Evil Sports Wins USSSA Class E In Joliet

Thirteen Teams, One Day Tournament On June 25th At Inwood Complex

Evil Sports Champions Of USSSA Class E At Inwood Complex In Joliet

JOLIET: Thirteen teams gathered at the Inwood Sports Complex in Joliet on June 25th to play in the Illinois USSSA Men's Class E Great Lakes National Tournament Qualifier with Evil Sports from Joliet going a perfect 5-0 to win the tournament and the top prize that goes to the winner. The Village Pub (3-2) from Kankakee took home second place with the Hammers (5-2) from Indiana finishing in third place and the No Showz (2-2) took home fourth place from this tournament.
Evil Sports opened tournament play with a first round match up against the G-Unit from Wisconsin and won 14-5. Evil Sports top hitters in this game were Dave Miller 3-4, with 4 RBI and Joe Fiedler 2-4 with 3 RBI.
In their second contest of this tournament Evil Sports squared off with Comet Lanes and won impressively 15-1. The top hitters in this win by Evil Sports were Dennis Balazs 3-4 with 2 RBI, Fiedler 3-3 with 2 RBI and Juan Gomez 1-2 with 2 RBI. Comet Lanes had advance into this game by defeating Nasty Naybors from Bolingbrook 20-8 in the first round of tournament play.
Game number three was a semifinal game in the winner's bracket and it was a close game with Evil Sports edging out Pom Poms 10-8 behind the hitting of Kevin Gniadek 3-4 with 2 RBI, Guido Terranova 2-3 with 2 RBI, and Fiedler 2-2 with 2 RBI.
In the battle between the last two remaining unbeaten teams Evil Sports and Village Inn square off with each other with Evil Sports doing no wrong winning 16-3 to earn a spot in the tournament's championship game against whichever team that would win the loser's bracket to challenge them in the championship game. Evil Sports were led in this win by the hitting of Gniadek 3-3 with 5 RBI, Jeff Heitman 3-3 with 2 RBI and Frank Finger 1-2 with 3 RBI.
Now Evil Sports had to sit back and wait as the loser's bracket was played out to its conclusion before knowing which of the remaining teams would emerge to be their opponent in the title game. When the loser's bracket was finally over it was a rematch with Village Inn that awaited Evil Sports in the title contest. This game held everything that you would want to see in a title game, great defense and good hitting plus extra innings. Village Inn takes a two run lead into the bottom of the eight inning leading 5-3. Evil Sports Heitman walks to open the bottom half of the eighth inning. Fiedler singles to right field sending Heitman to third base. Terranova singles as Heitman scores and Fiedler stops at second base. A slow roller produce an out at first leaving the tying run at third and the winning run at second base with one out. Brian Macejak steps to the plate and drives a deep fly ball to right center as both runners tag. Fiedler scampers home with the tying run as Terranova does not stop at third base but continued to advance towards home plate and slides around the tag attempt by the catcher to score the winning run as Evil Sports pulls out an 6-5 win to claim the title at this tournament. The top hitters for Evil Sport in this win were Terranova 3-4, Fiedler 3-4 and Bart Maugeri 2-4.
Manager Joe Fiedler said, "I would just like to say it was nice to finally have a tournament when the whole team shows up to play. Everyone in the lineup hit and well when that happens good things will happen."
Evil Sports were led in this tournament by the hitting of Joe Fiedler .688 with 9 RBI, Guido Terranova .647 with 5 RBI, Dennis Balazs .600 with 6 RBI, Jeff Heitman .600 with 6 RBI, Dave Miller .588 with 6 RBI, Kevin Gniadek .526 with 8 RBI, and William Fiedler .500 with 5 RBI.
Village Inn opened tournament play with a first round bye before talking on and defeating Tanel/Heroes & Legends from Joliet 17-5 in the second round of tournament action. Tanel/Heroes & Legends had won their first round game over Windy City Grill 14-4 to advance into this second round contest with Village Inn.
In their next game the Village Inn defeated No Showz 10-7 in a semifinal game of the winner's bracket. The No Showz advanced into this game with a first round bye before taking on and defeating the Hammers 8-6 in the second round of tournament play.
In the game between the tournaments last two remaining unbeaten teams it was Evil Sports over the Village Inn 16-4. This loss dropped the Village Inn into the finals of the loser's bracket where they needed to win in order to get a second shot at Evil Sports and the tournament title.
The Village Inn took care of business pounding out an 11-3 win over the Hammers to win the loser's bracket title and earn a second shot at Evil Sport in the championship game.
The final game was close and it even looked like the Village Inn would pull off the win as they grabbed a two run lead in the top f the eighth inning but fate said no as Evil Sports managed to plate three runs to win 6-5 sending village Inn home with second place from this tournament.
The Village Inn did not provide Illinois Softball Report with any team information, stats, highlights or quotes on how they were able to finish in seconds place at this tournament.

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