Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill

Champions of Nineteen Teams, USSSA Class D/E In Winfield

USSSA Class D/E Champions Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill FRom Rockford

WINFIELD: Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill from Rockford came to Winfield's Glasshagel Fields and left with the title to the nineteen team USSSA Men's Class D /E Tournament played on July 22nd & 23rd with a perfect 5-0 record. SFL (4-2) from Bloomingdale finished in second place, St Georges Club (5-2) from Aurora took home third place with Sage/Posse Softball Club (3-2) from Crystal Lake finishing in fourth place. Other top finishing teams were McGaffer's / Caps /Fury (3-2) from Lombard and the Oswego Inn (2-2) from Oswego finishing in a tie for 5thpalce with both Red Crush (3-2) from Carol Stream and the Hot Shots / DBI Painting (2-2) from Warrenville finishing in a tie for seventh place at this tournament.
Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill opened play on Saturday afternoon with a first round contest against C. A. Bruckner from Aurora and won that game 15-10 to advance in the bracket. In their second round contest that was moved to Sunday morning after heavy rains and hail made the fields unplayable for the last several scheduled games on Saturday and when play was resumed on Sunday morning Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill clobbered Tidal Wave by a final score of 11-0 to move into a semifinal game of the winner's bracket. Tidal Wave made it this second round contest with Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill by defeating the Heavy Hitters from Bolingbrook 10-5 in the first round of tournament action.
In their semifinal contest Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill and Sage / Posse Softball Club played nine innings before the Rockford based Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill edged out their Crystal Lake based opponent by a final score of 9-8 to put them into the winner's bracket finals. Sage / Posse Softball Club made their way to this semifinal game by defeating the Truckers from Naperville 14-4 in the first round of play and than stopping St George's Club 12-7 earlier on Sunday morning.
In the game between the last two remaining unbeaten teams it was Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill and SFL going toe to toe in a game that was not decided until after that last out had been made with Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill edging out SFL 12-11 to give the Rockford squad the championship to the winner's bracket assuring them of a spot in the tournaments championship game against whichever team that would come out of the loser's bracket to challenge them in the finals.
When the loser's bracket play was completed a rematch with SFL was in store for the Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill ball club in the championship game. The Rockford ball club kept their eyes on the team goal in front of them using a strong defensive effort to hold SFL to only four runs in the title game wining 10-4 to put the ribbon on their tournament championship run and earn the berth to play at the 2006 USSSA Men's Class D Great Lakes National Tournament over Labor Day Weekend.
SFL made it to the tournament's championship game by playing in the first or morning session on Saturday. They opened play with a 12-5 win over Howard Sports Wear from Elgin in the first round of tournament play before stopping Northwest Pallet / Starbusters from Woodstock 7-2 to finish Saturday with a 2-0 record. Northwest Pallet / Starbusters had won their first round game over Assault from Schaumburg 12-4 to advance into this second round contest against SFL.
ON Sunday with their first game being backed up about an hour and half due to Saturday's Rains force the last two rounds of games being pushed back from Saturday afternoon to Sunday morning SFL finally took the field to play the Oswego Inn in a semifinal game of the winner's bracket. SFL was on their game as they pulled away to an early lead that was too much for the Oswego opponent to overtake winning 14-9 to put them into the winner's bracket championship game of this tournament. The Oswego Inn made it to this semifinal game, in the winner's bracket by opening play with a 9-1 win over Red Crush from Carol Stream in the first round of tournament play before beating McGaffer's / Caps / Fury 8-2 in the second round of play.
IN the battle of the last two unbeaten teams left in this tournament it was SFL coming out on the short end of a 12-11 score to Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill drop them into the loser's bracket where they needed to win a game to earn a second chance at playing the Rockford squad. SFL regrouped quickly and went to work as they pounded out an 10-2 win over a tiered St George's ball club to win the loser's bracket and earn a second chance at playing Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill. St George's was playing in their sixth game of the day have to play two extra games on Sunday due to Saturday afternoons downpour.
Now playing for the tournament title and need two more wins SFL took the field with Maxwell Consulting / Neighbors Bar & Grill but they came up short losing 10-4 and with that loss were forced to accept second place. On a good note second place also included a paid berth to play at the 2006 USSSA Men's Class D Great Lakes National Tournament over Labor Day Weekend for the SFL ball club.

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