As day turned to night, and as the game between the Just a Bit Outside Mens softball team and their opponent, WB Roofing, went into the late innings of the contest, it slowly became something the team was familiar to, but hadn't seen so far this season:

Down late with no offense in sight.

"We've been in this kind of situation many times before," said manager Chris Furman about how the game was playing out. "Our offense will sputter throughout most of the game, but for some reason, comes alive late."

It happened again last night, as the team went into the last inning of the game down 6 runs to their opponent.

The inning started off innocently, with a hard single to left by Danny Benitez. Frank Carr followed up with a single of his own, as did Justin Kelly. By the time the 6th batter of the inning, Ryan Phelps-Franco, made it to the plate, the team had cut the lead in half, and was only down 9 - 6, with 2 men on and nobody out.

Sadly, though, this story doesn't have a happy ending. 3 fly ball outs later, broken up only by a RBI double from Chris Furman, the game was over, and the team had dropped their first game of the 2010 summer season, a 9 - 7 defeat to WB Roofing (5 - 0).

Despite the loss, the team played well throughout the entire game and proved they will be a tough opponent for anyone within their division this year. It was a case of one inning where WB Roofing was able to do the exact same thing to the JABO club, plating 6 runs in the 4th inning with a bunch of bloop hits and line drive singles.

Benitez (3 - 1, 10.50 ERA) pitched an excellent game for the club, throwing 70% of his pitches for strikes, and even striking out 3 batters during the game (including 2 in a row).

The team faces another tough challenge next week, as they face Milfhunters on Wednesday, June 2 at Field of Dreams. Game time is scheduled for 9pm.