Revving Up Their Guns and Hoses

We're still about two months away from football season, but the borough fire and police departments played a softball game Sunday with a final score that seemed better suited to the more violent sport.

Last year, the departments played one another in a softball game for the very first time. They called it "Guns and Hoses," and this year marked the event's second annual occurrence.

The police department won the first meeting, but the fire department got its revenge this year, beating the policemen 28-13 to even the all-time series at 1-1.

"The game went terrific," said fire department member George Sweetin. "The police department, they scored six runs in the first inning, and we felt we were done by the middle of the first, but we came right back and scored 11 runs in the bottom of the first. And we just clobbered them from there."

He said some police department members that had played last year weren't around for this year's game.

As for the high scoring, he said, "we were on top of the game. Big bats are what they are."

Borough Mayor Nelson Vaughan threw out the game's first pitch.

"Both chiefs were there, and the camraderie was wonderful," he said.

The game, however, doesn't have a traditional trophy ceremony. At "Guns and Hoses," the loser wins the prize.

A horse sticking its rear end outward adorns the trophy. So Fire Chief Peter Glogolich had the distinct pleasure of presenting it to Police Chief Phillip Crosson after the game. But it's all in good fun.

"We're on the same side, more or less," Sweetin said. "So it's a good rivalry."