Cuervo Gold Wins USSSA Grand Finale

Joliet: Cuervo Gold from Hainesville rolled to a perfect 4-0 record to win the USSSA Mixed Class D Northern State title at Joliet's Inwood Complex on September 22. The tournament runner-up was Northland Tool (4-2) with Coilcraft (3-2) taking home third place honors in the eleven-team event.
Cuervo Gold - 2000, received a first round bye before opening play with a huge 25-2 win over Flemings Tap from De Kalb.
Cuervo Gold 2000 defeated Floyd Dailey from Peoria 11-4 in the second game of the tournament.
The winners bracket finals matched Cuervo Gold 200 with Crusens from Peoria with the Hainesville squad coming out on top in a defensive struggle 2-1. The championship game was a wild game with big run swings each way with Cuervo Gold 2000 coming out on top by a single run 16-15 over Northland Tool.
The runner-ups made it to the finals by opening play with a close 10-9 win in the bottom of the seventh inning over Crusens from Peoria. Don Kennedy had 3 hits (2 triples) and Lindy Corrigan added 2 hits to lead the way for Northland in this victory.
Game number two Northland Tool took it on the chin and lost to Coilcraft 17-13 in a high scoring game in spite of Brian Weiland four hits for Northland Tool. Manager Doug Trainor said, "This meant we had to win five straight games to win. This team has done that time and time again all year long, so we knew we could do it again today."
Northland Tool played their way back through the losers bracket as they defeated The Last Rites 16-1 first. Pitch Doug Gassman and second base person Amy Krause stocked two hits each to lead the attack and both [players turned in outstanding defensive plays to also pace the team with the gloves.
Crusens exited the tournament at the hands of Northland Tool 14-9. Trainor and Heather Stella (3B) led the way with three hits each in this win.
Revenge is sweet and Northland Tool got their revenge as they sent home the team that had put them into the losers bracket, Coilcraft 15-10. Doug Williams (4 hits) and Trainor (3 hits) led the way for Northland Tool in this game.
This win put them into the championship game where Cuervo Gold 2000 await them in what was the game of the tournament. Northland Tool found itself down by six runs early only to rally to grab the lead. Northland Tool continued to build on their lead building a 15-8 advantage entering the sixth inning. Cuervo Gold 2000 showed what champions are made of when they came back and scored seven runs to tie the game at 15 each. Cuervo Gold added a run in the seventh inning to win the state title16-15. Joe Burton (LF) collect 4 hits including a home run and Stella added a three hit game keeping Northland Tool in this contest to the end.
Manager Trainor said "My team was bloody and beaten by the end of the day but we played till the end!"