Aero Softball Wins Plano Pre-season Umpire Tournament

Sixteen Teams With A Four Game Guarantee Format Opens Season In Plano

PLANO: Aero Softball from Sandwich won the 2005 Plano Umpire Tournament held at Klatt Field on Plano from April 20th through April 24th with a perfect 4-0 record. The Slugs (3-1) from Aurora took home second place with M & S Express (3-1) finishing in third place and Kelly's Pub (3-1) from Plano taking home fourth place.
Aero Softball opened play with a narrow 14-13 win over J & J Whitey's from Oswego to start play on April 20th. Equalizer rules forced Aero Softball to spot J & J Whitey's three runs to start the game and it look to be a huge amount as J & J Whitey's held a four run lead entering the bottom of the seventh inning. Aero Softball started to click on offense as they scored five runs without making an out to claim the one run win and advance into Saturday's second round of play.
On Saturday afternoon Aero Softball squared off with the Plano Legion and came out with their bats smoking as they pounded out a run rule win 19-9 to advance into Sunday afternoon's semi final game of the winner's bracket. Plano Legion had advanced to this game by defeating St. George's from Aurora 10-9 in the first round of tournament play.
On Sunday Aero continued the offense onslaught as they spotted Shala Farms three runs on the equalization rules before pounding them by a final score of 21-4 in five innings. Shala Farms made it top the semi final game of the winner's bracket by opening with a 15-7 win over Nasty Naybors from Bolingbrook in the first round of play before getting past Kelly's Pub 17-8 in the second round of action.
The championship game of this tournament was played on late Sunday afternoon with Aero Softball receiving a three run spot from the Slugs. Aero did not need these extra runs as they won going away 2010 to wrap up their championship in the annual Plano pre-season's Umpire's Tournament.
Manager of Aero Softball, Dave Harms said, "We were successful in keeping the championship in Plano. We used timely hitting and solid defense to be successful. It was a complete team effort." Harms went on to say, "The Aero Softball team would like to thank tournament director Greg Gould and his staff for doing a great job running this sixteen team tournament. When you consider the weather conditions were rough but the games were on time and the Richard Klatt Field has never looked better." Harms concluded by saying, "We now have won a state and World Berth to play in the ISA Men's Class D Division to go along with this tournament championship."
Tournament runner-up Slugs made it to the championship game by opening play with a 21-6 win over Caterpillar # 1 on Wednesday April 20th.
The Slugs than sent G-Force Labels into the loser's pool after posting a 17-15 win up on to the bracket board.. G-Force Labels made it into the second round by stopping Friendly Tap from Plano 13-9 in the first round of tournament play.
In their semifinal game of the winner's bracket the Slugs and M & S Express locked horns with the Slugs winning 19-11 to move into the tournament's championship game. M & S Express made it to the semi finals of the winner's bracket by opening play against Global Mortgage and quickly posting an impressive 20-2 win onto the bracket board. In the second round it was M & S Express over I.B.E.W. 10-0 to earn them a spot in the semi finals.
The championship game belonged to Aero over the Slugs 20-10 as the Aurora based ball club was forced to settle for second place from this tournament.
The Slugs did not provide Illinois Softball Report with any team information, stats, highlights or quotes on how they were able to finish in second place at this tournament.