Softball Game of the Week: Nationwide Coils Topple Radding Insurance Riverdogs

SOMERS, N.Y. - On Monday, Aug. 12, Nationwide Coils and the Radding Insurance Riverdogs were jockeying for second place in the B-division.

A 2.5 game cushion for Riverdogs, Nationwide didn’t wait long to get the home team recoiling and feeling the heat from behind.
Nationwide scored four in the first and went on to an easy 12-6 victory.

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Joe Caiola started the game patiently with a walk. He moved to second on Joe Mitaro’s sacrifice fly to right, and Joe Vela knocked him in with a single. George Rios then walked with two outs, and singles by his brother Dan, Paul Ciavardini and Paul Salerno made it 4-0.

Radding did answer right back, though. Rob Mifsud singled with one out, Kevin Kopec doubled, and Dan Dibono doubled both in to cut the lead in half.

So Nationwide went back at it. Rob Zack bounced a grounder past short, Billy Ostrander’s fly ball to center was dropped, and Caiola stroked an opposite field single to right.

The bases loaded with nobody out, Mitaro and Vela drove in one each with sacrifice flies to center, and Mike Olivier singled for the third run of the inning.

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7-2 now, the two out rally continued. The Rios brothers singled to reload the bases, and Ciavardini stepped in with the chance to blow the game open.

“I didn’t get much of it,” he admitted.

Still, the ball blooped in over second, and Ciavardini made no apology for playing the game the right way. “I knew to hit to the right side with the sun going down,” he said, and by the time the right fielder located, three runs crossed the plate.

Onto the bottom of the second, Joe Tubiolo didn’t allow Radding to answer this time. The Nationwide veteran got two strikeouts and a fly out to center.

Nationwide went quietly in the third too, and in the bottom, Radding aimed to make a game of it.  Mifsud singled with one out, Kopec reached on an error, and Chris Cohane doubled in two for a 10-4 score.

But Joe Vela kept his third base counterpart from getting any closer. He made a diving stab on Dibono and gobbled up the next grounder to retire the side.

Time to get the runs back, Nationwide stayed small. Caiola, Mitaro, Olivier and George Rios singled for run 11, and Dan Rios’ sacrifice fly recaptured the eight run lead.

Radding kept at it nonetheless. The bases loaded with two out, and Mifsud worked a 3-1 count. But Tubiolo had the batter just where he wanted. The pitcher dropped a strike right on the black, and then got a ground out to third.

Tubiolo baffled in the next two innings also. He got Cohane on strikes in the fifth, and with a run in and a man on second, Mifsud went down swinging. Ending the inning, Tubiolo got a little help beforehand from George Rios - even if the first baseman didn’t see his scoop that way. “That’s a routine play,” Rios assured. “He (Salerno) made the throw, and I made the play I’m supposed to.”

A final run in the seventh, Salerno took the double play himself to end the game, which had Olivieri looking past the standings.

“We’re going to win the whole thing,”  he concluded.

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