Lugnuts Champions of 26th Annual Naperville Spring Tune Up

Eighteen Teams Participate in Progressive Cash Payout Tournament

NAPERVILLE: The Lugnuts playing out of Blue Island & Alsip leagues overcame the cold and windy weather conditions to win the 26th Annual Naperville Sixteen Inch Spring Tune-up Tournament held at Frontier Park in Naperville On April 30th & May 1st with a perfect 7-0 record. Finger Lickin' Good (5-2) from Westchester finished in second place with Traffic (5-1) from Mt Prospect and the Lemonheads (5-1) from Mt Prospect exiting after the semifinals of Sunday's single elimination tournament to decide the championship.
The Lugnuts opened play on Saturday morning with a narrow 4-3 win over Bevi's Bar & Eatery from Naperville in their first of three pool play games. "An outstanding over the shoulder catch by center fielder Brent Loewe in the top of the seventh enabled us to be within a run," said Lugnuts manager Jeff Bataoel. Bataoel added, "Trailing 3-2 in bottom of the seventh, center fielder Brent Loewe led off with a double. He scored on right fielder's Joe Wnek's single tying the game. Joe moved to third on a base hit and scored the winning run on a sacrifice fly by catcher Jeff Bataoel."
Game number two on Saturday saw the Lugnuts square off with Impact Softball from Mt Prospect and found themselves trailing 6-2 in the bottom of the fifth, as they battled back with four runs to tie the game at six runs each. In the top of the sixth Impact went in front 7-6 forcing the Lugnuts to come from behind in their second straight game. Clutch hitting from pinch hitter Bataoel, right fielder Wnek, short center Tom Newman, and a big two out, two run double from first baseman Jim Jensen, the Lugnuts were able to hold off Impact for a hard earned 9-7 win. Along with the timely hitting, there were outstanding defensive plays by right fielder Wnek and third baseman Tim Lindeman to keep Impact from breaking the game wide open.
The Lugnuts complete their sweep of the Pool 'A' teams by defeating Perma Seal from Naperville 25-10. In the progressive payout system used to pay the teams via their victories the Lugnuts earned twenty-five dollars for each win on Saturday plus they also earned a one hundred dollar bonus for winning Pool 'A' on Saturday. The hitting stars in this win for the Lugnuts were Jensen, left fielder Paul Martens, Loewe, and Lindeman
On Sunday morning the Lugnuts drew a 10:00 AM game against Out There Softball and proceeded to post a 16-12 win up onto the bracket board to advance. This win also earned the Lugnuts forty dollars. Manager Loewe said, "After earning the number one seed from our pool, we returned Sunday to face a tough draw. We knew we needed to play some good softball on Sunday. It ended up being an offensive day with the wind blowing."
The Lugnuts added to their war chest by picking up a win in a seventy-five dollar game as they defeated Thunder 21-11 moving them into the semi-finals of the championship tournament. Thunder had advanced to this game by defeating Menace 7-4 in their opening game on Sunday morning.
The Semi-final game was worth one hundred dollars to the winning team and the Lugnuts engaged into a slug fest with Traffic in a game that looked more like a football final score than a softball game's final score winning 25-20. Traffic made it to this game by wining two games on Sunday as they opened with a 23-12 win over the Grinders before getting by the Bucketheads 22-15 in the second round of play.

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