Haywood Softball Wins 2005 Miller Lite / Kiss-It

Twenty-eight Teams Participate At Lippold Park In Crystal Lake

CRYSTAL LAKE: Haywood Softball (5-0) from Crystal Lake won the 2005 Annual 'Kiss-It' softball tournament held at Lippold Park in Crystal Lake on June 9th and 10th over a field of twenty-eight teams. Posse Softball Club/Sage (4-2) from Crystal Lake finished in second place, Kline Construction (6-2) from Elgin took home third place with Yep! (6-2) from Lombard finishing in fourth place. Lovell's (2-2) from De Kalb and Plano Legion/Vineyard Liquors (2-2) tied for fifth place with the Lynch Mob (2-2) from Naperville and the Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat (2-2) from Glen Ellen tying for seventh place at this tournament.
Haywood Softball received a first round bye in this tournament before taking on and defeating Joe's On Weed Street from Chicago 10-7 in the second round of tournament action. Haywood Softball was led in this win by the hitting of Mike Aydt (2-3), Matt Becker (2-3), Tony Jonas (2-2) and Gioa Nguyen (2-3). Joe's On Weed Street had advanced into this game by defeating the Roadrunners from Crystal Lake 6-5 in the first round of tournament play.
Game number two for Haywood Softball was also win number two as they sent the Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat into the loser's bracket on Sunday morning after beating them by a final score of 10-7. Leading the way for the Haywood Softball ball club in this game was Tommy Filkowski (3-4), Shane Hughes (3-3), Aydt (4-4), Lenny Gooden (3-3) and Jonas (3-3). The Stallions Furious Lunchmeat had advanced into this game by opening tournament play with an 18-5 win over the Lumberjack in the first round before defeating Locos from Waukegan 16-10 in the second round of Tournamtn play.
In their semifinal game of the winner's bracket Haywood Softball hooked up Plano Legion/Vineyard Liquor with the Crystal Lake ball club posting a 19-18 win up onto the bracket board in a back and forth type game as they continued their advancement toward the tournament championship. Leading the way for Haywood Softball in this win were Bob Lutzow (4-6), Hughes (5-5), Aydt (4-4), and Gooden (4-5).
Now playing in the tournament undefeated game Haywood Softball locked horns with the Posse Softball Club/Sage and things looked bleak for Haywood Softball as they found themselves trailing 16-0 entering the bottom of the fourth inning. It was here that Haywood Softball exploded offensively scoring fourteen runs to get back into this game trailing 16-14 entering the fifth inning.
The offensive surge inspired the defense as Haywood Softball only allowed one more run to cross home plate in the final three innings as the offense chipped away to scratch out a 19-17 win over Posse Softball Club/Sage in the battle between the last two remaining unbeaten teams at this tournament. Haywood Softball leading hitters in this win were; Eddie Lowitzki (4-4), Hughes (3-3), Aydt (3-3) and Tom Tilche (2-3).
Now Haywood Softball had to wait until the loser's bracket was complete before they would know which of the remaining teams would be their challenger in the championship game. When the dust from the loser's bracket settled back down after the last out had been recorded a rematch with Posse Softball Club/Sage was in store for Haywood Softball in the title contest.
Haywood Softball made their intentions of winning this tournament undefeated known early as they scored twelve runs in the first inning to take a commanding 12-5 lead after one inning of play. Haywood Softball bats were silenced after that big first inning as Posse Softball Club/Sage tried to creep back into the game and they were doing just that until the bottom of the sixth inning when Haywood Softball hung a six up onto the scoreboard to put the game out of reach. Posse Softball Club/Sage rallied in the top of the seventh inning but it was too little , too late as they fell to Haywood Softball in the title game by a final score o 18-14. The Haywood Softball ball club batted an impressive .625 as a team in the championship game to lock up the title to the 2005 Miller Lite 'Kiss-It' championship.

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