Miller 45's Champions

Photo By Jack Stout

MT. PROSPECT: The Miller 45's remained the kings of the world of sixteen inch softball as they added yet another tournament title to their impressive list of events won this year. The Chicago Championships which drew thirty-nine entries and was hosted by the Mt Prospect Park District at the Majewski Complex on June 23rd through the 26th. The Miller 45's went undefeated with a perfect 6-0 record to win the top prize of fifteen hundred dollars. The Bucketheads (5-2) took home second place money which totaled one thousand dollars, Flash (5-2) was third and they pocketed seven hundred fifty dollars. Fourth place went to Impact (4-2) which took home five hundred dollars, with a fifth place tie going to both Binge (6-2) and Traffic (6-2) with both of these two teams receiving two hundred and fifty dollars for their efforts in this tournament. Also two ASA National Tournament berths were awarded and they went to the Bucketheads and to Impact.
The Miller 45's opened tournament play on Friday night with a 17-8 win over the Registers in their first round contest of this tournament.
On Saturday the Miller 45's ball club won two more games as they defeated Punch 10-0 before sending Sage into the loser's bracket after beating them 9-3. Punch made it to their game with the Miller 45's by opening play with two win on Friday night as they defeated the Rebels 6-1 in a pig tail game before they beat Sand Bar 14-2 in the first round of the winner's bracket. Sage had advanced to meet the Miller 45's ball club by opening tournament play with a 13-1 win over nemesis in the first round of tournament play on Friday night and than defeating Menace 15-1 earlier on Saturday afternoon.
On Sunday afternoon the Miller 45's ball club squared off with Impact and put on a hitting show winning 26-12 in a semifinal game of the winner's bracket. Impact made it to the semifinal round of the winner's bracket by opening with a first round win over Mongos 16-6 on Thursday evening. On Saturday afternoon Impact stopped the Long Shots 10-5 before slipping past March Manufacturing 12-11 in a late afternoon game.
In the game between the last two remaining unbeaten teams left in this tournament the Miller 45's and the Bucketheads took the field to play each other with the Miller 45's coming out on top by a final score of 4-1. This win put them into the tournament's championship game against whichever one of the remaining teams that would emerge victorious from the loser's bracket to challenge them in the finals.
When the last out was record in the loser's bracket a rematch with the Bucketheads was in store for the Miller 45's in the championship game. The Miller 45's in spite of the long wait to play the championship game came out focused on the team goal of winning as they hung an 11-5 win over the Bucketheads onto the scoreboard to wrap up their undefeated run to the tournament's championship
The Miller 45's did not supply Illinois Softball Report with any team information, stats, highlights or quotes on how they were able to win this tournament.
Tournament runner-up the Bucketheads opened play on Thursday night with a tough draw against Binge but they came out ready to play and got the job done beating Binge 16-12 to move on into Saturdays second round of the winner's bracket.

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