MISQUAH — The Lakeside Pike opened their summer recreation softball season Saturday with a 7–4 win over the Pinedale Pioneers, in a game decided in the fifth inning by a fly ball, a chain-link fence, and a dispute over who had the standing to rule on either.

Playing at the Legion field before a crowd of family members and a few passersby, the Pike led 5–4 in the bottom of the fifth when Dale Ouellette drove a ball deep to left. It struck the top of the outfield fence and bounced back into play. Pinedale’s left fielder threw to second; Ouellette, who had rounded the bag, was tagged retreating to it.

What followed took longer than the rest of the inning combined. Pinedale argued the ball had cleared the fence for a home run, which would have rendered the tag meaningless. The Pike argued it had stayed in, which made the out an out. The question fell to home-plate umpire Wally Brevik, who ruled the ball in play and Ouellette safe at first, where he had ended up.

Brevik is the nephew of Pike pitcher Cody Brevik, a relation Pinedale noted at length and at volume. “I call what I see,” Wally Brevik said afterward. “Who I’m related to is a separate matter, and not, under the rules, my problem.”

Pinedale played the rest of the game under protest, which in the Northwoods Recreation League carries no formal procedure and consists, in practice, of grumbling audibly between innings. The Pike added two insurance runs in the sixth on a double by Ben Aune and held on.

Cody Brevik went the distance for the win, scattering eight hits. “Felt good,” he said. “Aside from the one thing, which I’m not getting into.” The Pike (1–0) host the Two Rivers Loggers on Saturday at 1 p.m. at the Legion field, conditions and mosquitoes permitting.