MCSN: Aug 10, 2013

Running A (Playoff) Fever

Week 7 Recap

By Bill Van Tuinen

Tue, Aug 13, 2013

3:16 Mafia's Keshia Richardson continued to shut down down MCSN offenses Playoff fever was in the air as the teams took to the field. With every seeding spot still undecided, MCSN has seen almost unparalleled parity this year.

Play opened with 3:16 Mafia, needing a sweep of the day's two games and some help to claim the #2 seed, facing the Killer Beehs, who were also vying for the #2 seed and were coming off an (umpire-aided) victory against league-leading Witness.

The Beehs could have used a Rooster to help wake them up as they bumbled their way through most of the game. The Mob took a 12-0 lead into the bottom of the final inning, where the comeback kidzz have excelled of late. However, the Beehs couldn't replicate previous comebacks although they did post four runs and ruin Keshia Richardson's shutout bid.

Beehs manager Beeh (who, ironically, appears to be a WASP), did not comment on the heart of his team this week.

3:16 went right back to work facing off against a Roosters squad trying to break a tie in the basement with Orange Crush.

The Roosters may have wished they never woke up, as the undermanned squad lost 17-1 in a game where Keshia Richardson again took a shutout in the last inning only to have it marred by a single Rooster run in the final inning.

Richardson also contributed two hits on offense along with an RBI and run scored. All the female Mafia contributed two hits to the offensive output.

Said manager Bill Van Tuinen, "Today was a great example of our team peaking at the right point in the season. Our pitching, led by Keshia Richardson, and our defense, anchored by David Fowler at shortstop, were really the keys to our victories today. We're looking forward to the playoffs."

“We're looking forward to the playoffs.”

- 3:16 Mafia boss Bill Van Tuinen, whose team has outscored opponents 62-26 and gone 5-1 in its last six games

If the Roosters thought the 9am game was rough, they were in for a rude awakening in the 10am game.

Playing without their cocky duo of Les Carter (who was
seen chasing an ambulance
earlier in the morning) and
David Cho, the Roosters were playing on a wing and prayer. These two Roosters apparently were not interested in a better seed (yes, a bit of stretch, but its getting late in the year and fresh puns are hard to come by). A veritable cloud of Witnesses participated in a 25-2 thrashing, as all 12 Witnesses produced either a hit or an RBI.

Manager/League Historian Rob Tong, with his scorekeeping arm wrapped in a bag of ice, noted that the Witnesses fell just short of league records in a number of areas.

"The [2012] Believas still hold the league record for most runs (32), most hits (40) and biggest run differential (27) against Cannon, set almost exactly a year ago. Witness' 25-2 final was, however, the second largest run differential for a regular season game and the second highest runs scored for a regular season game."

With an eye towards a possible playoff matchup, Tong noted that his defense had given up twice the runs [against the Roosters] that the 3:16 Mafia did.

And Sam Baturoni (with a name that would seem to make him a natural for 3:16 Mafia), speaking in the absence of manager Cho, noted that he didn't want to feather over the poor performance, but he thought the games were an "aberration".

The final game of the day promised to be a tighter matchup as Cross the Bases faced off against Orange Crush. Manager Gary Lockwood has this to say afterwards:

"Solid defense and steady hitting brought Cross The Bases a well-played 14-8 win over the Orange Crush on Saturday. Four RBIs by veteran star Jacob Dodds, and three RBIs by rookie Mike Laureto, led the way and accounted for half of the Bases' run production. Meanwhile, line drives from the bats of the Orange kept getting crushed directly into the gloves of third baseman Terron Wright and shortstop Ethan Sinnema. With the earlier defeat of the Beehs, the Bases took sole possesion of second place, one game behind league leader Witness."

Manager Tim Kurtz was unavailable for comment, but one wonders if he longs for the days of one-run losses in light of his team's last two performances.

Heading into the final two games of the regular season, Witness has locked up the top seed. Cross the Bases needs to win or lose by less than 5 runs to hold onto second place against the surging 3:16 Mafia. The Killer Beehs face The Bases with an opportunity to move up to the #3 seed if they win by 9 or more runs. [Editor's note: the top two seeds get first-round byes.]

Looking ahead to the playoffs, #5 seed Orange Crush will open things up at 10am on Saturday against either the Killer Beehs or Cross the Bases with the 11am game featuring the #6 Roosters against either Cross the Bases or 3:16 Mafia.