By Chris Paul
In what has now become an annual tradition during the Old Home Day festivities, Fire and Police Departments from Derry and Londonderry took to the softball field Friday night, testing each town’s skills in softball.
For the second straight year, the cross-town rivals from Derry came away with the win, giving the teams a 2-2 split in their overall meetings.
Londonderry First Responders won the first two contests, skipped playing in 2020, during Covid-19, and since then Derry has taken the last two victories in this friendly rivalry.
On Friday night, Aug. 18, the teams met just after the rains soaked the field and played five innings of slow-pitch softball where Derry outlasted the home-field team for a slim 18-16 win.
The Londonderry squad was able to take an early lead in the first, sitting down Derry’s first three batters and scoring the first two runs with an inside-the-park homer to lead 2-0.
Derry quickly came back in the second, scoring eight, which Londonderry matched in the bottom of the inning for a 10-8 lead.
The visitors took a 14-10 lead in the third, scoring six unanswered runs in the inning and added four more in the fourth for a 18-10 lead.
In the bottom of that inning, Londonderry scored five, thanks to two inside-the-park homeruns, then blanked Derry in the top of the fifth to trail by just three, going into the bottom of the final inning.
In the bottom of the fifth, Derry’s defense and pitching held the home squad to just one run, handing Londonderry the 18-16 defeat.