Raiders Win At Ditka Dome

Third Indoor Title In Four Years

2006 Indoor Champions - Raiders

BOLLINGBROOK: The Raiders rule the world of indoor sixteen inch softball as they won for the third time in four events the 2006 Indoor Invitational. The first three events were held in Michigan but due to circumstances beyond tournament director Dan Atkins control this year's event had to be moved. Atkins settled upon the Ditka Dome in Bolingbrook on January 28th as the host site of his fourth annual venue.
Eight teams participated with many more being told sorry we have no more room in the allotted time frame that the indoor facility was rented. The games were six innings long and scheduled forty-five minutes apart. The umpires kept things moving (no on the field batting practice between games was allowed) as the tournament stayed close to being right on time all night long.
The Raiders played out of the top half of the bracket playing game number two of the tournament as they opened play against Out There and jumped all over them with a five run first inning to grab an early 5-1 lead. Out There battled back to narrow the gap to a single run 5-4. The Raiders added a pair of runs in both the fourth and fifth inning s to open the lead up while only surrendering a single run in the top of the fifth inning as they posted a 9-5 win onto the bracket board to advance into the semifinals.
Game number three was the semifinal game between the Raiders and the winner of the opening game, the Woodpeckers. The Woodpeckers jumped out to an early 3-0 lead after one and one half innings of play before the Raiders got going in this game. The Raiders plated one run in the bottom of the second inning to narrow the Woodpeckers lead down to 3-1. In the third inning the Raiders struck for three runs to take the lead 4-3 over the Woodpeckers. In the bottom of the fourth inning the Raiders added two more insurance runs as they used their defense to smother any offensive counter attack ideas that the Woodpecker had as they went on to win 6-3 to put them into the championship game.
The Woodpeckers advanced into this semifinal game, by stopping March in a close game 7-6 in the opening game of this tournament.
Now the Raiders faced a four hour wait while the other half of the bracket played their game before knowing who they would face in the title game. That team turned out to be Thunder. After a scoreless first inning both teams plated two runs in the second to keep the game even at two runs each. In the top of the third inning the Raiders took a one run lead before holding Thunder scoreless in the bottom of the third inning. The Raiders added three more runs in the fourth inning and another three runs in the fifth inning before putting a five spot onto the score board in the top of the sixth inning to put the game out of reach for the Thunder ball club as they won 14-3.
Raiders manager Ted Sherman was quick to point out the contributions made by his team by stating that he helped by winning 2 out three coin toss before adding, "Offensively we were led by (5-7), Kenny Gulo (3B), Al Manzo (1B), Shawn Conneely (AH), Kenny Carlyn (LF), also (5-6) Dan(Reggie) Relaz (P), & Kevin Haig (2B), as both Kevin Duff (AH) & Tommie Strickland chipped in with 4-6 efforts at the plate in this tournament.
Sherman went on to say, "Defensively, which is usually our strength and was once again this evening, anchored by our pitcher Dan Relaz. Nick Potter (C) came up with three putouts at home, while the outfield of Kenny Carlyn, Tommie Strickland, & Kevin Carrol made big play after big play for us." He went on to say, "We were strong up the middle defensively as Mike Conway (SS), Mike Kading (SC) and Kevin Haig (2B) made all the plays".
Sherman closed by taking the time to say thank you to his teams longtime sponsor by saying, "I would also like to thank our team Sponsors, LWoods Pine & Tap of Lincolnwood along with Linda Lerman (wife), and also Danny Atkins tourney director for giving us a venue to spend an evening in the middle of winter playing 16inch softball."
The Raider pocketed the top prize of two hundred fifty dollars for being this year's champion.
Thunder made it to the tile game by opening play against the Lemons in the last first round game and promptly posting a 7-3 onto the bracket board to advance into the semifinals. In their semifinal contest it was Thunder and the Young Guns locking horns with one another in a game that saw Thunder come out on top by a final score of 14-7. The Young Guns had opened play with a narrow 11-10 win over Right Now in a game that ended with Right Now having the tying runner at second base and the winning runner at first base when the last out was recorded.
The championship of this year's tournament was not to be for the Thunder ball club as they ran into a buzz saw named the Raiders losing 14-3 and having to settle for second place and the cash prize of seventy five dollars that went with being this year's tournament runner-up.
The consolation title and a cash prize of seventy five dollars went to the Lemons. They opened play with a first round loss to Thunder by a final score of 7-3. Once in the loser's bracket they sent Right Now to the parking lot after beating them 9-6. This put the lemons into the consolation championship game where they met and defeated March Manufacturing 8-6 to claim the top cash prize being offered to the consolation champion.
March opened play with a tough first round loss to the woodpeckers dropping a one run game 7-6 to put them into the consolation bracket of this event. In their first consolation game they met and defeated Out There 10-8 to move into the consolation money game against the Lemons.

- -

(L) Runnerup's Thunder & (R) Consolation Champion Lemons