Ken's Beverage Win USSSA Open State

Nine Teams, One Day Tournament At Forest Hills Diamonds

ROCKFORD: Nine teams gathered at the Forest Hills Diamonds in Rockford on Saturday July 28th to play the 2007 Illinois USSSA Men's Open State Tournament with Ken's Beverage (5-1) from Joliet stopping Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration (3-2) from Rockford 24-13 in the 'if necessary game' to win the title. Creative Design (3-2) from Palos took home third place with the Hooded Frogs / Pole Katz / Focus (3-2) from Bridgeview finishing in fourth place.
Ken's Beverage opened tournament action with a first round 26-10 win over Mulligan Saloon from Mc Henry to start their day off on a positive note.
In the second round of play in the winner's bracket it was Ken's Beverage meeting an defeating the Hooded Frogs / Pole Katz / Focus 24-16 to improve their tournament record to 2-0 and advance them into the winner's bracket championship game. The Hooded Frogs / Pole Katz / Focus had to win a play in game over Full Tilt Softball / Alpine Machine from Naperville 8-7 to get into the bracket before the Bridgeview ball club met and defeated the Dirtbags from Aurora 7-5 in the first round of tournament action to advance them into a second round winner's bracket game against Ken's Beverage.
In the winner's bracket undefeated game Ken's Beverage and Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration met for the first of three head to head meetings on this Saturday with Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration getting the upper hand early by defeating Ken's beverage 23-15 to send Ken's Beverage into the loser's bracket.
Now playing with their backs against the wall Ken's beverage met and defeated Creative Design 28-16 to earn a second chance at playing unbeaten Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration in he championship game.
Ken's Beverage ball club was a team on a mission and they were focused on getting some revenge over the team that had put them into the loser's bracket earlier in the day an did just that as they won the first championship game over Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration 19-2 force the need to have the 'if necessary game' played between these two ball clubs with the 2007 Illinois USSSA Men's Open State title going to the winner.
The winner on this day was Ken's Beverage as they continued their overall team hot hitting winning 24-13 to become the 2007 Illinois USSSA Men's Open State Tournament champions.
Tournament runner-up Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration started their day off with a first round 21-7 win over Players, Inc from Chicago. In the second round of tournament action Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration and Creative design met up with one another as the Rockford based Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration won this meeting 12-10 to advance into the winner's bracket finals. Creative Design had beaten Souse's Lounge / Rogers Drywall from Rockford 21-20 in the first round of play to advance into this second round contest with Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration.
Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration and Ken's Beverage met in the undefeated game with Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration winning 23-15 to become the only unbeaten team left in this tournament.
Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration had to sit and wait while the play in the loser's bracket was completed before knowing which team would be their opponent in the championship game. When all play in the loser's bracket was complete a rematch with Ken's Beverage was in store for Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration in the title game.
Ken's Beverage took a pound of flesh from Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration beating them 19-2 in the first game to force the need to have the 'if necessary game' played to decide which of these two teams would be crowned the 2007 Illinois USSSA Men's pen State Champions. That team turned out to be Ken's beverage as the Joliet based squad posted a 24-13 win to send Shockers / Paul Davis Restoration home with second place from this event.