Ghostman on Third: Fall 2011 Tournament Preview: Rumspringa

All I do is win, win, win! No matter what!

#11 Rumspringa
Record: 3-6-2
Runs Scored: 45 (4.09 rpg, 9th in the league)
Runs Allowed: 59 (5.36 rapg, 11th in the league)

The last two seasons, 'Springa won 7 games and earned the respect of the kickball experts for their all around play. (None other than JFK Head Coach Bryan Freed once predicted that Rumspringa would be future champions) This season though, the bottom has fallen out and our favorite smurf colored team dropped to 3 games under .500. The biggest reason for the decline has been a drop off in the defensive efficiency. In the spring they only allowed 2.33 runs per game. This Fall, their runs allowed has ballooned up to 5.36 runs per game.

Hard to explain really what happened. They have pretty much the same core of players returning. Charger Ricky Holmes is one of the best in the league, and even with Troy Southall missing some time to injury, C Guy Sumrell is more than capable of doing the job behind the plate. While certainly they miss having Gary Weems on the mound, Matt Wellbrock has been solid... It's hard to pinpoint the reason for the steep drop off, other than that 'Springa just hasn't been sharp.

Lately though, the team has seen some improvement (an 11-1 loss to VD in week 13 not withstanding). They've won 3 out of the last 5 against some of the softer teams in the league. But perhaps their best performance came in week 1, when they grounded the high powered Shake N Bake offense and earned a 0-0 tie. It just so happens that Shake N Bake is 'Springa's first round opponent on Saturday.

"Rumspringa will not tie a single game in the tournament," 1B Scotty Moriarty noted.

Indeed, something has got to give on Saturday. Will Rumspringa be able to find their old, championship caliber form and lock down SnB once again? Or will they continue to show themselves to be error-prone. If they bring their A game, they certainly have the ability to duplicate last fall's run to the championship. But with a lower seed, they'll have an uphill battle. Assuming they get past Shake N Bake, they'll most likely be looking at VD in round 2 and the Clockers in the semis (barring any upsets of course). That's quite the gauntlet... But one thing is for sure. I wouldn't count them out.

Injury Report: C Troy Southall will miss the game with an unfortunate flag football injury.