Primetime Champions At USSSA C/D

Ten Teams Particiapte At Oswego High School On May 7th

OSWEGO: Primetime Softball from Joliet went 4-0- to win the ten team USSSA Men's Class C / D Equalizer Tournament held at the Oswego High Scholl in Oswego on May 7th. Roundin' Third (5-2) from Itasca finished in second place, wheels By RT / Shoe Carnival (2-2) from Rockford was third with Beam Softball (2-2) from Chicago taking home fourth place.
Primetime Softball opened play with a 10-6 win over Roundin' Third in their opening contest of this tournament after receiving a first round bye.
In their second contest of the tournament Primetime Softball managed to edge Beam Softball 16-15 to put them into the winner's bracket finals. Beam Softball had advance into this game with a 16-1 win over Jesse oaks from De Kalb in their opening game.
In the game between the tournament's last two unbeaten team it was Primetime Softball posting a 10-7 victory over Wheels By RT/Shoe Carnival. Wheels By RT / Shoe Carnival made it to the undefeated game by opening with a 16-6 win over Aurora Turner Club from Sandwich followed by another five inning run rule win 14-4 win over Lovell's from De Kalb
Now Primetime was able to sit back and watch as the losers bracket was played out and when it was over they had a rematch with their first opponent of the day Roundin' Third in store for them in the title contest.
Roundin' Third looked to be the team that was going to upend Primetime in this tournament as they had built a 5-4 lead entering the sixth inning. It was here that Primetime became alive as they exploded to score seven huge runs to take the lead for good. Pinch hitter Jason Young came off the bench with a key single that brought in two runs to give Primetime a 6-5 advantage. Ronnie Greenfield and Johnny Vugteveen followed with singles and Brian Anderson promptly launched a grand slam homerun into the teeth of a stiff wind that was hollowing in on the field of play. Primetime Softball shut down Roundin' Third the rest of the way winning 11-5 to complete an undefeated run to the tournament title.
Manager Dave Piasecki praised his team's defense by noting that they made only three errors all day while the outfielders were record six assists with four of those being at home plate. Terry Feeney and Dave Piasecki shared the pitching responsibilities and held the teams to an average of nine runs per game.
Offensively Primetime Softball was led by the hitting of shortstop Johnny Vugteveen who batted .731 with two inside the park home runs and center fielder Brian Anderson who also hit .731 including three home runs including the tournament clinch grand slam in the championship game.
Roundin' Third took the long road to the finals but they got there just the same. The Itasca based ball club opened tournament play with a 22-2 win over Squeeze from Joliet in the first round of play. They were led by the hitting of Scott White HR with 3 RBI, and Roy Ambrose 3-3, with 5 RBI in this win.
Game number two was not kind to Roundin' Third as they were upended by the eventual champions Primetime Softball 10-6 sending them into the loser's bracket for the rest of the tournament.
Shamrock from Oswego was eliminated first by Roundin' Third as they posted an 18-7 win up onto the bracket board. Roundin' Third was led at the plate in this win by the hitting of Ambrose 4-4 with 4 RBI, Jeff Streul 3-4, with 3 RBI, and Kyle Kimme 4-4 with 6 RBI.
Lovell's from De Kalb was show the door next as Roundin' Third won by a big margin again with a 16-3 victory going up onto the bracket board in their favor. Leading the way for the Itasca ball club was Dave Yukinis 3-3 and Matt Goumas 3-3 with 3 RBI in this win.
Beam Softball left next after losing to Roundin' Third 13-10 as Kyle Kimme led the way going 4-4, HR, with 4 RBI in this victory.
This win put them into the loser's bracket finals where Wheels By RT / Shoe carnival awaited them and in a close game Roundin' Third was able to edge out Wheels By RT / Shoes Carnival 9-8 by scoring three runs in the bottom of the seventh inning to pull the victory out of the jaws of defeat to earn a second shot at Primetime Softball and the tournament championship. In that fate full bottom of the seventh inning Roundin' Third's Tom Barnes and Scott White came up with key hits before Scott Barlev drove in the winning run.
Roundin' Third looked to be up to the task of upending Primetime Softball until that fate full sixth inning when Primetime Softball came from behind to seal the deal and send Roundin' Third home with second place from this tournament after beating them 11-5
For the tournament Roundin' Third was led by the hitting of Kyle Kimme .917 with 17 RBI, Scott Barlev .640, Dave Yuen .640, Roy Ambrose .625 with 12 RBI, Matt Goumas .577, Scott White .577 and Dave Yukinis .565.
Manager Dave Yukinis said, "We have shown a lot of heart this year. This is the second time we have made it to the championship game after losing the first or second game of a tournament. Hopefully we can make it easier and go 3-0 some Saturday but maybe our guys just like to play a lot of games."

(L) Runner-up Roundin' Third & (R) 3rd Place Wheels By RT / Shoe Carnival