Pro Body Routs ThreeLife, Bailey Homers into the Trees

Nobody can mash a grapefruit-sized softball quite like the team from Pro Body Works and the Rip Tide.

They not only put the ball in play, the men from Pro Body also run out every ground ball. They hit the softball like there is no tomorrow.

But there actually is.

“We have some upper- level softball players. We hit the ball in the middle. We have fun. We hit it good, and we have seven players over the age of 50,” said Pro Body Works head softball coach Stormy Weathers.

As for the weekly forecast, the men from Pro Body Works and the Rip Tide have seen more sunshine than raindrops this season.

Pro Body is 8-1 on the season, and that includes their Thursday night 18-8 “run rule” decision over ThreeLife Church at the Shuford Softball Complex.

Weathers and the softball characters from Pro Body were up to their old Adult League tricks. Pro Body and the Rip Tide went on an assault with 18 runs on 14 hits.

Pro Body found some rhyme and reason to it all with two runs in the first inning, six runs in the second, four runs in the top of the third and six runs in the fourth inning.

“We have a lot of athletes. We hit the ball hard, and we don’t mess around,” said Luke Bailey, the Pro Body Works third baseman.

Bailey knows how to pick it at the hot corner on defense. The 31-year-old Bailey is also in touch with the art of lifting the ball over the infield and out of the softball complex.

Bailey went yard with his three-run homer in the top of the fourth inning. Bailey, who played seven seasons of minor league and Independent League baseball, still knows how to choke and poke.

His fourth inning homer found a resting place in the trees behind the left field fence. Stormy Weathers, the coach and catcher for Pro Body Works, hit a dinger, too, in the very same inning.

Weathers went the solo home run route with a ball that covered every bit of 300 feet to center field.

Long before that, Pro Body Works was feeling good with a 2-0 lead in the first inning. Lathaniel Driver and Buddy Forbus chipped in one RBI each.

Before the game was in the softball books, the 70-year-old Forbus would have two hits and two RBI’s for the night. Forbus got around on another base hit with a run-scoring single in the top of the second inning.

Lathaniel Driver brought in a run, too, with a single. Weathers and Anthony Digiulio also doubled in the inning for Pro Body and the Rip Tide.

Shortstop Justin Lee brought in another run with a groundout. Pro Body Works was rolling with an 8-2 lead.

ThreeLife Church mounted an adult-sized rally in the bottom of the second, too. Mason Green, Sammy Crowe, Nick Stroud and Reeves Durger had RBI base hits.

Stroud also singled in a run in the first inning. Green whacked an RBI double, as well.

The game was still a toss up after two innings of play. Pro Body Works led by only one run, at 8-7.

“We were living the dream. We can pitch and hit,” said Stroud, the ThreeLife Church softball star.

Pro Body kept answering and scoring, too. They had a 12-7 advantage in the third inning. Kenny Owensby was partly responsible with an RBI single.

And in the top of the fourth, Pro Body Works pulled away like a Lamborghini with a six-run outburst. Pro Body took an 18-7 lead.

The inning included two home runs, one each from Stormy Weathers and Luke Bailey, the latter of which was drafted in the fourth round by the Tampa Bay Rays in 2009.

ThreeLife Church had a well-meaning rally in the bottom of the fourth, as well. ThreeLife scored one more run with a Sammy Crowe infield hit, a Nick Stroud walk and a Mason Herren single to left field.

Chris Fernsler
Sports Editor