Back to Back Baby!!

The Storm finished off the Playoff weekend with another Championship! This one definitely seemed different than the others as it was unexpected, especially after our lackluster Saturday play.

It was extra special for Kevin as it's his last year with the Storm as he is hanging up the cleats after playing 22 seasons with us. Enjoy your retirement Kevin.

Here are are some pictures from yesterday.

Storm wins Encore Performance

Storm got the encore performance they wanted against Broadway, and they didn’t miss a beat. The defense was choreographed perfectly with a number of excellent catches in the outfield and the infield was solid. The lineup was full of bangers as the team produced a number of hits. 

Duran and Rene each doubled and Storm scored one in the opening act of the game. Broadway was able to double Storm’s output and took a 2-1 lead after one inning. Storm and Broadway each sang a chorus of Os in the second and the game remained 2-1. 

Both teams found their voices in the third and the hits started to turn into runs. Duran launched a home run and Tony nearly took out a child on the playground he launched his home run so far. Storm briefly took a 6-2 lead. But Broadway wasn’t about to throw in the towel. Ryan started with a single and Brad took a walk, which led to a 3 run homer by Tyler. A few hits later and Broadway had regained the lead 7-6. 

Kevin knocked a big double in the fourth that helped propel Storm to a five run inning capped by Duran’s second home run of the night. Storm took the lead 11-7 and kept Broadway off the scoresheet. Storm added two more in the fifth, but this time Broadway responded immediately with a single from Shawn and a triple from Gord scoring two and cutting the lead to 13-9. 

The chorus of Os was back in the sixth and Storm headed into the seventh with a four run lead. Storm managed to score one insurance run, but the inning was cut short as Jeff tried to turn a single into a double. Storm led by five going into the bottom of the seventh. More solid defense helped Storm hold on to the lead and Mills caught the last ball of the game as Storm became champions once again.

Some interesting notes about the tournament. Storm played excellent defense. With the exception of one inning in one game, Storm managed to keep mistakes from compounding like the interest on a 30 year mortgage. Instead, mistakes were kept to a minimum, and Storm picked each other up and made outs in big moments. Storm never gave up more than 11 runs in any of the six games in the playoffs. 

While the bats struggled on Saturday, scoring only 28 runs in three games. It was a different story on Sunday as Storm scored 65 runs in three games giving the team some breathing room.

The effort across the weekend was a complete team effort, with each player making a nice defensive play at some point, and everyone coming up with a key hit in one of the games. It was a nice way to win and everyone on the team should feel like they contributed to the victory.

Final Score: Storm 14 - Broadway 9

Blind Squirrel Holds Top Team in League to 5 runs

At the beginning of the tournament, Brad said that Jeff would have a new nickname by the end of the tournament. He probably never guessed it would be “squirrel” or “Blind squirrel”, but that’s exactly what happened.

Storm got off to a decent start thanks to Rene launching a two run home run and giving Storm a quick two run lead. Storm blanked The Crew in the first inning. Storm found some thunder in their bats in the second inning, scoring a max six on a sequence of singles and a double from Mills. The Crew was blanked again in the second. 

Storm added another run in the third and The Crew broke through scoring their first run. The fourth started off with a bang when Sam launched a solo home run. Storm kept the hit train going with a bunch of singles and a signature Duran triple and Rene double to add four to the score. Storm was up 13-1 going into the bottom of the 4th. It was in this half inning that Jeff earned his new nickname. He started to struggle to find the board and one of The Crew’s players decided to start chirping him from the bases. When a pitch hit the board he referred to Jeff as a “blind squirrel finding a nut.” The blind quirrel found a few more nits, and the inning ended with The Crew scoring two runs

Storm seemed to rally behind Jeff and “squirrel” was taken as a term of endearment. Brian even changed decades of referring to pitchers as “kid” and started referring to Jeff as “squirrel” when he handed him the ball before each inning pitched. 

Storm didn’t score any in the fifth and The Crew launched a two run home run and the game was 13-5. Sam launched his second solo home run of the game to increase the lead to 14-5. The Crew was unable to muster more than a single in the sixth. 

The seventh saw Storm explode. They batted through the order one and a half times and scored 12 runs in the inning (more than they had scored in a couple of games on Saturday). The Crew went down in order in the final inning

Final Score: Storm 26 - The Crew 5

Storm powers to victory

Storm started with three consecutive walks and turned them all into runs, though a pitching change stifled what looked to be a sure mercy inning. Storm still scored four. Storm’s struggles at the plate from Saturday seemed to continue into Sunday as they were only able three runs total in the next two innings, and the Isotopes had a big bottom of the third and took the lead 8-7.

Storm was up against the wall and could have folded, but after the first two batters got out, Storm rallied for four in the fourth and kept the Isotopes off the scoresheet. Then in the fifth, Storm took advantage of the open inning and batted through the order and then some, scoring 12 runs in the inning and opening up a commanding lead. The Isoptopes managed to get three back in the fifth, but were neutralised in the sixth and seventh, and Storm won 25-11. 

Final Score: Storm 25 - Isotopes 11

Crossover game succesful

Storm was facing something they hadn’t in quite a long time - the possibility of elimination on Saturday afternoon. Storm had struggled to hit against Broadway and that trend continued in the top of the first as Storm put up yet another goose egg on the scoresheet. Thankfully, Coulas was held off the board for the first three innings, so Storm’s struggles did not put them behind. In the second inning Storm finally remembered that hitting is more fun and put up three runs. The fourth saw Storm really return to form with four more runs. Unfortunately, it should have been more as there was some serious confusion on a fly ball that led to a double play ending the inning. If there had been no outs, it would have been a triple play because multiple runners left the base on a fly ball with only one out. Storm was still up 7-0, so it didn’t seem like it should hurt too much.

Except after three scoreless innings, Jeff stopped looking like Captain Underpants and started looking a little more like Broadside as he lost the plate walking three batters in the inning, including two with the bases loaded to score runs. Coulas scored four total and all of a sudden it was a game again. Storm was shut out in the bottom half of the inning and with only three frames left, it was 7-4.

In the fifth it looked like the bullpen was going to have to get ready, because Jeff walked the leadoff batter, but then settled in and Coulas was kept off the board in the fifth and sixth innings. Storm got the bats going again in those innings. The 5th started with back to back triples from Joey and Rene who both scored. Storm would add two more in the sixth and head into the seventh with an 11-4 lead. 

Another leadoff walk started the seventh and gave Coulas the hope they needed. Jeff was actually trying to pitch around Pete, and after throwing three balls to start the at bat he intentionally threw one short, hoping it would be a walk or a pop up. It was a pop-up all right. It popped up all the way over the fence and Coulas was suddenly back in the game. There were already two outs, though, and Storm was able to hold on to an 11-7 win.

Storm managed to make it to Sunday and Sunday is a brand new day. While Storm did a great job of run prevention (only 27 runs across three games for an average of 9 runs against per game), the bats will have to wake up if they truly want to contend. They scored only 28 runs in three games. That’s an average of 9.3 runs per game. Their plus minus was a grand total of +1.

Final Score: Storm 11 - Coulas 7 

Hiccup in the plan

It was a tale as old as time as Storm faced off against Broadway. Storm has historically had trouble against Broadway and Broadway actually said they wanted to play Storm and make them take the hard route through the playoffs. Now that they had Storm in their sights, they were not going to miss their shot. 

It was an extremely tight defensive battle. A pitcher's duel that lasted just over an hour. Broadway scored only one in the first and Joey launched a two run shot in the bottom of the first. It felt like a good start, but while Broadway would continue to chip away over the next few innings, Storm's bats were like Brigadoon. They had disappeared, and Storm wouldn't even get through their entire lineup until the 4th inning putting up four consecutive goose eggs and after 6 innings, they trailed 10-3. 

But they dreamed a dream and believed they could still come back. Storm blanked Broadway in the top of the 7th. The problem was they needed 8 runs to win (as a tie would give Broadway the pool). Unfortunately, there was no encore performance for Storm's hitters. They were unable to make a comeback and are now forced to play at 3 to keep in contention.

Final Score: Broadway 10 - Storm 4

Storm’s playoffs started well

Storm’s playoffs started well. The Inglorious batters were ingloriously shut out in the first two innings. Storm was able to put some runs up in each inning. Mills singled and Duran launched a two run homer immediately. Storm added another and was up 3-0 after 1. They put up 5 to stake a relatively strong 8-0 lead.

The Inglorious Batters started to hit ingloriously as a few singles squealed through off the ends of bats and they added a few timely hits to score five runs and load the bases with nobody out. It looked like it would be a mercy inning for sure, but a ground ball to short followed by a pop up to the catcher helped Storm to get out of the inning without giving up a max 5. 

The Inglorious Batters continued to chip away at Storm with one in the fourth and two in the top of the 5th to tie the game at 8. 

Storm remembered that it is important to hit and put up 3 in the bottom of the fifth to quickly regain their lead. They managed to play solid defense and keep the Inglorious Batters from having any big innings, and held kn to win 13-10.

Final Score: Storm 13 - Inglorious Batters 10

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.

Crew outgun the Storm

Storm’s season came to an abrupt halt as The Crew accrued more runs than Storm did. 

It was clear this was going to be an offensive affair from the start as The Crew hit two home runs in the first inning to score three. Storm hit a home run in their half and one upped The Crew in the first as they scored four to take an early lead. 

Storm would extend the lead in the second, as they managed to keep The Crew off the board, and then they scored, and scored, and scored. The inning was highlighted by Rene launching a grand slam. Joey also hit a triple as Storm maxed out the inning. 

The Crew got right back in it in the third with a three run home run. Storm would only add one, and it was 11-6 after three. Storm changed pitchers and Al shut down The Crew in his first inning pitching. Storm also blanked in the fourth and the score remained 11-6. 

The Crew found their groove in the fifth. Captain Underpants got pantsed as The Crew took advantage of the open inning and scored seven to take the lead. But Storm was the home team and still had their at bats. But they didn’t do anything with their at bats, and Storm trailed 13-11 after five. Storm had overcome much greater deficits against the Expos, and were not worried. 

In the top of the 6th. Storm deviated from their original pitching plan. They did the same thing against Hanet, and it worked perfectly. Since Captain Underpants gave up seven runs in the 5th, they thought going back to Jeff might stop the Crew from brewing up more runs. Unfortunately, however, Jeff lived up to his nickname of “Batting Practice.” The Crew batted through almost their entire lineup without recording an out, before Jeff walked off the field and gave the ball back to Al, who immediately recorded an out. The Crew scored a whopping 12 runs in the inning. 

Storm had practised coming back from large deficits against the Expos, but this deficit was too large and had been accrued too late in the game for Storm to recover. Storm put up a valiant effort in the sixth, scoring five capped off by a massive grand slam by Sam. Craig knocked a three run blast in the seventh, but that was all the offence Storm could manage and they lost 27-19. 

It was a tough way to end the season. Congratulations to The Crew who went on to win the tournament.

The Crew    27   -   Storm    19

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
The Crew	3	0	3	0	7	12	2	27
Storm	4	6	1	0	0	5	3	19

Quarterfinals vs Hanet

Storm started a little better against Hanet than they did the previous day against the Expos. It wouldn't be hard to do better than being mercied, but Storm managed to keep Hanet off the board. Storm then started strong. Joey hit a two run home run, and of the first ten batters, the only outs made were productive as they were sac flies. 

The second inning was sponsored by Mother Goose as both teams dropped an egg on the scoreboard.  Hanet actually played superlative defence to keep Storm off the board. Hanet actually dropped their third consecutive egg on the board in the top half of the third. Craig got the third inning started by hitting a triple. Storm strung together a bunch of singles and sacs and put up another 5 for a 10-0 lead. They had trailed by 10 the day before, though, so they knew that a 10 run lead wasn't safe.

As if to illustrate the point, Captain Underpants, in his return to the mound, gave up a massive home run on the first pitch he threw. Hanet would score two more and all of a sudden it was a game. In the bottom of the inning, Rene wasted Al's courtesy runner by launching a two run blast. 

Lars launched his second home run in as many innings and Hanet scored four to make it 12-7. But Storm was not going to lie down and let Hanet do to them what they did to the Expos. In the bottom of the 5th, Storm strung together 9 hits and a walk to score seven runs and put the game likely out of reach. But it is slopitch,  and anything can happen. Lars hit his third home run in as many at bats, but that was all the offence Hanet could muster. 

Storm recovered from their scare against the Expos and played solid softball to buy a berth in the semifinals.

Storm    19   -   Hanet    9

Boxscore
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	Total
Hanet	0	0	0	3	4	2	0	9
Storm	5	0	5	2	7	0	0	19