Kickball365.com Open Recap – If You Can’t Stand The Heat…Tough

(This is the second of three articles that will recap the Kickball365.com Open Tournament that took place on July 17, 2010 in Washington DC.  Part 1 can be found here.  The second annual Kickball365 Open Tournament was the third of four events on The Circuit this year. The following is a recap of the opening elimination rounds.)

Round of 16

While the Round of 16 yielded some interesting matchups, it ultimately didn’t result in any upsets.  (1)Panik Attack defeated (16)Sloppy Seconds 7-1; in a rematch from a morning game, (3)The Core once again beat the (14)First United Connecticut Kickers, this time by a score of 10-0; (4)Lock It Up won the battle of the Northeast and send (13)Chuckle United from Pennsylvania packing, 7-0; (5)Meaballs once again beat (12)Inglorious Basterds by a much wider margin of victory than the morning, 7-3; (6)Balls Deeper took down the (11)Richmond Lushes, 7-2; and (8)Just Kickin It ran up the score on (9)The Runs, 11-2.

Though the opening round of elimination was decidedly lopsided, there were two close games in the first round of elimination.  The first was a 5-2 decision in favor of (7)The Situation as they topped (10)Wu-Tang Killers. After the Situation put up three runs in the second inning, Wu Tang battled back to make the score 3-2 in the bottom of the 4th.  But a crushing two run sacrifice fly for the Situation put the game out of reach in the fifth and the Wu’s offense fizzled out.

After their K365 elimination, the Wu Tang Killers took time to work on their (miniature) golf game.

The other close game was between (2)Other Shot Callers (OSC) and (15)Mo’Tussin, two teams from the cradle of Kickball, the Wold Adult Kickball Association (WAKA) DC Capital League.  The game would have been a likely candidate for an ‘instant classic,’ if ESPN actually covered kickball.  After a fairly easy morning, Other Shot Callers (OSC) had a lot of trouble figuring out the Mo’Tussin defense, anchored by a solid effort by John Canery on the mound.  Captain Mark “JellyDogg” Lundquist said, “Of all the teams we could have drawn, we obviously know Other Shot Callers (OSC) the best, so that was to our advantage for much of the game.”

Yet controversy reared its ugly head in the 4th inning with OSC enjoying a 2-1 lead.  With bases loaded and two outs, the number six kicker for Mo’Tussin ripped an absolute firecracker of a triple down the third base line, scoring the female base runner from third, Lundquist from second and the runner on first, or so the team thought.  The kick would have put Tussin up 4-2 at that point, but the home plate referee inexplicably decided to overrule his call at the plate as OSC tried to make a play on Lundquist during the play.  After the play had finished, the referee changed his safe call on Lundquist to out, ending the inning and negating two of Mo’Tussin’s runs.  Lundquist, obviously was beside himself.  “I just about lost it. Even aside from that call, that ref was horrible. But, we’re no strangers to horrible calls going against us. It’s almost to be expected at this point.

“The game as a whole was fun to play and we played about as good as I could have hoped. OSC did a great job stepping up their game after they played us to put up 2 solid wins against The Situation and Balls Deeper before falling apart against Meatballs. They rep’d the DC area well by getting all the way to the finals.”

Elite 8

The round of eight is where things started to get a bit interesting.  In the first game, (1)Panik Attack squared off against (8)Just Kickin It and set up a pitching duel between two of the best pitchers in the country: Corey Holland for Just Kickin It and Dan Nichols of Panik Attack.  True to form, both pitchers and their backing defenses were able to keep the explosive offenses at bay, with Just Kickin It able to fight for one more run than Panik Attack and pull off the 3-2 upset.  Just Kickin It Captain Jon Simon said this game was his team’s finest of the entire tournament.  “We have a lot of respect for those guys as one of the best in the nation, and they play the game the right way.  But each and every player on our squad gave their best out there.  After that game we had people so beat up and exhausted, we just left everything on the field and were happy to earn the W.”

In the other shocker of the afternoon, (5)Meatballs won in a mercy rule decision against (4)Lock It Up.  Costly bobbles and drops in the outfield cost LIU – the lone NYC representative to move on to the round of eight – the game early and Meatballs never took their foot off the gas.  After 3 1/3 innings, the score was 10-0 and the game was called.

Wilson Chow of Lock It Up isn't able to leg out a kick against the Meatballs.

The upsets didn’t stop there as (6)Balls Deeper methodically picked apart (3)The Core to earn a 4-2 victory.  One of the emerging powerhouse teams in the nation, Balls Deeper got it done with speed on the basepaths and solid defense all around.  DC only added to a string of final four appearances for Balls Deeper that includes The 2009 WAKA Founders Cup and the 2010 South Florida Open. Captain Chase Sammons says that he and his team have had a good laugh about their ‘success.’   “Some might say that making the final four for us would have been our shining moment of the day, but we’ve been to a bunch of final fours now and, unfortunately, lost too many times final four games.  Seriously, we are thinking about changing our name to ‘Final Four.”

The final game of the round of eight included (2)OSC and (7)The Situation.  The chalk finally held and OSC won big, 6-1.  Again, heat factored in to the equation as The Situation’s starting pitcher, Blake, was taken off the field by his teammates after suffering heat exhaustion and cramping.  He did not return to the game.

Dan Youhas(L) gets ready for a kick as Troy McMichael(R) delivers to The Situation

For OSC, making the Final Four was reason for celebration after an early exit at the Tidewater Kickball Open only three months prior.  Captain Joe Spofford said he and the co-captains said the key has been a long-term approach: giving players equal playing time in tourneys and league play to figure out how all the pieces fit together.  “When you have a team of this much talent come together, you really have to give everyone a good look on the pitch.  After playing in a great tournament like TKO and a full season in the World Adult Kickball Association (WAKA) DC Capital League, our goal coming in to K365 was to win.  Our mindset was different and the team was managed accordingly.”

(Next up is our closing recap on the final four and the finals. In the meantime, you can recount all the post-tourney chatter on the Kickball365 Forum. Got questions or comments? Leave a comment below and let us know what you thought about the tournament.)