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NKIT 4-0 1st Place
March 23 at Huddy Park for the USSSA "C" NKIT National Qualifier. In game one, we beat Town & Country of Cincinnati by the score of 19-9 in 5 innings. We were lead by Kevin Hall at 3-4 with a HR & 5 rbi's. In game two, we defeated Bleacher's 24-17, We were lead that game by Brandon Black 5-5, Rob Lindemann 4-4, & Danny Botkin 4-5. In the winner bracket finals, we played a suprise team in NKY Rage who had just upset Rick's AC. We trailed 24-17 going into the bottom of the 7th & reeled off 8 runs to win 25-24. We were lead by Danny Botkin 4-4, Brandon Black 4-5, & Jimmy Gentry 4-5. In the finals, we played my former team in Rick's AC. We defeated Rick's 26-20. After taking a 16-3 lead Rick's stormed back to take a 17-16 lead. We then came back to put up 10 runs over the final two innings to put Rick's away. We were lead by Kevin Hall 5-5 with 2 HR's, Brandon Black 4-5, Rob Lindemann 4-5, Jason Brown 3-3, & Ron Reeves 3-4. On the weekend we were lead overall by Rob Lindemann .813 1-HR, Brandon Black .789 10 rbi's, Kevin Hall .778 5-HR's 24 rbi's, & Jason Brown .769.
Queen City Classic 5-1 1st Place
March 30th at Queen City Sports Complex in West Chester, OH. We went 5-1 on the weekend to win our second consecutive USSSA "C" National Qualifier. Our first game, we beat BasesLoaded Softball of Cincinnati 16-6 in a mercy rule game. We were lead by Rob Lindemann & Brandon Black both went 4-4 & Black Homered. Also Kevin Hall, Danny Botkin, & Danny Sharp all went 3-4. In our second game, we mercy ruled Muenchen Properties 18-2; Kevin Hall & Brandon Black both went 3-4 & Hall hit 2 HR's, Jimmy Gentry was also perfect at the plate going 2-2. In game three, we were beaten by a very good Multi-Serve team, 2001 ASA"B" Metro Runner-up, 15-14 in the final at bat. Hall, Botkin, & Matt Mason led us each with a 3-4 game, Hall adding another bomb. So we came in 2nd place in our round robin division, we moved on to play a division winner in the Dirt Stars, who were 3-0 against Taxx Express, Red's Hitmen, & Sneaky Pete's. We mercy ruled Dirt Stars 18-8. We were lead in the game by Kevin Hall 4-4, Rob Lindemann 3-3, Black 3-4, Jeff Bowman 2-3, & Shane Caudill 2-3; Hall & Lindemann added HR's. In the semi-finals we were to play House Rules, but they forfieted the game 7-0 to us. In the finals, we played our NKY rival Nasty Boys/Worth. Hall, Lindemann, Mason, Gentry, & Sharp all had 3 hits apiece, Mason & Jason Brown added HR's as we beat the Nasties 20-14. Overall our hitting was off a little for the weekend, but we made up for that with very good defense & excellent pitching from both Adam Maley & Shane Caudill. We were lead overall by Brandon Black 15-18 .833avg 1-HR, 10 RBI's; Rob Lindemann 13-17 .765avg, 1-HR, 13 RBI's; Kevin Hall 15-20 .750avg, 4-HR's, 14 RBI's; Bill Brown 10-15 .667 avg; Matt Mason 11-18 .611avg, 1-HR, 8 RBI's. As a team we were 103-179 for a .575 team avg.
April 20th @ Athens Park, Lexington, KY
"The Ball Diamond Classic" ASA "A"
We came out flat in one of the strongest early tournaments in the Nation. We finished with an unimpressive 0-2 record. Our first game we lost in 5 to the Band Dodgers 22-12, we started at 9:30 am but had over a 4 hour rain delay came back in the third inning, we trailed 14-12 in the bottom of 5 & the Dodgers scored 8 runs off of 3 HR's in the inning for the mercy rule. Game two put us against Kluever's/Snap-on/Worth, the 17th ranked team in the Nation, all classes. We came out & hit everything right at them. We finished with only 4 hits in the game & lost 12-1 in 5 innings. One positive note on the weekend, we did play excellent defense, committing only one error in the two games. Jason Brown at short made an incredible play against Snap-on, a pop up going towardsLC field, Brown about 60 ft in the grass, catches the ball running towards the HR fence, the player on first base was half way, Brown in one motion catches the ball, jumps & spins & throws a perfect seed to first base for the double play. Defense is there, Shane pitched very well, the sticks will come back & we will be fine.
May 4 "C" Qualifier @ Eggleston Park
We went 2-1 on the weekend finishing in second place in our division behind the Basebandits. We lost to the bandits 18-5, but did beat two very good teams in John Morrell 15-5 & Bryant Appraising/Worth 26-13. We did not make it to the one & out, we were beat out on the tie-breaker by Basesloaded. National Bank beat Rick's AC in the finals.
May 5th "C" Qualifier at Huddy Park
We placd 2nd in the Sunday qualifier going 3-2 on the day. In game one we lost to the Basebandits again 12-10, game two we beat NKY Lightning 9-5, game three we run ruled Bleacher's 12-2. In the semi-finals we beat the Nasty Boys/Worth 30-19, then in the finals the Bandits got us for the fourth time in a week & a half 14-12.
May 11-12 @ Kettering Fields, Dayton, OH
USSSA "C" NIT
In our first NIT of the year we started off slowly, in game one American Steel of Toledo, OH beat us 23-18 as we didn't play very well on the defensive side committing 8 errors. Game two we beat Joe's Place 7-0 on a forfiet. Game three we played Paradise Sports/Mizuno from Cincinnati & defeated them 16-15, we had to hold on as Paradise scored 9 runs in the top of the 7th, but Kevin Hall caught a deep fly up against the fence to end the game. Sunday morning came & we played Welder's/Easton from Michigan, who had already won an NIT, we beat them 12-10 on a very impressive defensive showing by our team, we turned 4 double plays to end innings, as we were now set to take on AmVets Post 89 the skies opened up & the tourney was called.
May 18-19 USSSA "C" NIT @ New Albany, IN
We went 3-2 on the weekend for a 7th place tie with Hooters from Louisville. It was a very wet weekend with our first game against Red's Hitmen of Cincinnati. The infield was covered with about 3-4 inches of mud. We defeated Red's 7-5 powered by Kevin Hall's 2-HR's & 5 RBI's. In game two we were playing the 2001 USSSA "C" KY State Champs in Linedrive/Bottlestop, we run-ruled the champs by a score of 19-9. In game three we ran into the hottest team in NKY, the Basebandits. The Bandits built a 17-6 lead, we stormed back but fell short of the tourney champs 20-18. In the losers bracket we faced a very strong Leroy's Boys of Louisville, the 2001 ASA "C" state champs. Led by Jeff Bowman who hit for the natural cycle, we defeated Leroy's 23-6 in 5 innings. Game 5 put us against eventual tourney runner-up AmVets Post 89 of Columbus, OH. After taking a brief lead in the 3rd inning, Amvets put us away and won 20-7. We now have played our first two NIT's & have finished 9th & 7th. Now after taking a break Memorial Day weekend, we will get back at it June 1-2 at RiverShore for another NIT in hopes of getting that world berth.
Congrats to the Basebandits on their first ever World Berth!
June 1-2 @ RiverShore Sports Complex
Mizuno USSSA "C" NIT
We came out for our third NIT of the season with a bang. We opened up with JD's Rage of Michigan, we built a 15-0 lead going into the 7th as the Rage plated 4 runs to make the final 15-4. In game two we played Wyandotte Electric/TPS of Michigan, and again we drilled our opponents from the North 23-6 in a mercy rule game. In game three we played the NIT champs , AmVets Post 89 of Columbus, OH. In a tight game we didn't hit the ball real well & committed a costly error to allow 7 un-earned runs to score & lost 14-11. In game four we came out flat against a fired up Rick's AC squad, they built a 5-0 lead & an 11-6 lead then we came to life in the last couple of innings to put Rick's away 16-12. Game five put us against tourney runner-up Steve's Used Tires from Columbus, OH. We didn't hit the ball at all & Steve's was the better team on this day beating us 15-6. Now with our first three NIT's in "C" complete with a 5th & 2-7th place finishes, we will move on to hopefully winning the Ft. Knox or Expressway NIT's to advance to Texas. Our next tourney will be the Legends & Smokey Mountains Resort Classic, USSSA "A" tourney in Pigeon Forge, TN June 15-16.
June 15-16 @ Pigeon Forge
Smokey Mountain Resort Classic
USSSA "A" - 1-2 13th Place
Game one we played Team Solway Hardware, a top 10 team in Tennessee, after a tight game Solway held on to beat us 25-21, we played a good game but didn't play very smart using all 9 HR's within the first 5 innings. Game two we played carpet RTCH, the #2 "A" team in Tennessee, we played an excellent defensive game & used the HR's wisely and won 25-21. In game three we played Ray's/Easton of North Carolina. In this game we only hit in two innings, 11 in the second with 5-HR's & 8 runs in the 5th with the other 4-HR's. Again we didn't play a very smart game & it cost us. The final was 22-20. We were lead by Kevin Hall 11-13 6-HR's & 15 RBI's and team newcomer Pat Eschan 8-12 with 5-HR's. B. Black was 9-13.
Budweiser USSSA "C" Qualifier
at RiverShore June 22nd
5-2 2nd Place
22 teams came out for the largest qualifier in NKY for the 2002 season. After all the dust settled at 2:00am, Sideline Softball of Norwood, OH stood alone as the tourney champs.
Our first game was against Hooligan;s Pub who had just mercy ruled Red's Hitmen, after a slow start we ended the game in 5 with a 16-6 win. In game two we played Isoc.net, Isoc came out fired up & jumped on us early, we then started to string things together & ended Isoc's upset bid with a 16-13 win. Game three we played Tim's 52 Bar, who had already beat Rick's AC & Paradise Sports, we also ended that game in 5 with a 15-5 win. That put us into the winner backet finals against Sidelines. Sidelined took the game 15-13 putting us into the loser bracket finals. There we played Creative Glass and we came out firing with a 21-10 run rule of the Ohio based club. That put us in the finals against Sidelines. The first game we hit, then hit it some more & won 30-17, in the "if" game we took a 15-3 lead but our defense let them back in it & Sidelines held on to win 22-21. Congrats to Sidelines on a great tourney.
Our hitting leaders were: Kevin Hall 22-25 .880 6-HR's & 21 RBI's, Timmy Hubbard 14-21 .667, Bill Brown 16-24 .667, Jason Brown 17-26 .654 5-HR's & 19 RBI's, Brandon Black 9-14 .643, Matt Mason 15-25 .600 19 RBI's.
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