This was the first season in recent memory where weather did not have an impact on the Intramural Softball season. There were some hiccups with Essex County and reserving the field, Mr. Hall and the rest of the Intramural Staff apologize for that but it was out of our hands.
Major League
A respectable 9 teams signed up for the Major League. La Flama Blanca started the season off hot and heading into the tournament Mr. Hall thought that they would be the slight favorite to take home the T-Shirts.
La Flama Blanca started the tournament off against Jessie and the Rippers, Jessie and the Rippers came out with the surprise W by a score of 4-2. Jessie and The Rippers would go
on to play Kekembas, who defeated the Skulls 17-10. The remaining first round games saw ZBT take on Yard Work and Deals 4 Steals play Kev Can’t Come. ZBT won a tight game 11-9 to advance. Deals 4 Steals and Kev Can’t Come both featured players from last year’s championship team SkaDurteeDoo. Deals 4 Steals came away with the close victory when newcomer Johnny Hinz grounded out as the tying run.
The Semi-Finals were set, Jessie and the Rippers were scheduled to face Kekambas and ZBT Bulldogs were going to face off against Deals 4 Steals. Kekambas jumped all over Jessie and the Rippers and advanced to the finals by a score of 11-0. Deals 4 Steals followed them into the finals with a 10-5 win over ZBT.
The Championship Game saw Kekambas take on Deals 4 Steals and it was a great matchup. Deals 4 Steals were led by pitcher James Donnelly who had the high scoring Kekambas guessing all game long and the normally high scoring team seemed to be frustrated all game long at the plate. Kekambas jumped out to an early 1-0 leadin the bottom of the first, but Deals came back in the top of the second to score 4 and take a 4-1 lead. Kekambas scored 2 in the third and 1 in the fourth and we were tied up 4-4 entering the fifth inning. Deals 4 Steals had a big top of the fifth scoring 3 runs to take a 7-4 lead. Both teams failed to score in their next at bats, so Kekambas came to the plate in the bottom of the last inning needing to score 4 runs to win the shirts. Kekambas got tow of there first 3 batters on base and looked like they were beginning to start a rally, but the next batter hit a hard grounder to third and the third baseman stepped on the bag and threw to first for a game ending championship winning double play.
Minor League
Only 7 teams joined the Minor League defending champs La Familia was the obvious choice to repeat as champions, but Mr. Hall had his eyes on Real Men of Genius. They had a suprising win over Major League Champions Deals 4 Steals in the Regular Season and Mr. Hall just didn’t see any teams taking them down.
Real Men opened the tournament with a tight 4-2 win over The Astronauts, they would face off against The U in the Semi-Finals after The U throttled PKT Cardinals 19-0 in the opening round. La Familia started their championship defense off with a 10-5 win over Apha Sigma Phi and got a bye into the championship after a double forfeit. In the Semi’s Real Men of Genius and The U played a great game, it was a pitcher’s duel that went into extra innings. Real Men scored the winning run in the bottom of the eighth inning and that set up a matchup between the defending champs La Familia and Mr. Halls pick Real Men of Genius.
The championship game was scoreless for the first two innings, Real Men of Genius put up 1 in the top of the third and one in the top of the fourth and headed into the fifth inning with a 2-0 lead. Real Mens pitcher Anthony “Bartolo Colon” Salerno continued his season long dominance and the bats caught fire in the top of the fifth inning. Real men plated 4
runs to take a 6-0 lead into the 6th and final inning, after 2 more insurance runs Salerno got threw the 6th inning with ease and Real Men of Genius celebrated their 8-0 championship
win.
Here is the interesting point from this year’s softball season. On Monday, September 19th
Real Men of Genius defeated Deals 4 Steals by a score of 2-0. So does this make Real Men of Genius the best team, I guess we will never know.
Little League
8 teams came out to play in Little League this year, but as always we had some forfeits so only 5 teams made it to the tournament. One Hit Wonders and SHU DPT looked like early season favorites, and the two would meet up in the Semi-Finals after D Phi E forfeited in the opening round. One Hit Wonders squeaked one out against SHU DPT by a score of 10-9. They awaited the winner of SAA +1 and Rocket Team. Rocket Team won in convincing fashion by a score of 8-1 and set up a final of One Hit Wonders and Rocket Team in the finals.
One Hit Wonders had a solid season all around, pitcher Matt “Birdman” Sartori got over his late inning collapse in last years championship, and the bat of DJ Swarbrick was feared by all teams in the Little League.
One Hit Wonders continued their domination in the finals and won by a score of 12-6. All season long they had to fight against the memories of last years collapse in the championship game, and they did.
Congrats to all of the Champs!!!.
kev can’t come was clearly the best team, the other team got lucky in the playoffs