DPOSTM rallies from five-run deficit to retain Kamin Cup glory over NARPs

Down but never out. 

After falling behind by a score of 5-0 in the first inning of the Kamin Cup, DPOSTM staged a comeback over the rest of the company, non-athletic random people (NARPs), to win comfortably by a score of 16-10. 

This was the second straight year the Cup was a kickball game as opposed to the traditional football, this time being played at Dunning-Cohen Champions Field on Saturday. 

“It was just really great to get a nice team win and keep the streak going,” Senior Sports Associate Joey Piatt, a junior, said. “We didn’t have a full staff out there, I think last year we had a bit better of a turnout, but I think those of us who did show up for sports, everybody performed and everybody did a really great job in some form or fashion.”

Piatt took home MVP honors on Saturday with a two-home run performance, the second time he's won such an award in his Kamin Cup career — the first being after a dominant football performance during his freshman year. 

“Things were working,” Piatt said. “When I got to the plate, it felt smooth, it felt easy.”

Reigning MVP Coby Rich, who, despite not showing up to many meetings this semester, showed up big time on the diamond, making some acrobatic catches in center field, saving the team several runs in the process. 

Kamin newcomer Eashwar Kantemneni, a Deputy Sports Editor out of Cincinnati, had a stellar first performance, going 7-7 at the plate and notching too many RBIs to count. 

Not to be outdone, former Senior Sports Editor Lochlahn March performed stellarly on the mound in relief of her successor Matt Frank, pitching eight near-perfect innings after a shaky first from Frank. 

When things were looking down for DPOSTM in the first, the team quickly regrouped, made the pitching change, rotated a few defensive positions, and successfully got in the head of the NARPs, quickly shutting down any thoughts of an upset. 

Despite the relatively comfortable margin of victory, Piatt and other DPOSTMites were impressed by the NARPs’ talents this year. They had a shutdown defensive squad along first base and right field, led by 34th Street Editor-in-Chief Emily White.

Behind the plate, Josh "Josh from Finance" Trenchard recorded a key pinch-hit grand slam for the NARPs in the seventh inning, which made it a three-run ballgame. DPOSTM was able to shut down the NARPs from there on out, recording a few insurance runs in the process. 

“We started out hot, but we just didn’t have it in us to finish it off,” DP Editor-in-Chief Jonah Charlton said. 

Charlton played well throughout the match, but it wasn’t enough for the NARPs to pull through. During the bottom of the third, a large group of them looked distracted as they teamed up to take a pyramid group photo, neglecting their on-field responsibilities. Perhaps better focus would have made this a closer game.

“We have good prospects for next year,” Charlton said. “I’ll be there — I may not be editor-in-chief, but I’ll be there.”

The win makes it five in a row for DPOSTM, which suffered a controversial 2016 loss after foolishly trading away some key freshmen pre-game. DPOSTM will be in good shape heading in to next year’s Cup, as nobody in Saturday’s lineup was a graduating senior. The NARPS, however, will lose a key member of Saturday's team, as pitcher and Copy Deputy Sinaia Keith Lang will graduate and be sufficiently difficult to replace.

After the game, there were talks on both sides of a return to a football Kamin Cup this fall, so stay tuned for any future developments.