Kro-Hop 2005 Illinois USSSA Grand Finale Champions

Grand Finale Runner - Ups - Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout From Joliet

Kro-Hop now had a rematch with Jerry's Kids in the finals and a chance to gaining a little revenge from their loss top them the day before. Dan Gates got his Kro-Hop team going in the first inning by drawing a walk. Scott Parsons singled up the middle putting runners on first and second. Tom Gates singled to score his brother from second base to give Kro-Hop the lead. Mansfield and Willie Peterson kept the rally going by singling before Paliter doubled and Cory Lehman, McCabe and Chris Glowacki all stroked base hits as Kro-Hop plated nine runs to grab a 9-1 lead after one inning of play. Kro-Hop continued to score runs winning the game by the run rule in five innings 14-4 over Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout to force the need to have the 'if necessary game' played between these two squads in order to determine which of them would be the 2005 Illinois USSSA Men's Class E Grande Finale Champion.
In that second game the Kro-Hops struck first again as Gates led off the game with a double to propel his team to a three run first inning to take the lead in the final game. Kro-Hop than added three more runs in the second inning to stretch the lead out on Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout while they used a solid team defense as the Kro-Hop ball club would not let theJerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout put together a big inning as Kro-Hop won the deciding game 13-7 over Jerry's Kids to claim the title to the 2005 Illinois USSSA Men's Class E Grande Finale.
The top hitters for the Kro-Hop ball club in this tournament were; Brian Paliter .679, Tom Gates .571, Willie Peterson .630, Nate Mansfield .633, Justin Lata .679, and Chris Glowacki .522.
Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout took the short way to the championship game by winning the winner's bracket before being upended twice by Kro-Hops to finish in second place. The Joliet based ball club were led in this tournament by the play of Gary Thiakos, Fred Gestel and Jeremy Poch who were all named to the 2005 Illinois USSSA Men's Class E Grand Final All-Tournament team from the Jerry's Kids ball club.
Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout opened tournament play on Saturday with a big 13-3 win over Legacy from Crystal Lake in the first round of tournament play.
Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout improved to 2-0 with a 14-12 win over Kro-Hop in the second round of tournament play.
Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout now faced off with Collins Street Auto Parts in a semifinal game of the winner's bracket and they posted a big 12-1 win up onto the bracket board to finish the day at 3-0 putting them into Sunday' mornings winner's bracket championship game against the Oswego Inn.
Collins Street made it into this semifinal match-up with Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout by opening tournament play on Saturday with a 14-3 win over TB's/Venetian III from Rockford in the first round and than defeating Seco 7-2 in the second round of play to earn their spot against Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout in a semifinal round contest in this tournament.
On Sunday Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout pick up where they left off from Saturday by posting an impressive 11-1 win over the Oswego Inn to put them into the championship game against whichever team that emerges from the loser's bracket to challenge them in the finals. The Oswego Inn made it to the winner's bracket finals by opening play on Saturday against Fabri-Tek from Geneva and pummeling them 14-0 to advance into the second round of play. The Oswego Inn than posted another one side win onto the bracket board as they defeated Guerilla Graffix from Rockford 16-1 to move into the semi final round of play in this tournament. The Oswego Inn improve to 3-0 with another victory as they sent Sharp Softball to the loser's bracket after defeating them 13-7 to wind up play on Saturday.
In the finals Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout just ran into a buzz saw as they were defeated by Kro-Hop 14-4 in the first game and 13-6 in the final game to finish this tournament in second place.
Jerry's Kids / Joe's Dugout did not provide Illinois softball Report with any team information, stats, highlights or quotes on how they were able to achieve their second place finish at the 2005 Illinois USSS Men's Class E Grand Finale.

Continued: