OTTAWA - Down five players--including an unprecedented bail-out at 5 pm for a 6 pm game by John "hans solo" Devries--the Fun Bunch managed to defeat Bass Line Station. Clark "pound 'em back" Lawlor, Scott "boom boom" Saunders, Richard "wild thing" Bujold" and Jess "bulls-eye" Belanger, all decided to kick-back and take the night off and leave their teammates twisting in the wind. Eschewing the scheduled team game--and against the toughest adversary in the league no less--they opted instead for a night of lighthearted fun and frivolity watching the Red Blacks first pre-season game. With "pound 'em back" away on his own "boys weekend trip", steve "field marshal" saunders was left flabbergasted when he received a text from "hans solo" at 5 pm stating that he had a "business meeting" that he "couldn't get out of" , leaving "field marshal"--and the rest of the team--short of players with only an hour to go before game time.

Scrambling , "field marshal" and mark "polygon" pintar sent out text messages, emails, phone calls and instagrams, trying to track down a couple of spare players. Only minutes before game time, they secured stalwart spare Corey "too tall" Ploegman and Chris "yankee clipper" Nicol. "too tall" had yet to play a game for the team this year, and when asked the last time he played softball "yankee clipper" replied, "you don't want to know"--not an encouraging sign. Up against hated Bass Line Station the fun bunch were going to have their hands full.

Bass Line Station started the game by sending a guy to the plate who promptly hit a solo shot. Their illegal slight-of-hand was picked up by glen "the wrangler" rankin. "Hey you're supposed to have a woman bat first", he yelled from the outfield. Feigning ignorance, their notorious captain "paul" agreed to send two women to the plate consecutively to make amends. The first one hit another solo shot. With many new and intimidating looking players in their dugout, clearly this was going to be a long night.

The fun bunch cobbled together band of team elders, keen youngsters and last-minute substitute, however, responded with an impressive five run inning to take an early lead 5-2. Seven of the first eight batters got hits, including an awkward jab at the ball by steve "field marshal" saunders trying to desperately to make contact on his third wild pitch from mark "polygon" pintar in his pitching debut.

Bass Line Station were caught off-guard by this effrontery. Teams were supposed to be fearful and intimidated when confronted by their team of elite athletes. Didn't these guys get the memo? Nevertheless they answered back with a blitzkrieg of their own scoring five runs to take a 7-5 lead. The fun bunch stumbled in the bottom half of the inning and managed to score only a single run. That's more like it, Bass Line Station smugly thought.

But the fun bunch weren't about to roll over and play dead. They scored seven runs in the next two innings and held Bass Line station to a single run to make the score 13-8 in the last full inning of play. Exceptional hitting by all the women including a perfect four-for-four night by Rowena "scoresheet" Sams lead the team comeback. Alison "bulldozer" Hale also had another solid game after her stellar performance last week--including catching a pop fly for an out.

Substitutes Corey "too tall" Ploegman started off a little rusty, but found his groove by the end of the game as he hit a deep shot to center field, ran around the bases like a gazelle and scooped up ground balls like a vacuum cleaner. Chris "yankee clipper" Nicol also started off the game a little rusty, but his years of little league training south of the border came in handy as he drilled the ball hard at each at bat.

In the middle of the third inning, as the fun bunch prepared to trot on to the field, "field marshal's" cell phone "pinged" to signal the arrival of a text message. Curiosity got the better of him and he grabbed his phone to see who it was from. His jaw dropped when he saw the picture attached. It was a selfie by "hans solo" from the red blacks game. Posing with a rogues gallery of AWOL players was "hans solo", "wild thing" , "bullseye", and "boom boom". "I guess his 'business meeting' ended early", harrumphed leah "roadrunner" morrell as she looked over "field marshal's" shoulder at the shameful display

With only four full innings in the books, "paul" informed the fun bunch that this would be their last inning as they had "another game" to go to (apparently the fun bunch were merely batting practice). Once again, he had to be informed of the rules of softball. You are not allowed to end the game in the middle of an inning, but rather only after both teams had had their at-bat. "Ok we'll try to go quick", he replied. In a new low, however, half his team packed up their arsenal of high end baseball bats and did indeed leave the ball park after they finished their half of the inning leaving the rest of his team apologetic but without enough players to finish the game.

Fun bunch win 13-8 in four innings