Diamond Dust

Another week of rainy weather forced more cancellations for Rome Men's Softball. The league and its members are considering different options to makeup the rainouts. One option includes teams playing double-headers in upcoming weeks.

The Rome Men’s Softball Association opened its season this past week at the Haselton-Wright Softball Complex.

Bottini Funeral Home won three games on Thursday to punch their ticket to the big dance.

The Week 12 edition of the 2010 Diamond Dust column. Can also be found weekly in the Rome Daily Sentinel and at www.romesentinel.com.

Week 10 play featured two marquee matchups. In the Monday Burt Smith League, undefeated Performance Wire faced Black River Ale House/D&D Carpets, while in the Thursday Jim Korpela League, a battle of the unbeatens closed out the week on field two.

The chase for playoff positions began in earnest this week as the Community and Burt Smith Leagues played week seven games while the Jim Korpela League completed week eight. With the top four teams from each league earning an automatic spot in the post-season RMSA tourney, teams in the middle of the pack stated their case for inclusion in the tournament.

Late-inning heroics were the order of the day yet again as the RMSA schedule reached the halfway point this week.

Week four of RMSA play saw more late- and extra-inning heroics as teams battled for position heading to the quarter pole. In the Sunday Community League, Sammy G’s and Taylor Construction needed an extra inning to decide their contest.

Winter’s return appearance in Central New York this past weekend forced the postponement of the entire Community League slate on Sunday. Those games will be made up on May 30.