Fall 2011 Tournament Recap: Finals

16 teams battled it out all season in the biggest, and most competitive season of WAKA Kickball on the Peninsula yet. In the end, only two teams were left standing after four games and 6+ hours of kickball, the 6th seeded Shake N Bake squared off with the 4th seeded Just For Kicks. The prestigious Wentworth Trophy® waiting for the team that would come out on top. And it's only fitting in a season with this much talent, it would take more than 5 innings to decide a champion.

photos by Mary Katherine Evans, Free Ballin' (big thanks, because without your pictures my terrible memory would not have been able to piece as many details together about this epic contest). 

Shake N Bake 2, Just For Kicks 1 (7 innings)
These two teams met in the last regular season game of the year on November 16th. JFK was on fire that night and they rolled over Shake N Bake, winning convincingly 6-2. Now just 3 short days later, SnB would have a shot at redeeming themselves on the biggest stage of them all. If they were going to do so, they'd have to play a lot sharper than they did the previous Wednesday.

Right off the bat, it looked like it was going to be a continuation of the last encounter. Shake N Bake had seen some good pitching that day from Matt Wellbrock, Dave Dixon, and Dan Reyes, but nothing prepared them for the legendary JC Cashwell, whom most of SnB had never played before (JC did not play in the 11/16 match). The top of the Bakers lineup had been on fire all day, but the hard throwing lefty completely shut them down. AJ Derr, Bryan Turcotte, and Tracy Colby went down in order 1-2-3 to start the game.

The JFK offense was primed and ready to take the upper hand right off the bat. The speedy Dr. Jeremy Pinier lead off and singled on a bunt. Nick Sutton was then thrown out on his bunt by Turcotte at charger. Patrick Jones came up firing to third and prevented Pinier from advancing. Scott Duncan followed up with a beautiful bunt down third that the defense ate. With runners on 1st and 2nd and one out, Will Monroe stepped to the plate, kicking away. He found a hole in the outfield and singled to load the bases. Eric Stevens was next to kick and he slapped a low hard kick to right field. Jones made a spectacular diving catch to rob Eric. However, he got a little two greedy and attempted to double off Monroe with a peg. Monroe avoided the throw and the ball went careening into the sidelines. The Flying Frenchman streaked home to give JFK the early 1-0 lead. Duncan followed him across the plate, but was sent back to third after head referee Kim Merritt called a dead ball because the ball hit a spectators chair. (JFK Head Coach Bryan Freed did his best Bob Knight impression, picking the chair up in a fit of frustration and flinging it 15 feet to the War Memorial infield, completely breaking it). JFK could not put anymore runs on the board as Ashley Williams popped up to the charger to end the inning, stranding all three runners.

While the top of the lineup was overwhelmed their first time seeing Cashwell, the middle of of the lineup, stocked with former VIPs, has a lot of history and experience facing the hurler. It paid off as Patrick Jones lead off the top of the 2nd with a picture perfect bunt single. After Justin Blair flied out, John LaNeave laid down a bunt just as nice as Jones to put runners on first. Brent Wentworth (3rd person alert!) was the next to come to the plate, and attempted to bunt down first base to move the runners over. However, the bunt was poorly executed and went straight to the charger, Pinier. Rather than make the throw to 3rd to get the lead runner, Pinier made an uncharacteristic mental mistake and attempted to throw Wentworth out at first. The throw was off target and Jones came around to score, tying the game up at 1 run a piece.

"I was so pissed when the ball left my foot." Wentworth said afterwards, "I knew I had [expletive] up. Luckily, we caught a break."

At this point, both teams settled in and the defenses took over. The Shake N Bake interior defense was outstanding, with Turcotte and Derr smothering the bunts and firing lasers to the sure handed Jones at first... Will Monroe relieved Cashwell in the 3rd inning, and was throwing absolute gas. He retired the side in order and threw two scoreless innings total.

Shake N Bake survived another JFK threat in the bottom of the fourth. Once again the top of the Just For Kicks lineup came up. Pinier lead off with a crisp bunt and used his speed to just beat out a great throw from Turcotte. The rest of the JFK lineup once again loaded the bases. But Monroe and Williams were not able to bring any of them home.

In the top of the 5th, the score still stood at 1-1. JFK brought in the sky-scraping Daniel Shaw to pitch. The big righty gave Shake N Bake a different look. It's not bad when you can bring a fresh All-Peninsula caliber pitcher to the mound. It's a luxury no other team in the league has. JFK allowed a runner on base, but retired the side unscathed. Now if they could manage some runs in the bottom of the 5th, they'd head home with the franchise's first Wentworth Trophy®.

Leading off the bottom of the 5th was Phil Nadolski. He got a little underneath a bunt and pitcher Wentworth made a diving catch off the mound to earn the first out. Sarah Crecelius laid down a good bunt, but AJ Derr once again made a spectacular spin throw to get the 2nd out. Just as it looked like Shake N Bake would have an easy inning before headed into overtime, JFK started a miniature rally. Mikey Buckman bunted his way onto first, followed by Daniel Shaw booting one to an open spot in the outfield. The rally fell just short when Nikki LeBlanc's line drive shot was caught by Jiselle Anderson sliding in on her knees to end the inning. The web gem couldn't have come at a more clutch time. If that ball would have fallen in safely, the game would have been lost. Instead, for the first time in VA Peninsula history, the End of Season Tournament would go into extra innings.

As a reminder, let's take a look at the special WAKA rules for extras, otherwise known as "Kansas City Rules".

From the Official WAKA League Tournament Guidelines (pdf).

In the event of a tie score after 5 innings, extra full innings shall commence until a winner is determined or until the allotted time expires. Each extra inning should be played with these modifications: 

• Place the last kicker (1) from the previous inning on second base 

• Only 8 players on the field for the defense consisting of 4 men and 4 women 

• All kickers start with an unmodified count (0 balls, 0 strikes, 0 fouls) 

Jiselle Anderson was the last out of the 5th inning, so she started out on 2nd base, but Shake N Bake went down in order 1-2-3 as JC returned to the mound in dominating fashion.

So, we move to the bottom of the 6th, where once again, JFK only needs a single run to win the championship. With LeBlanc starting on 2nd base, Ryan Dotson came to the plate to face his former VIP teammate Wentworth. In what turned out to be a curious strategic decision, head coach Bryan Freed instructed Dotson to kick away. On the first pitch of the 6th, Dotson absolutely got a hold of one and cranked it down the left field line, falling just foul. If that ball would have landed just a few feet to the right, the game would have been over. However, a couple of pitches later, Dotson would pop out for the first out, without allowing Nikki to advance to third. Jillian Simms came up next and was thrown out at first base by Turcotte, however LeBlanc did move over to third. With the winning run only 60 feet away from home, one of the most dangerous offensive players in the league, Wes McClain, strode to the plate. As a strategic move, Shake N Bake head coach Jeffrey Scott moved Kim Koricich to catcher and put AJ Derr in center. The move paid off, as McClain ripped a line drive to center that was caught by Derr running in at full speed to end the inning.

In the top of the 7th, Turcotte started on 2nd for SnB. Derr and Colby were both mixed up by JC's nasty pitch movement and popped up to Stevens. With 2 outs, Turcotte still remained on 2nd base with Patrick Jones up to kick. PJ attempted to kick away, but ended up popping up as well to 1st base. Cashwell came off the mound to field the ball while LeBlanc, who played first base in extras, also went after it. Both players called the ball at the same time, and in the confusion neither one made the play. As the ball dropped in safely, Turcotte who was running on contact came around third to score the go-ahead run for the Bakers. (Thankfully, PJ ran it out instead of giving up on the play. In fact in the confusion, Jones actually stretched the play into a double, hustling into 2nd.) After the third out was recorded on the next play, Shake N Bake was only 3 outs away from victory.

But despite the devastating turn of events and the momentum going against them, JFK would not go down easily. McClain started out on 2nd base with Cashwell at the plate. JC has perhaps the most powerful left foot in all of kickball. Rather than take the chance that Cashwell would blast a ball into the short handed outfield, (which only contained Jeffrey Scott, Colby, and Koricich due to the 8 player "KC" restriction), Wentworth decided to give him the intentional pass, at the urging of Turcotte.

"Bryan made a great point out there in the 7th. It was not a good match-up for us in extras," Wentworth recalled in the post game press conference, "He [JC] is a guy who can crank a home run at any point. And even if Tracy would've caught a deep ball, there is no way we would've been able to stop Wes from tagging up and scoring from two. We had to take our chances with Jeremy [Pinier]."

*WARNING* The following 4 paragraphs are going to come across like I'm patting myself on the back. And maybe I am. Whatever.

No with runners on first and second, and no outs, Pinier came up in a critical at bat. Wentworth went after his former teammate, throwing strike after strike. Pinier appeared to be trying to go down the first base line, but could not execute and fouled out.

"That foul out was huge." SnB catcher AJ Derr said later, "I gotta say, Brent was throwing heat all day, but he was throwing harder in the 6th and 7th innings than he did all day."

"In KC, you only get to have 4 guys out there." Wentworth commented, "I knew that if Tracy and Jeffrey were going to send me out there, I was going to dial it up and do my best to make an impact."

While JFK has a deep stable of outstanding pitchers. Throughout the day they rested their arms by mixing in Nadolski, McClain, Shaw, Monroe, and Cashwell on the mound. For SnB, after the first couple of rounds, they relied on the hot hand of Brent Wentworth. All together, Wentworth pitched 17 innings in 4 games on Saturday.

I kick ass. Fuck you. 

**Ok, self-promotion over. Now back to the conclusion of the game...**

Uh, where was I?

Oh yeah. With the first out recorded. Nick Sutton was the next player up, and put his bunt a little too far out to Turcotte at charger. Turcotte, rather than take the safer play and go to first, decided to take out the lead runner at third. He spun and threw the ball to Nina Richardson, who in a rare error dropped the pass. McClain came in, but over ran the base. Derr, who had been hustling from the catcher position to back up the throw scooped up the ball and applied the tag before McClain could get back to the bag for the 2nd out. (It's worth noting, that McClain would have almost certainly been safe had he slid. However, he was still scarred from a a play earlier in the morning where he took out the Chubby Gangsters' Melissa Rarick with a hard slide into third. Although honorable, his hesitation cost JFK a very crucial out).

With 2 outs and runners on 1st and 2nd, Scott Duncan was up. Duncan had a phenomenal run in his first WAKA tournament, and up until that point had not made an out all day. He took a pitch from Wentworth and ripped it into center field. AJ Derr, who had once again swapped with Koricich, came on hard, but the ball dropped in. From there it was a foot race. As Nick Sutton slid into 2nd, Derr spiked the ball into his body in a ridiculously close play. 3rd Base Official Ryan Schmid ruled Sutton out, while first base ref Kate Barcus ruled safe. The referees all huddled together, not once, but twice, in a few tense moments. Both teams waited anxiously for the final ruling, and when head ref Kim Merritt raised his fist in the air to call the runner out, the SnB sideline erupted in celebration.

Shake N Bake! Fall 2011 Champions!