Outwit. Outplay. Oulast.
Wheatsville shelves South by Southwest
By Mike Crissey, 5:12PM, Fri. May 1, 2009

Kevin “Dr. Krankenstein” Johnson legged out a 2-run homer in the eighth inning to lift undefeated Wheatsville Food Co-op to an 11-9 win over South by Southwest during a nail-biter on Thursday, April 23.
His in-the-park home run to right field, capped a 4-run, 2-out rally as the unsinkable SKUs (4-0, 3-0 ASL North) and I had our second straight come from behind victory.
South By Southwest (1-3, 0-3 North) scored eight runs in the first four innings and stayed ahead for the entire game until their undoing in the eighth inning, although they never led by more than three runs.
We held them to one run from the fourth to the eighth innings, but South by Southwest’s stingy defense – forged in a city-league season and featuring Charlie “Spinderfella” Sotelo on the mound – looked like they could hold us off. My teammate Clifford Bagley led off the inning with a single, but the next two batters struck out and popped up to second base.
Greg Hull then hit a double to cut the lead to one run and Nate Lineback had a triple to drive in the tying run before Kevin Johnson’s homer gave us the lead.
South By Southwest threatened to score in the ninth inning after loading the bases with three singles, but Wheatsville pitcher Trae Branham had an unassisted double play to end the threat.
Cassie Wright hit a fungo along the third baseline, which Trae Branham caught and then tagged out George Majewski who was running for home. A popup ended the game.
Nate Lineback led Wheatsville batters, going 4-for-4 with two triples and four RBIs, while Kevin Johnson batted 2-for-3 with a sacrifice fly, a homer and three RBIs. Trae Branham went 2-for-3 with a double, triple and two RBIs.
South by Southwest leadoff hitter Wyc Comming went 3-for-4, including a 3-run homer in the third inning. Matt Mandrella batted 3-for-4 with a 2-run triple in the first inning.
Wheatsville also won a squeaker 14-10 against BookPeople (1-2, 1-2 North) with a six-run two-out rally in the ninth inning on Sunday, April 19.
You can keep up with all the games, trash talk, and your favorite teams and players through the league’s MySpace page at www.myspace.com/alternativesoftballleague.
Follow the ASL on Twitter at www.twitter.com/altsoftball.
A note to readers: Bold and uncensored, The Austin Chronicle has been Austin’s independent news source for over 40 years, expressing the community’s political and environmental concerns and supporting its active cultural scene. Now more than ever, we need your support to continue supplying Austin with independent, free press. If real news is important to you, please consider making a donation of $5, $10 or whatever you can afford, to help keep our journalism on stands.