LYNN — Custom uniforms, an ice cream truck, a first pitch thrown out by Todd Angilly (anthem singer for the Boston Bruins), and some friendly softball. You could say it doesn’t get much better than that.
The Lynn Police and Fire departments squared off in the first “Battle of the Badges” charity softball game Sunday. The final score favored Team Police, 12-5, at Fraser Field.
All proceeds benefited to-be-determined local charities, decided on by each department.
“We’ll pick a charity and Police will pick a charity,” said Pat Crowley of Team Fire, one of the event organizers. “It’s a good thing to bring both departments together, the community together, and have some fun on a Sunday.”
Despite the loss on the scoreboard, it was all in good fun, according to Crowley.
“And, no one got hurt,” he said with a smile. “That’s number one. Everyone’s going to work tomorrow.”
All that said, there may have been some revenge involved. Sunday was dubbed as round two after the charity hockey game in March. Team Fire won that one, 8-1, at Connery Rink.
“We took a hard L (loss) in the hockey game, so we had to get them back,” said a chuckling Bobby Liberge of Team Police, who also helped organize Sunday’s event. “Jose Almonte and Brendan Powicki put the team together and brought it to fruition.”
A few months ago, North Shore Navigators Baseball President Derek January reached out to talk about launching the event. Crowley and company were game.
“We thought it was a great idea after the success of the hockey game,” he said. “So, we got in contact with Bobby and made it happen.”
Well, it happened. With “no fastballs,” as said by Crowley, balls were flying across the diamond with 17 total runs.
“I tell you what, the young ballplayers on Police, they were good,” he said. “But I think everyone did well.”
Liberge agreed, adding both sides played hard.
“I thought it was great competition,” he said. “There were some great hits in there and some great fielding. It was a great, competitive game. We had a blast.”
Smiles were aplenty, but every now and then, it was time to try and win.
“You want to keep it fun, but, obviously, your competitive side comes out,” Crowley said. “You want to win, but keep it between the lines.”
Crowley also singled out Billy Dumas’ pitching that “kept us in the game,” as well as the young talent of AJ Luciano and Keny Sanchez.
After Fire’s win on the ice and Police’s on the diamond, both sides were brainstorming some ideas for an all-deciding round three.
“Boy, some said golf; others said flag football and basketball,” Crowley said. “We’ll try and figure something out for round three. We’ll try to keep it going every year – hopefully, find three events that suit us both.”
Team Fire: Crowley, Chris Oram, John Lynch Jr., Pat Coppola, Andre Painchaud, Doug Surette, Tom Carter, Robert Kimber, Billy Dumas, Mike McBride, Kevin Downey, Tony Uva, James Giguere, Luciano, Sam Hill, Josh Echevarria, John Barry Jr., Justin Murray, Brad Ray, Danny Kane, Sanchez, Joe Cipolletti, Brendon Hamilton, Mike Noon, Jared Thomas.
Team Police: Liberge, Andrew Kreamer, Lucas Harris, Brendan Powicki, Mike Gorman, John Bernard, Anthony Niko, Jose Almonte, Nick Bona, Matt Lauria, Brandon Devin, Nick Peveri, David Barnard, Chris Kelly, Bob Mason, Mike Donovan, Mike Vail, Cara Crowley, Frank Perry, Ben Craven.
Jim Beliveau and Paul Thomas served as umpires.
