So some of my recollections of the finer details from the last two days may be a little off, but there was so much worth remembering that I’m a little bit on overload.
Coming into the last games of the round robin on Saturday afternoon, there were no less than 3 teams that could be the unlucky eliminated team and 6 teams eligible to earn the bye through to Sunday. The Rusty Rebels recovered from some heart breaking losses to beat the Lucky Stiffs and stay alive. Dodge City Rounders who lost twice on Saturday by more than 7 runs still made the playoffs on +/- due to the Red Dogs loss to the Dog Catchers. Honestly....who saw that coming?
The 1st team to be eliminated was the Red Dogs & the teams with the byes to Sunday based on the round robin order of finish were
1. The Dislocated Joints.
2. The Grisslies.
3. The Wild.
4. The Dog Catchers.
So that left the following Saturday Elimination games….
Dodge City Rounders Vs. Recycled. This was a strange one. Strange in that recycled headed into Saturday at 3-0 and lost a (seemingly) meaningless game 8-3 to torn ligaments. That one lost & +/- knocked them out of the top four and forced an elimination game. Meanwhile, you have Dodge City with that “just happy to be there” attitude. There were a number of guys on that team that thought they’d be going home earlier and were legitimately thrilled to still be played. Both teams ended up playing pretty well, although the sun was HUGE issue for both teams. Dodge won 23-20 and moved on.
Dusty Cleats Vs. Lucky Stiffs. Elimination games are funny, huh? So, the Stiffs started the round robin with a bit of surprise tie against torn ligaments, then a very surprising win over the Red Dogs and then kinda beat up on Dodge City. They were 2-0-1 before losing a hard fought game to the Rusty Rebels. Consensus was thought that the Stiffs were a hot and a team that you “didn’t want to face”. And who had to face them, the Cleats. The Dusty Cleats had a very tough ride through the playoffs starting with a really tough 2 run loss to the Grisslies. They had enough in +/- to finish 11th. As hot as The Stiffs were, this was a great match up for the Dusty Cleats having beaten them twice and easily in the regular season. Trends don’t ALWAYS mean something, but they did in this game with the Cleats prevailing 18-13 and eliminating the Stiffs.
Rusty Rebels Vs. Banshees. The Rusty Rebels were in the same boat as Dodge City, thinking that they were going home until they earned their way into elimination by winning their last round robin games. The Banshees, like Recycled, were a 3-1 team that was forced to play an elimination game because of =/-. The Rebels and Banshees played what was probably the best of the 1st round of elimination games with the Banshees on the losing end of 13-12 decision.
Hot Tub Woody’s Vs. Torn Ligaments. Torn Ligaments had the 1st of the great comebacks in the playoffs when they rolled a six in the 7th inning of their 1st game to tie the Stiffs. They then had 2 losses and a win and seem to be hitting their stride. The Woody’s on the other hand, had a pretty tough draw losing to the Recycled, Banshees and Wild and winning against Rusty Rebels. Tougher still, the Torn Ligaments were a team that handled them twice and easily in the regular season, and while the game was close at 15-10, the Woody’s were the last of the Saturday eliminations.
Saturday concluded with 5 teams gone (but not forgotten) in the Hot Tub Woody’s, Banshees, Lucky Stiffs, Recycled and Red Dogs.
Match ups for Sunday morning’s ELITE EIGHT elimination games were:
Torn Ligaments Vs. Dislocated Joints
Rusty Rebels Vs. Grisslies
Dusty Cleats Vs. The Wild
Dodge City Rounders Vs. Dog Catchers.
More to come…..
(bonus points if you know what song the title of this post comes from) ((double if you know the artist))
1 comment:
Great job. Sweet and to the point.
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