Lakota Wins I.S.A./Easton Class D N.I.T.

Eighteen Teams Entered At Rt. 130 Complex In Urbana On 6/11 & 12

2005 I.S.A./Easton Men's Class D N.I.T. Champions Lakota - Photo by Jerry Jackson

URBANA: Lakota (6-1) bounced back after dropping the winner's bracket championship game to Team Complete (4-2) to win three straight games including a double dipping of Team Complete 23-12 and 28-15 to win the ISA/Easton Men's Class D National Invitational Tournament held at the Route 130 Complex in Urbana on June 11th & 12th. The champions received a paid berth to play at the ISA Men's Class D World Tournament in Lexington, South Carolina on August 26th through 28th, and five Easton Synergy bats. Second place Team Complete earned a paid state berth to the ISA Men's Class D State tournament to be held at the Route 130 Sports complex in Urbana on August 13th & 14th and fourteen Easton bat bags. Third place finisher Wise Guys (5-2) took home a paid state berth plus fourteen Easton pullover windbreakers. Fourth place finisher Primetime (5-2) earned a paid state tournament berth. A fifth place tie went to G. Dat Softball (2-2) and Aero Softball (2-2) with a seventh place tie going to Quad (2-2) and Hitmen (2-2). Lakota was led to the title by the play of Jamie Burning who was named as the MVP of the tournament. Joining Burning on the 2005 I.S.A./Easton Men's Class D N.I.T. All-Tournament team were his teammates Jerr Primmer, Jared Beedy. Roger Whitt, Jeff Ferdine, Matt
Bower, and the All-Tournament Manager was John Buchanan from Lakota.
Lakota Softball opened play against the Yellow Jackets and posted a 17-12 win up onto the bracket board to advance in this tournament. The Yellow jackets had drawn a pigtail game in which they won defeating Kim's who failed to field a team at game time to move into the bracket.
In the second round of tournament play Lakota tied up with the Wise Guys and came away with a 17-12 win to move into Saturday night's semifinal game of the winner's bracket.
The Wise Guys made it to the second round by defeating Alpha 11-9 in the first round of tournament action.
On Saturday evening Lakota squared off with G. Dat Softball and they hung an impressive 19-7 victory up onto the bracket board to continue their advancement in this tournament. G. Dat Softball made it to the semifinals of the winner's bracket by opening play with a 29-16 win over Primetime in the first round of play before beating the Hitmen 13-10 in the second round of tournament action.
On Sunday morning the tournament last two remaining unbeaten tem took the field to play each other and it was here that Lakota tasted the bitterness of defeat as they lost to Team Complete 16-15 dropping them into the loser's bracket where they would now need to win three straight game in order to take the title at the 2005 ISA/Easton Men's Class D N.I.T.
A rematch of their second round game Lakota and the Wise Guys opposed each other in the loser's bracket finals. The winner would earn the chance to take on unbeaten Team Complete in the tournaments championship game. Lakota was up to the task at hand as they posted a narrow 14-13 victory onto the bracket board and with that win earning the right to challenge Team Complete for the tournament title.
The first game Lakota wanted to make a statement and they did exactly that by winning impressively by the final score of 23-12. Now the 'if necessary game' needed to be played to separate these two teams and in that extra game it was Lakota recording another impressive win 28-15 over Team Complete to win the title at the 2005 ISA/Easton Men's Class D N.I.T.
Lakota did not provide Illinois Softball Report with any team information, stats, highlights or quotes on how they were able to win the ISA/Easton Men's Class D National Invitational Tournament.
Team Complete was led to their second place finish by the glove work of Todd Hopkins who was named as the 'Gold Glove' of the tournament. Other Team Complete players that were names to the 2005 I.S.A./Easton Men's Class D N.I.T. All-Tournament team were; Brent Allen, Josh Stillwell, Mark Boucher, and Andy Lamps.
Tournament runner up Team Complete opened play with a first round match up against Players Lounge and came away with a 13-3 win to move into the second round of tournament action. Team Complete took the field in the second round with Balls Deep occupying the other dugout. In an interesting game Team Complete came away with a 17-10 win to move into Saturday night's semifinal game of the winner's bracket. Balls Deep made it to the second round by defeating Jupiter's 17-5 in the first round of tournament action.
Team Complete and Aero Softball locked horns in that semifinal game with Team Complete winning 18-13 to move forward into the game between the tournaments last two unbeaten teams on Sunday morning. Aero Softball made it to the semifinal of this tournament with a 2-0 record by having defeated D's Nuts 8-4 in the first round of play before dispatching Quad into the loser's bracket in the second round of play by the score of 21-12.
On Sunday morning in the battle of the undefeated teams it was Team Complete doing the little things that they needed to do in order to win as they slipped past Lakota by a single run beating them 16-15 to become the only unbeaten team left in this tournament and this win also assured them of a spot in the tournament's championship game against whichever team that would win the loser's bracket to oppose them in that championship game.
That team turned out to be Lakota and maybe it was the waiting to play or maybe it was just Lakota's day but Team Complete suffered back to back losses to Lakota 23-12 in the first game and 28-15 in the deciding game to send Team Complete home with the second place prize package.
Team Complete did not provide Illinois Softball Report with any team information, stats, highlights or quotes from how they managed to finish in second place at the 2005 ISA /Easton Men's Class D N.I.T.

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