Before getting too far into the wrap up, one quick reminder:
FBL Banquet: Saturday October 6, 2018 @ 7p hosted by the Sexpos at the Cover (4th/Alma). Block it out and be there!
ROUND ROBIN RECAP
On the North field, the seeds held true for the most part as the Aces went through group undefeated, winning their final round robin game against Franchise to secure 1st in their division. The upstart Franchise showed their regular season success wasn't a fluke and and losing a close game with the Aces, took 2nd place by winning their first three games. After 8 years in the league, the Franchise took their first steps into the semi-finals of the playoffs (making a quarter-final appear a few years ago under the old double knockout format). The Nads were the owners of a 2-2 record, but were also the unfortunate team who only ended up playing 2 games on the weekend due to never before happened forfeits in the playoffs. Kudos to the Nads for their spirit and attitude through it all. Closing out the group were the 1-3 Sexpos and 0-4 Raiders.
On the South field, no free passes were available to anyone as every team brought their A-game. Saturday kicked off with the seeds holding true is mostly tight game until the spunky Marvels, the 2017 defending champions, kicked into playoff most and scored the first seeding upset of the weekend, knocking off the 4th seeded Dawgs 10-9. Sunday brought three final games in which teams needed to win to stay alive, and for the Dawgs, needing to win 2. The Riddlers came up short in their effort, falling 14-7 to the Marvels and dropped out of contention, leaving a final round robin game of Skeleton Crew and Dawgs to determine who goes through - or worse - a 3 way tie atop the standings and bringing the dreaded run differential tiebreaker into it. Well, the Dawgs fought and clawed and forced extra innings with the Crew. (NOTE: Extra Innings utilize International Softball Rules - runner starts on 2nd, inning starts with 1 out) In the extra session, the Crew managed to table 2 runs to take the lead, but the Dawgs were resilient - scoring a run off the first batter and ending up with that runner on 3rd with 1 out. After a line drive out to 3rd and the runner unable to advance, the Dawgs chances ended at the warning track after a deep fly ball out.
SEMI-FINALS
On the North field, the undefeated Aces faced off last year's champs - the Marvels. The Aces started out quick and held the Marvels in check for the first 4+ innings. The Marvels then started to find their bats and began their comeback, but simply ran out of time falling 17-5 and pushing the Aces through to the final.
On the South diamond, the upstart Franchise looked to earn their first appearance in the FBL Playoffs against the regular season champion Skeleton Crew. Well, they started off in style - or so it appeared - as their lead off batter smashed a ball deep into the gap in right, after clipping a few leaves and crushing into the fence, there was a play at home, but the Franchise runner was safe. But what occurred next will go down in FBL history as the "Screw Over". As the ball clipped leaves/hit a tree, the ruling was umpires discretion, which resulted in a dead ball "do over" (new rule introduced for this year's playoffs). Needless to say, the crowd was boisterous as were the Franchise. That hiccup didn't stop them from continuing to smash the ball and playing solid defense. Falling behind 12-7, the Franchise were determined to storm back and plated a couple runners, but in the end, came up just short, dropping a 12-9 decision sending the Crew to the finals for the 2nd straight year.
Editor's Note: this very unbalanced write up is not to play down the game on the north field, but rather because of two items: (1) the author was playing on the south field and is unaware of the in-game highlights of the north field semi, and let's be real - a playoff do over - on the very first pitch! That's worth the story.
CHAMPIONSHIP GAME
A rematch of last year's heat semi-final game paired the top two teams from the regular season and two undefeated teams from the round robin in a winner take all championship game. It started out with the potential of being a very high scoring as the Aces took a 4-3 lead after the first. The Crew then managed to cross 5 runners in the 3rd to take an 8-4 lead, but the Aces chipped away, getting one back in the bottom half of the inning and another two in the bottom of the 4th, leaving the game at -7 in favor of the Crew. After extending the lead to 9-7 in the top of the 6th, the Crew found themselves looking up at the Aces after the home side put up a 5-spot and suddenly in the driver's seat heading into the 7th inning leading 12-9. The Crew were not giving up though and mounted their own attempt at crushing the spirit of the opposition, managing 4 runs off some solid hitting and unfortunate errors by the Aces and went into the home half of the 7th with a 13-12 lead. The Aces refused to lay down and fought and scratched and managed to tie things up with a single run in the bottom of the 7th, sending the championship game into extra inning for the second time in three years (Nads over Aces in 2016).
In the extra session, the Crew came up short and failed to score a run. For the Aces, with a runner on 2nd and two out, they managed a game ending drive off the fence to scoring the winning run and ending a fantastic game and season - 14-13.
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| 2018 FBL Playoff Champions - Aces |
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| Where there's a Will, there's a ... shower |
WEEKEND POTPOURRI
- Dedicated Service: This weekend is a success due to the efforts on one man every year - our amazing Gary "Willy" Wilson! Starting well before the playoffs even begin (cleaning all coolers, repairing bases and bags and coolers in the offseason), lining our fields, and then taking home the bulk of the field equipment and coolers again for cleaning and repair.
- Highlight of the weekend: Trina's foul ball landing on top of the bus passing by!
- Special Kudos: A big thanks to our dedicated Concession staff for braving the less than fine weather both days - you were both amazing Sascha and Georgette!
- Minimal Controversy: we didn't get through the weekend without issues (impossible with forfeits), but we did do so with very little drama, arguing, etc. Thank you all for that.
- Smooth: Thanks to everyone for getting games off on time, to the umps for keeping things on time, and to everyone who did little extras (gear pick up/drop off, ice, concession shopping, etc). Thank you thank you thank you.
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