Flyers soar back for summer softball league championship

The Franklin Flyers upset the Medical Maniacs 5-4 on Tony Henry's last-inning blast. The game provided an exciting close to the league run by the University's Department of Recreation. All day in the Franklin Building on Monday, Yvonne Oronzio got calls wishing her good luck. The championship game of the University of Pennsylvania's summer softball league was at six that night, and Oronzio's team, the Franklin Flyers, were supposed to face the Medical Maniacs. Though the Flyers had made it to the divisional championship last year, the Maniacs had spent this summer establishing themselves as a serious bunch of competitors. So much so that members of several other teams that would not play that evening showed up to support the Flyers. "We went into the game being somewhere between on-edge and over the top," Oronzio, the assistant coach of the Flyers, said. Oronzio got the team off to an auspicious start -- one that would prove ultimately crucial -- when she won the coin toss for home field advantage and the chance to bat last. But that was the most exciting action for the more than 30 fans who showed up as the game was a decidedly defensive affair in the first three innings. In the fourth inning, however, the Maniacs did get on the scoreboard, going up 2-0. After a scoreless fifth inning, the Flyers rallied to tie the score at 2-2 in the sixth inning. In the top of the seventh inning, the final inning of regulation play, the Maniacs scored two conceivably backbreaking runs to push ahead of the Flyers, 4-2. The Flyers though showed quickly in their half of the inning that they were not finished. Three consecutive singles loaded the bases for Tony Henry. Henry promptly lifted a monstrous blast to clear the bases. He never even made it to third base before the rest of the Franklin Flyers swarmed on top of him. The Flyers were victorious, 5-4. "It was a wonderful, sweet win," Oronzio said. "It was so exciting -- down to the last second... I wish I had it on tape." The Flyers path to the championship was not quite as nail biting as the final game. They opened the playoffs with a 19-1 demolition of the Wharton Phollies. Then they drove the top-seeded Museum team from the field in five innings, 16-7. In a rematch of last year's divisional championship, then, the Flyers soundly beat the Johnny Rebs for the opportunity to challenge the Medical Maniacs. The fantastic finish to the season provided a fitting conclusion to a well-organized season run by the University's Department of Recreation. "Everyone on my team has made comments about how great it was. They were there every game. It was completely organized and supervised," Oronzio said. "They show up in the beginning, they bring the equipment, they set up, they clean up. It's a nice difference. "Last year just seemed like there were two groups of people showing up on the field. It seems like more of a Penn thing now not just 24 people showing up to play a ball game."