Email   Print   Share By Daniel Cernero, Sentinel Sports Editor

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With the 41st Fires Bde. batting in the top half of the second inning, the Rail Gunners go head-to-head with the 120th Inf. Bde. Misfits in the post championship softball game July 31 at Rodney Evans Softball Complex. Daniel Cernero, Sentinel Sports Editor

Members of the 120th Inf. Bde. Misfits collect trophies for winning the post championship, its fourth in five years. Daniel Cernero, Sentinel Sports Editor

The 120th Inf. Bde. Misfits go through the hand-shake line at the end of the post championship softball game July 31 at Rodney Evans Softball Complex. The Misfits won the post title for the fourth time in five years, stopping the game after three innings by amounting a 15-run lead at 18-3. Daniel Cernero, Sentinel Sports Editor

Four Fort Hood Championships in five years, and five East League title over the same span.

That’s what the 120th Infantry Brigade Misfits, Division West, accomplished by waxing the 41st Fires Brigade in the finals of this year’s post softball tournament July 31, bringing the game to a halt after two-plus innings by reaching the 15-run mercy rule.

In a hole before even taking a swing after the Rail Gunners put up three runs in the top half of the first inning, the Misfits quickly erased the deficit with a three-run home run from its third batter, Will Sherrill.

“We needed to do that to tie it up,” said Rene Hernandez, 120th Inf. Bde. “And once it’s tied up, it’s 0-0 again to us.”

120th Inf. Bde. tacked on two more runs before the inning was through.

When the Rail Gunners failed to strike in their half of the second inning, the Misfits took complete control and put the game out of reach with another three-run home run as part of a nine-run inning to push the score to 14-3.

“It takes us a little while to get going,” Hernandez said. “After that, everything started going for us hitting wise and fielding, too.”

41st Fires Bde. garnered a couple of two-out singles in the top of the third inning, but failed to bring runners across home plate.

The Misfits needed only four runs to reach the 15-run mercy rule stepping up to the plate in the third inning, and they came out swinging. A third three-run home run of the game put the seasoned team all but there.

Collecting their trophies after the game, the Misfits had a calm

demeanor, complimenting the Rail Gunners on their accomplishment while not being over-jubilant in yet another post title.

“We play on post, we play off post,” Hernandez said, explaining the lack of surprise in winning. “This is the first year we’ve all actually played together, but a bunch of these guys play downtown, as well in Killeen and Harker Heights.

“We play all year round,” he added. “Most of these unit teams don’t really play that much, but we play year-round, and it just so happens that they’re all in my unit.”

Hernandez, however, did say that this year’s championship was a little more special than those from previous years.

“This is a really good team,” he said. “This is our last year – most of these guys, we’ve been playing for the past three years on the same team.

“Everybody’s leaving, so if the Misfits do have a team next year, it won’t be us.”