Chamionship Game: For all the Marbles

 It was the championship game everyone was hoping for (well, actually, everyone was hoping to be in the championship game themselves, but…) as the top two teams in the league faced off in the championship game of the playoff tournament. Storm and the Crew had been one and two for virtually the entire season, and it only seemed fitting that these should be the last teams standing.

While Storm was the top team in the league, The Crew had had their number during the season winning three out of four games against them. But Storm had gotten the Albatross (or the Falcon?) off their backs in the previous game, eliminating the Falcons, the only other team in the league with a winning record against them during the season, so they were ready to take on The Crew.

Or were they? The Crew jumped out to a big lead in the top of the first scoring five runs. That normally wouldn’t seem insurmountable, but considering Storm had only scored seven runs in their victory over the Falcons, the prospects were not looking good. And they didn’t respond very well. Rene led off with a double and Joey knocked him home. Then… nothing, and Storm trailed 5-1. But the defence picked up and they kept The Crew off the board in the top of the 2nd. Mills started the 2nd with either a home run or a single depending on how you want to score it. He hit a ground ball to third base. The ball was thrown away. It rolled along the fence and Mills went to second and kept going to third. Instead of running his hardest, he actually slowed down to bait the first baseman into throwing to third. The throw was offline and Mills turned and scored. On a ground ball to third. Storm added another to close the gap to 5-3. 

The Crew found some of their power again with a two run homer in the 3rd, extending the lead back to four runs, but Storm was not done hitting yet. Rene hit another double and Storm scored three to draw within one. 

The next two innings looked like an MLB game where both teams bring in their ace relievers as one run was scored across the four half innings and The Crew extended their lead to 8-6. Storm came to the plate in the bottom of the sixth down two runs. They played some serious small ball using singles, walks and sacrifice flies to score four runs and take their first lead of the game. The Crew was in the middle of their order, past the home run bats but still with players that can hit the ball hard coming up and the second batter hit the ball through Brad’s outstretched glove for a leadoff single. Brad had had a few balls like that get by him, but with his children in the stands he decided that they are still not too old to learn from their daddy. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try try, try again. And he did. A ground ball to second that he fielded cleanly tagging the runner and throwing to first for a game ending double play. 

Storm won the championship and the regular season. If only the midfield tournament hadn’t been cancelled, they could have tried for the trifecta. They shouldn’t be too greedy, though, they won. And what should make them happy is that they were trailing in two of the three games, and all of them were close. They also won as a team. There was no clear dominant offensive force. Hits came from everywhere in the lineup, and the steady contribution is what enabled them to go all the way. That and the incredibl;e amount of experience they have on the team.

This year experience won over age., We’ll see if age catches up to them in 2025 or if experience wins out again.

Semi-finals: Storm squeaks by in pitcher’s duel

Once you get this deep into the tournament, every team is going to be hard to beat, but the Falcons had been hard to beat for Storm all season, being one of only two teams with a winning record against them.

Storm averaged 19.1 runs per game, and the Falcons averaged 18.1 runs per game, so it was a little unexpected that the game was a pitcher’s duel that resulted in the teams combining for 10 runs. Not 10 runs each, or 10 runs for the winner, but 10 runs total. 

Each team put up a goose egg in the first. Storm scored a whopping two runs in the second, and third while the Falcons put up two more goose eggs. The Falcons found some life in the third with three runs, pulling to within one as Storm through up another goose egg in the bottom of the fourth.

This led the teams to the open innings, but the mercy rule did not seem to be an issue on this day. Storm scored two more runs in the sixth, and added an insurance run in the seventh to hold on to a 7-3 win.

Quarter-finals: Storm storms back

The Expos gave the Storm absolutely everything they could handle. The Expos jumped out to a lead in the top of the 1st, and held the Storm to only one run.

In the top of the third, the Expos took a huge lead. Four ground balls in the infield, none of which were recorded as outs, plus two walks (one quasi intentional) led to a six running inning, and the Expos were up 9-1.

Storm made small steps in the fourth and fifth, scoring three in each inning, but the Expos put up runs in those innings as well and the lead only decreased incrementally. Storm went into the last inning down 7 runs having only scored seven runs in the whole game. The bottom of the order did a great job getting on base, and Storm used as many runners as they could. Duran came up with the chance to tie the game and a home run to hit, but he popped out. Lance came up with two outs. He popped up behind third base, but the ball fell harmlessly to the ground. Jeff was now up with the bases loaded and two outs and the tying run at first. He drove a line drive over the left centre fielder's head and cleared the bases tying the game. Then Slammin’ Sam Pilkey came up. He launched a ball over the fence. 

I am Sam. Sam I am. 

I hit the ball as hard as I can.

I like to stand up straight and tall 

And hit the ball over the wall.

In all seriousness, if there was a most improved player award, Slammin’ Sam Pilkey would be up for it.

This was one of Storm’s greatest comebacks and there was likely a groan throughout the WMSPL when it was discovered that Storm had escaped near certain defeat,

A’s Storm back, but Storm stands strong

 The A’s gave Storm a little more than they bargained for in game 2 of the playoffs. Storm started strong, scoring five in the first. Mills made a great play in the second inning throwing a runner out at second from the outfield and setting the tone. Storm continued strong scoring three more in the second as Rene hit yet another triple. 

The third inning showed both teams putting up large goose eggs. The A’s got some luck and took advantage of it. Feeling great about his earlier throw to second Mills charged hard on a ground ball in the outfield, but missed it. It went for a triple and put the A’s on the board. They would score three to make it an 8-3 score. 

Storm responded in the bottom of the 4th with a max 6 doubling up the A’s output and putting themselves what would appear to be firmly in the lead. 15-3 seemed safe. However, Storm bats lost their thunder, and the A’s bats found some because the A’s scored four in the top of the sixth with a massive home run. Storm still took a 14-7 lead into the final frame, but things started to get uncomfortable rather quickly as the A’s strung together a few hits and then hit a massive three run home run to bring them to within three. That was followed by a double, but Storm would record the final out to hold onto a 14-11 win. 

Storm will need to figure out how to score after the fourth if they are going to be successful on Sunday.

Storm Starts Playoff’s Strong

Storm started the playoffs with a bang. While Coulas was able to score three in the top of the first, Storm responded with five. Storm showed patience at the plate with Coulas’s pitcher (who was pitching only his third game of the year). Rene led off with a triple and Storm rolled through almost the entire batting order (they were shocked they had such a long batting order!).

The second went even better than the first as Coulas was held to a single run and Storm scored the max six. Sam walked off the inning with a grand slam. Storm managed to match their production again in the third by scoring another max 6. Rene hit his second triple of the game. 

Storm scored five more in the fourth to take a commanding 22-4 lead. The game looked like it was going to be quite long as the first four innings took over an hour and there is no time limit in the playoffs. Storm had maxed out two of the innings and almost maxed out the other two, but it also seemed like they were maxed out as they only managed six more runs in the final two innings. Still, it was more than enough as they won 28-5.

Storm Finish strong with 30th Win of the Season!

A lineup change worked out well as Rene led off the game with a single (instead of a solo home run). Joey tripled and Duran hit a home run, but at least there was a runner on  this time. The Expos scored two and Storm held a one run lead at the end of the first. 

Joey knocked a three run home run in the second capping off a five run inning. Storm scored a max six in the fourth with a barrage of singles and doubles. It looked like Storm was going to pull away, but the Expos would not go silent into that dark night scoring six of their own, keeping the score relatively close at 15-11. 

Storm scored five in the top of the fifth, again seemingly putting the game away, but the Expos raged against the dying of the late, scoring five of their own and keeping pace with Storm. Storm managed to go up 23-16, but the Expos kept fighting until the final out, scoring three more, but it was too little too late. 

Storm finished off the season with two wins scoring over 20 runs in each game after struggling to score runs through much of the final stretch of the season. Hopefully they can continue to hit well and play solid defence through the playoff weekend.

Storm    23   -   Expo's 19

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Expo’s	2	1	2	6	5	0	3	19
Storm	3	5	1	6	5	2	1	23

Storm Clinch First Place

Storm and Greenthumb played a war of attrition on Monday night. Storm managed to cobble together a lineup of 10 players, but that included Zombie Bob who switched positions after one play because it required too much movement and hurt too much. The defence was also shuffled a little with some infield regulars roaming the outfield. 

Greenthumb had their lineup supplemented by two players from The Crew who had a vested interest in the outcome of the game as they needed Storm to lose to clinch first place themselves. Greenthumb started off well, scoring three in the top of the first. Storm thundered back in the bottom half of the inning. Duran launched a leadoff home run for the third straight game, which led to serious discussion over lineup construction. Storm would continue to strike lightning, scoring the max six without recording an out in the inning.

Greenthumb would get one in the second, but Joey made an incredible catch with a Go Go Gadget arm that extended to end the inning. He used his Go Go Gadget arm in the bottom half of the inning to get his own player out on a foul ball while catching for Greenthumb. Storm still scored four capped off by a triple from Rene. 

Storm’s bats contained more thunder throughout the night and they were able to muster more runs than they had in each of the previous three games en route to a 21-10 victory, and more importantly, clinching first place.

Storm    21  -   Greenthumb 10

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Greenthumb	3	1	2	1	2	1	0	10
Storm	6	4	0	4	7	0	x	21

One down, one to go!

 The Expos started strong with three runs in the top of the first, and all Storm could respond with was a Han Solo from Duran, who has stated he shouldn’t bat leadoff. Chewbacca agrees. Storm fared better in the second, blanking the Expos and then finally acting like themselves and scoring five runs on a sequence of singles. The 6-3 lead looked good, but Storm forgot how to hit in the third and fourth innings, putting up big fat goose eggs. Thankfully, the defence played like Donald Trump’s proposed wall, and didn’t let anything sneak through in those same innings. 

Storm scored a pair in the bottom of the fifth, but they didn’t even have time to breathe, because the Expos also remembered that hitting is more fun, and their bottom of the order started off a six run inning punctuated by a grand slam that allowed them to take a one run lead.

With the game and potentially first place on the line, Storm was able to manage six consecutive singles and four runs to take a three run lead. More solid defence in the bottom of the inning allowed Storm to hold on. There will be a rematch Monday night.

Storm    12   -   Expo's 9

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Expo’s	3	0	0	0	0	6	0	9
Storm	1	5	0	2	0	4	x	12