Antiques 65+
The Antiques lost a tough doubleheader on Monday. We played poorly in the opener and lost to Detroit, 10-4. Then we lost a tough one, 5-4, to the Western Silver Foxes. We dodged a couple of bullets early in the game, including turning a triple play in the 7th. But they scored two in the bottom of the ninth to beat us.
We beat the Kent Mudhens on Tuesday, 10-7. Another close game, we scored 3 in the top of the ninth on a 3-run triple by Grizz Williams and hung on for the win.
On Wednesday, we got behind the New England Red Sox early. We fought back, but lost 11-7.
So our record at the end of the round robin portions of the tournament was 1-3. That relegated us to the consolation (AA) bracket for the elimination round.
On Thursday, we beat the Georgia Classics 13-7 in a placement game to determine seeding. On Friday, we won our quarter-final elimination game, 13-3, over the Kent Mudhens.
We needed to win a double header on Saturday. Jerry Karnow threw a 3 hitter in the opener and we won 12-0 over Dan Rodgers Sports from Toledo. That put us up against a very good Chicago Spirit team. Clyde Jones kept us in the game early and then our bats came alive. We ended up winning 18-6.
We were a little disappointed that we didn’t make the 6-team AAA bracket. But winning the 9-team AA consolation bracket was a good way to finish the tournament.
Giants 65+
The Giants won Sunday’s opener, 11-0, over Team Florida. The win was clouded, however, by an injury to Dan Pawelek, our #1 pitcher, in the bottom of the first inning. Dan pulled a hamstring trying to beat out a dribbler. Bob Loflin pitched the rest of that game and kept the shutout intact.
We beat Cecil’s Margin Services on Monday, 14-2. Satch Petrillo started and went 3 shutout innings. Bob Harvey finished the game strong.
On Tuesday, we beat the Kansas City Cubs, 9-6. Denny Brown went 8 innings and Rich Battiato closed out the win in the 9th.
On Wednesday, we played the Akron Blues at the brand new Jet Blue Stadium. Jet Blue is a replica of Boston’s Fenway Park, with the Green Monster, the cutout in center field, and Pesky pole down the right field line. We beat Akron 14-4 in a game that was closer than the final score indicated. Rich Battiato started and went 3 strong innings. Then Dan Pawelek tried an inning on the hill to see how well his hamstring could handle pitching. He survived. Denny Brown finished the game, aided by more great offense.
That put us 4-0 and a lock for the top (AAAA) championship bracket. We lost a placement game to the New England Red Sox, who were also 4-0, by a score of 14-3. That meant that New England got the #1 seed. We got the #3 seed. Strategically, we did not use any of our top pitchers in that game, and we got a chance to rest a few of our starters.
We were in good shape with rested pitchers going into our game on Friday. Satch Petrillo kept the Tallahassee Classics off balance, throwing 8 strong innings in our 8-3 win. Pawelek again wanted to test his leg by pitching an inning to close the game.
That put us up against the Kansas City Blues, the #2 seed, in the semi-final on Saturday morning. We got out to a quick lead, scoring 6 in the top of the first. That was more than enough for Bob Loflin. He tossed a sweet complete game, winning 11-1.
We met the Washington Titans, a long-time nemesis, in the final. The Titans had beaten us in the finals of the 55+ division in the past two years, and three of the past 4. After a week-long rehab, Dan Pawelek took the hill for the championship game.
We took an early lead. The Titans came back in the middle innings to cut our lead to 4-3. From there out, we played small-ball and scratched out a 2-run and a 3-run inning to push our lead to 9-3. Pawelek held on for a gutsy complete game win.
Sweeeet!
Great work guys!