For the first time in league history the same two teams will battle it out for the title two year in a row
By Dave Hoffenberg
Clearly Moguls earned a return trip to the championship with a 17-3 bashing of The Garlic McGraths. Right off the bat, Jack Boymer went down swinging for a lead-off “Cold Beer K.” Luckily, Ezra Lemieux did not follow suit and put his team up 1-0 as he showed his speed around the bases with an inside-the-park homerun. CM turned a double-play on Jamie Rameau to end the inning. Brett “I Finally Hit a Bomb” Regimbald drove in Brando Remick with a first inning triple. McGraths returned the CBK and struck out Angel Shannon to keep it 1-1. Ronzoni Hacker stayed hot in the second and got Joe Montemurro looking for another CBK. The bottom half of the order did well for CM in the second with three runs to break the tie and go up 4-1. McGraths could not get anything going and went down 1-2-3. CM had their biggest inning of the game in the third, scoring seven runs to extend the slaughter to 11-1. Judd “Magnum” Washburn and Tall Tom Gilligan both drove in two runs and scored. The fourth was more of the same for both teams, McGraths could not score and CM scored a bunch. Regimbald jacked one out to deep right for a three-run homerun. The team added three on top of that to make it 17-1. McGraths scored two in the fifth but it was too little, too late as they suffered the 17-3 mercy loss. They’re still alive as it is double-elimination.
The rest of the games remaining are all elimination loser’s bracket games. The Summ Boss Bombers took an exit from the playoffs with a mercy loss to The Killington Deli Team. The Bombers shocked the crowd when they unveiled their line-up and Scuba Steve Hart was in it, fresh off a two year lay-off. The self-proclaimed “Best Pitcher in the League” was playing second base because the Bombers have a great new pitcher in Nick Melotti. The lay-off rust showed as Scuba went down swinging in his first at-bat. The crowd went wild for pitcher Matt “Ajax” Anderson who was preserving a no-hitter. The Bombers had near collision after collision in the outfield as nobody would call out for the fly ball. The crowd was fearful a collision would happen. Well into the fourth inning, it did. Scuba ran into shortstop Max Zucchini who easily would have caught the ball. Instead Scuba had him singing soprano. The Bombers season ended with Scuba Steve as he took himself out of the game and let everyone know that they were “Number 1.” “Good for you,” said Scuba Steve and since his at-bat is an automatic out, that is how their season ended. Congrats go out to Ajax as he got the season’s first no-hitter.
Ajax stayed hot, more like scorching, in their next game against STF. One-two-three was a common occurrence for STF as that happened to them in the first four innings. TKDT scored three runs in the first inning. STF had some nice “D” in the second, though, as they turned a double-play on David “Loco” Concepcion. He flew out to right field and Matt Peters gunned it to first base and caught Rob Ranberg off of it. TKDT went up 4-0 in the third when Cam Rainwater scored off a Justin Guth double. They had a chance for more but Coach Craig Brothers tried turning a double into a triple and was thrown out. Brothers needs to quit while he’s ahead as this is the second time in two weeks that’s happened. The top of the fifth was more of the same for STF, except one of their outs was a diving web gem by veteran player Chris Alf. Dan Muller had a nice looking sac to make it 5-0. Ajax was hoping his team would have some more offense so he could get the mercy win and another no-hitter. Despite the lack of offense with STF, they did play good “D” throughout the game. The top of the sixth is as far as Ajax’s bid would go. Max Rowe recorded his team’s first hit and broke up the no-hitter. That would be the only hit of the game as STF ended how they began by going down 1-2-3 in the sixth and seventh to exit the playoffs with a 5-0 loss. It was a great season for this rookie team.
TKDT immediately faced McGraths in a rematch of their second round game, which McGraths won. Hits and runs were at a premium as both teams went hit-less in the first. McGraths welcomed back pitcher Bob Pauly who showed why he was needed as he delivered back-to-back CBK’s to Alf and Steve “Killer” Kent. Dola Holland made a web gem diving catch on Ajax to shut down TKDT 1-2-3. Ajax sent Birthday Boy Bob Schaffner back to the bench with a CBK. It wasn’t until the third inning that a run was scored and it was TKDT’s Jus Archer off a Rainwater single. McGrath’s left fielder Denel “Little Mac” McIntyre had a big error which made it a 3-0 lead and Muller quickly made it 4-0. TKDT had two web gems in the bottom of the third to preserve the shut-out. Muller had a diving catch robbing Boymer and Evan Anderson had the other. Ajax deliverd a CBK to Jon White to start the fourth. Just like their last game, Lemieux scored the team’s first run as he showed off his speed again. TKDT scored three in the fifth to stretch their lead 7-1. McGraths had no answer all night and went hit-less in the bottom of the fifth. Loco and Archer scored in the sixth for a 9-1 lead. Pauly got one back in and scored off a White double. Evan Anderson scored in the seventh to make it 10-1. McGraths ended their season pretty ugly as both Schaffner and Rameau went down looking for two more CBK’s. The MVP of the week is Matt “Ajax” Anderson, who had a no-hitter, a one hitter and a five hitter!
TKDT earned a return trip to the championship as well and now for the first time in league history it’s the same two teams battling it out for the title two years in a row. TKDT is seeking their first title while CM their fourth, and they are in a bid to win back-to-back for the second time (2011-12 and 2014-?).
