus Zanelli, Sr., Goodale took the first game by two points, the second game was a dead heat, and Zanelli, Sr. won the last two games by a combined margin of 83-68. Zanelli, Sr.’s total score of 156 led all Division A players while Goodale’s 143 was third-best among the A’s. Karen Perna also bolstered the Marlins with a Division C-leading tally of 118.
Both Andy and Karen Perna ended up atop their respective divisions this week, and Heery has been impressed with the husband-wife duo’s performances and continual improvement.
“They’re both tough players to compete against. Andy on the Reds and Karen on the Marlins. Andy has just been phenomenal. It’s been pretty impressive,” Heery said. “Karen is very methodical in her game. She can have an off night, she had her best series with 118 against the Giants.”
The Dodgers broke their second-place tie with the Angels, but were unable to gain any ground on the Reds. The Dodgers’ Butch Carotenuto, who lives in Hamden, had the third best tally among B players with 106, and teammate Scott Allen, Jr., who lives in Deep River, had the third-best mark among the C’s with 87. Joynas also had a solid showing to help the Dodgers take 4-2 win, and sole possession of second place.
The Angels faced off with the Cubs in Game 12 and were unable to maintain second place alongside the Dodgers despite Cutone’s series score of 153, which was second-best among Division A and the third 150-point series of the year. The Angels’ B player Damin Roberts, who lives in Cromwell, also had a quality night with a score of 106, which was tied for third-best in the B Division. Roberts’s wife Rachel Roberts also joined in for the Angels and threw her first competitive horseshoes match ever. Unfortunately, the Angels’ dropped to third place as the Cubs’ John Hutra (East Haddam), Dave Aldrich (Moodus), and Bob Beckwith (Guilford) managed to come up with the 4-2 win.
The Braves continued their climb in the standings with a series sweep of the White Sox. Mike Zanelli, Jr. (Higganum), Paul Felie (Old Saybrook), and David Atkinson (Deep River) were able to outpace the White Sox easily, and the Braves have now moved from 11th place after Game 10 to a tie for third place with the Angels after Game 12.
“Braves had two consecutive sweeps, which is pretty hard to do. Everything sort of came together for them though with the White Sox having to throw a blind score on top of being one of the lowest scoring teams in the league,” Heery said. “The Braves are right up there with all the other good scorers. They jumped up the standings from 11th after Week 10. When you go 12-0 over two weeks, that’s pretty good.”
In the Rangers-Cardinals contest, Heery turned in his best game of the season as did Cards’ C player Andy Konefal (Deep River). The Rangers earned a 4-2 win in the match and are in 10th place just a game behind the Cards and Tigers in ninth.
The Red Sox and Mets battled with the two teams coming away with a 3-3 split. The Yankees were able to break their tie with the Red Sox with a 4-2 win over the Padres thanks to a big series from Cifaldi at 120, which was second-best among the B Division. The Royals and Orioles are both teams currently out of the playoffs, but the Royals’ Tony Malerba had a season high series score of 96.
The standings after twelve have the Reds (50.5-21.5) comfortable in first followed by the Dodgers (42.5-29.5), Angels (40.5-31.5), Braves (40.5-31.5), Yankees (40-32), Red Sox (39-33), Marlins (39-33), Pirates (37.5-34.5), Cardinals (37-35), Tigers (37-35), Rangers (36-36), Cubs (34-38), Royals (34-38), Padres (31-41), Giants (30.5-41.5), Orioles (29-43), White Sox (25.5-46.5), and Mets (24.5-47.5).
With just five games remaining, Heery and his fellow league members know that there are only so many more opportunities to make headway for the playoffs.
“There are just a few games left out of out 17 games,” Heery said. “It’s really going to boil down to how the teams that are trying to get in perform. We all have to have our best games. We also have to hope to get some help from the teams above us in the standings.”