We Are the Champions!!!!

This year’s WMSPL championship was a rematch of 2015. Storm came into the game on a roll having played some of its best baseball of the season on both sides of the ball throughout the tournament.

Storm absolutely destroyed Surge in the morning game. They put up 16 runs in the first inning and never looked back. They kept the pressure on, en route to a 33-8 victory.

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Surge	0	1	0	3	4	0	X	8
Storm	16	2	8	5	2	X	X	33

Next up was Hanet. Hanet is a traditionally tough defensive team. Storm started strong, though, and was able to put up 4 runs in the first, and 5 in each of the 2nd and 3rd to get out to a nice lead. Hanet was able to keep Storm to only 5 runs through the final three innings, but the damage had already been done as Storm held on to a 19-12 victory.

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Hanet	0	3	0	2	4	3	0	12
Storm	4	5	5	0	2	3	X	16

Who better to play in the championship than their nemesis – Bradley? 2015 and 2016, Bradley is the only team Storm does not have a winning record against. Storm simply struggles when it comes to this team.

Fortunately for Storm, Bradley changed their name. They became Snap-on. While Storm struggled against Bradley in the past, they had no real history against Snap-on!

Seriously though, Storm came into the game with a plan. Storm had historically chased numerous bad pitches when facing Bradley’s pitcher, but today they decided to stay patient. This paid off in a big way in the first inning as Storm had six walks in the first inning. Add to that some key hits from Al, Greg and Brad, and Storm was able to jump out to a 7-0 lead. Bradley made a good attempt at a comeback in the 3rd and 4th innings as they drew to within three runs, but Brad hit a big 3-run home run that helped put Storm up for good.

Storm defense was good across the game to keep Bradley in check. Just about everything hit on the ground was an out, and anything with any lift was caught in the outfield. Bradley was pretty much forced to drive a ball into a gap to get a base runner, because Storm wasn’t giving them many freebies.

The bottom of the 6th was a big inning for Storm. Greg, Mike, Jeff and Brad started with four consecutive hits, and Storm went on to score four runs in the inning. This turned out to be crucial as Bradley had a little gas left in their engine. They put up a couple of runs, and then the game appeared to come to an end. Trev, of Bradley, hit a fly ball to left. Both James and Kevin called adamantly for the ball, and then the only sound everyone heard was a massive THUD! as both players fell to the ground. It had appeared that Kevin had caught the ball, however, as he lay on the ground, the ball rolled out of his glove and on to the warning track. This allowed Bradley to score two more runs.

The following batter hit a short pop fly that looked like it would fall in, but appropriately for Storm’s first championship (as Storm), Joey called the ball off the crack (do these bats crack?) of the bat and closed ground to make the catch.  STORM HAD WON!!!

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Bradley	0	0	4	4	0	0	3	11
Storm	7	0	4	0	0	4	X	15

Special mentions:

While Kevin was having trouble remembering things, and reading, and basically forming coherent thoughts, he claimed he was okay after the collision. James was also okay after the collision.

After missing Saturday, Greg came in on Sunday and picked up right where he left off in the season as a steady contributor and leading the team in batting average through the playoffs.


Late in the season, Brad had struggled at the plate and talked about sacrificing a goat. We’re pretty sure he upped it and went to human sacrifice because he also hit well above his regular season pace, including a home run and six RBIs in the championship game. Thankfully both of his children were seen during the weekend.

Playoff Leaders:

Average: Greg - .818, Joey -. 778, Jeff and Brad - .706
Hits: Joey – 14, Bob, Duran, Jeff, and Brad – 12
HR : Bob, Lance, Brad, Jeff, and Kevin – 2
Runs: Jeff – 12, Bob and Duran – 11
RBI: Brad – 16, Lance – 14, Jeff – 12
2B: Bob and Joey – 4, Mike – 3
3B: Duran -2, Chris and Dave – 1
Slugging Percentage: Brad and Jeff – 1.176, Joey – 1.167
On Base percentage: Greg - .818, Joey - .800, Jeff - .722
OPS: Joey – 1.967, Jeff – 1.898, Brad – 1.882

Note: Chris had a solid Saturday, but did not play in even half of the games and did not qualify for team leaders for percentage based statistics. He, as well, hit above his season pace.

It was a special weekend for Storm, and it truly was a team effort. Every single player contributed positively. Every player made a good play in the field and eleven different players finished in the top 3 in an offensive category. This depth is the reason that Storm has finished first or second in the overall league standings each of the past five seasons, and the reason Storm was able to win the President’s Division, the mid-season tournament, and the playoff tournament this year. While it is great for the league to have had nine different playoff champions in the last nine years, Storm is hoping to break that trend by repeating next year!

Storm Squeak By...

Storm decided that for their second game, they would try something different. Blowouts aren’t exciting, so they decided to try the come from behind victory. The Rebels certainly played well, jumping out to a 3-0 lead, and keeping the lead until the bottom of the 5th, and never relinquishing the lead until the bottom of the seventh. Storm played some great defense with some nice catches in the outfield to keep the game from getting out of hand, and James clubbed a timely 2 run shot to get the team back in it right after falling behind in the top of the 6th.
The game started to get out of hand after the Rebels took exception to slide into 2nd, and then started some trouble with a fake tag at 3rd. In the end, Storm came out on top and will play Sunday morning in the quarter finals.

HR – James (1)

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Rebels	3	0	0	1	2	3	0	9
Storm	2	0	1	0	3	3	1	10

Storm Starts Strong

Storm started the playoffs strong. They jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the first, and then padded it with five in the 2nd, and an astonishing 13 in the 3rd. As a matter of fact, in the 3rd, Storm batted through the entire order without making an out. It was a great game that featured some nice defense, and some nice shows of power. All around this was classic Storm baseball.

HR – Jeff 2 (2), Lance (1)

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Devils	3	0	1	0	0	0	0	4
Storm	8	5	13	0	0	2	x	28

Year End Wrap-up

Storm finished another solid year. As a matter of fact, the 2016 winning percentage of 2016 (.763) is identical to that of 2012, 2013, and 2014. Only last year’s exceptional 36-2 is different, otherwise the team has been remarkably consistent. In each of the past five years Storm has finished 1st or 2nd in the league standings. Now it is time for Storm to take the next step and win the playoff tournament. Hopefully some of the pressure will be taken off by the fact that the team won the mid-season tournament.

Some Storm players put up excellent individual seasons. The following players broke individual single season records:

Greg: AVG. - .671, 

Kenny: Hits – 74, Runs – 54, RBI – 36

Lance: Hits – 100, Doubles – 23, Triples – 3, Runs – 77, RBI – 92

Kevin: AVG. - .667

Bob:  Hits – 116, Doubles – 26, Runs – 92

Joey: AVG. - .818

Duran: AVG. - .730, Hits – 111, Runs – 91, RBI – 71, HR – 5 (tied with 2012), Doubles – 23, Triples – 9

Al: Doubles – 15

Jeff: RBI – 49, Walks – 10

Mike: Hits – 64, Doubles – 11, HR – 3 (tied with 2007), RBI – 36, 

Formatting of the following is thanks to the Falcon's site.

ATTENDANCE AWARD: Brian & Lance led the team, playing in all 38 games this year.
RUNS SCORED: Bob beat out Duran by one run, to take the title with 92 runs scored,
1B: Bob (75)
2B: Bob (26)
3B: Duran (9)
HR: Joey wins the League and team home run crown with 29, including an inside the park HR for his final HR of the year, which gave him one more than Derek's 28.
BB: Joey (14)
TOTAL BASES: Joey again, this time with only 219, fourteen short of last years record
ON BASE PERCENTAGE: Joey takes the batting title, hitting .818 this year, again not quite up to lasts years record of .873
SLUGGING PERCENTAGE: Joey (1.659)
ON BASE + SLUGGING (OPS): Joey (2.472)
RUNS BATTED IN: Joey (117)

Storm finish season on winning note

Surge stayed close to Storm through four innings. The game was tied 7-7 at that point, but then the Storm rains fell and Storm racked up 15 runs in the final three innings holding Surge to just three through the same period.

There were many highlights. Most of them involved people falling flat on their backs. First up was Joey going to field a ground ball on the outfield grass. That will teach him for pretending to be a rover. The best play had to go to Lance and James. Lance was camped out perfectly under a pop fly until his feet slipped out from under him (while he was seemingly standing still), and then James took a tumble as he tried to pick up the ball. As Storm went on to win, we can all have a nice laugh.

Joey also hit two home runs to take the lead league in home runs at 29. He hit the first conventionally. The second he actually raced around the bases for an inside-the-parker after Duran’s solo shot (5) selfishly put us plus 2 when Joey is in a home run race!

Regular Season Year End Write-up to follow.

HR's: Joey 2 (29), Duran (5)

Up Next: The PLAYOFFS!

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Storm	4	2	1	0	3	7	5	22
Surge	3	0	0	4	0	2	1	10

Storm Smothers Devils

Storm bounced back from the Bradley defeat in a big way. Storm scored more runs in the first inning than they did in the entire Bradley game. The second inning the Devils contained the Storm offense, but then Storm exploded in the third for eight runs, and shut it down going station to station the rest of the game. 

Storm’s defense was strong all game, even in the final inning when the infielders and outfielders flipped positions. Storm went on to a 29-1 victory.

HR: Joey 2 (27), Lance (13)

Up Next: Storm plays Surge (for real this time). If Storm wins, they will finish with the same winning percentage in four out of five seasons. Also, Joey is in pursuit of the league home run crown (currently tied with Derek Ackford of Xtreme).

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Devils	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Storm	6	2	8	7	2	4	x	29