Evil Sports Wins USSSA Class E At Sugar Grove

Nine Teams, One Day Event At Sugar Grove Sports Complex On July 23rd

SUGAR GROVE: Evil Sports from Joliet was a perfect 4-0 winning the nine team USSSA Men's Class D/E Equalizer Tournament played at the Sugar Grove Sports Complex in Sugar Grove on July 23rd. The champions had previously won a berth to play a the 2005 USSSA Great Lakes Men's Class E National Tournament to be held in Waterloo Iowa over Labor Day weekend so they passed the berth down to the next team in line for it. The tournament runner-up was J-Bears (5-2) from Rockford, Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat (2-2) from Bloomingdale was third, Lovell's (2-2) from De Kalb was fourth with a fifth place tie being shared by J & J (1-2) from Oswego and Damaged Goods (1-2) from Joliet.
Evil Sports opened play against Windy City Grill who jumped all over Evil Sports by scoring six first inning runs to take the lead. Evil Sports defense stiffened after this first inning but the offense could not get on track as they trailed 6-1 entering the top of sixth inning. It was here that Evil Sports exploded for seven runs before adding three more insurance runs in the top of the seventh inning to win 11-6 as Dave Miller led the attack going 3-3 with 2 RBI. Other top hitters for the Evil Sports ball club during this win were Jeff Heitman 2-4 with 2 RBI, Jack Lang 3-4, Juan Gomez 2-3 and Bart Maugeri 3-4.
Game two was against Lovell's from De Kalb and Evil Sports was now on a roll using their defense to shut down potential rallies as Lovell's had runners on base in every inning. Evil Sports used a three run second inning coupled that with a four run third inning and a three run fourth inning to win 14-4. Gniadek and Heitman (2 RBI) both went 3-3 to led the way for Evil Sports in this win as Fiedler chipped in with a 2-2 and Miller adding 1-2 with 2 RBI. Lovell's made it to this game by defeating J-Bears Place 15-14 in their opening game of the tournament.
Now only two teams remained undefeated as Evil Sports and Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat took the field to play each other in a game that lasted eight innings before a winner could be determined. Evil Sports looked like they were off to a walk in the park as they built an early 8-0 lead after two inning of play on the Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat. The Bloomingdale ball club battled their way back against Evil Sports into an eight all tie after six innings of play. Neither team could score in the seventh inning but in the top of the eighth inning Will Fiedler drove a ball to the fence in right center field with a man on and circled the bases for an in the park home run giving his team an 10-8 lead that they made hold up for the victory. The top hitters in this win for Evil Sports were J. Fiedler 2-3, Miller 2-3 with 3 RBI, W. Fiedler 3-4 with 2 RBI and Dave Terranova 3-5. The Stallions made it to the undefeated game by opening the tournament with an 11-9 win over J & J in the first round of play before defeating Damaged Goods 13-6 in the semifinal round of this tournament.
The championship game matched Evil Sports with J-Bears Place who came charging out of the loser's bracket to challenge the unbeaten Evil Sports. J-Bears Place jumped out to the early lead of 6-1 they stretched it out to 9-3 before Evil sports responded with a four run sixth inning to narrow the gap to 9-7. IN the top of the seventh Inning Evil Sports added four more big runs to take a 1-9 lead that they made hold up as they complete their undefeated march to the title by beating J-Bears Place 11-9. The top hitters for Evil Sports in this win were Miller, 2-3 with 2 RBI, Gomez 3-4 with 3 RBI, W. Fiedler 1-2 with 2 RBI, J Fiedler 2-4 and Terranova with 2 RBI.
Evil Sports manager Joe Fielder said, "I would just like to say every team we played today, played us hard and made us have to work for each of our wins. I am also proud of our team for never giving up and scratching our way to each victory. It was a tough tournament and we were lucky to come out ahead."
For the tournament Evil Sports overall top hitters were Dave Miller .727 with 9 RBI, Jeff Heitman .692 with 5 RBI, Joseph Fiedler .615 with 3 RBI, Juan Gomez .571 with 7 RBI, Dave Terranova .571 with 4 RBI and Will Fiedler .538 with 5 RBI.
Tournament runner-up J-Bears Place did thing the harder way going through the loser's bracket on a hot day to get to the finals. J-Bears Place drew the only play in game of the tournament and received a walk over 7-0 win when Little Red Schoolhouse from North Aurora could not field s team at game time. Game number two was a narrow 15-14 loss to Lovell's sending J-Bears Place into the loser's bracket where they now needed to win six straight games to win this tournament. J Bears Place went about doing just that as they started with the Windy City Grill and excused them from further participation after beating them 13-11 to advance in the bracket.
Damaged Goods left next after they fell to J-Bears Place by a final score of 22-15. Lovell's left with fourth place after losing to J-Bears Place 16-12. In the loser's bracket championship game it was J-Bears Place over the Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat 10-7 to give J-Bears Place a spot in the championship game against unbeaten Evil sports.
Still need to defeat Evil Sports twice to win this tournament J-Bears Place went to work and jumped out to that early lead but falter in the heat as Evil Sports came back to upend them 11-9 to send them packing the cars for the trip home with second place to their credit.
J-Bears Place did not supply Illinois Softball Report with any team information, stats, highlights or quotes on how they were able to achieve their second place finish at this tournament.

(L) 2nd Place J-Bears Place & (R) 3rd Place Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat