Souse's Lounge / Rogers Drywall 3rd At USSSA Class C Nationals

Souse's Lounge /Rogers Drywall Completing The Out at First Base

Souses/Rogers jumped out early scoring ten runs in the top of the first inning as Adams and Shane Turner each had two hits in the opening inning but the Minnesota ball club rallied to tie the game after three innings at ten runs each. The Rockford squad regained their scoring touch as they played nine more runs over the last three innings to win. Adams led the way with six hits (2 HR), D. Phillip added five hits, with both Shane Turner, Ron Nunez stroking four hits each and Rob Nunez, Messenger, C. Phillip and Jeff Meyers all adding three hits each to aid in the winning teams effort in this game.
The next game saw great match up between Souse's Lounge/Roger's Drywall and the strongest and last remaining MN team, Marathon, the 05' MN "C" State Champs. Marathon was rolling along on the other side of the losers bracket sending home the other IL favorite, Players Inc and Wisconsin favorite DJ's Dinosaurs. Souses Lounge/Rogers Drywall again came out early with five runs in the top of the first inning but Marathon was full of character and bounced back all game long. Marathon appeared to be in the driver's seat with the bases loaded with 1 out in the bottom of the seventh. Hardy said, "The hitter at the plate was 3 for 3, but over thought the sac fly ball and hit a one hopper to Meyers at SS at who threw a perfect strike to Adams at home for the 2nd out of the inning. Now the pressure turned away from Souses and on the next Marathon hitter. Still with the bases loaded Hancock dropped in the first strike, as he did 99% of the day, and the next pitch was Yogi's best of the day when the hitter flew softly to center." Meyers led off the extra inning with a sharp single but the next two hitters were outs without advancing the runner. D. Phillip drew a full count walk and Ron Nunez stroked a hit to score Myers to put the Illinois squad up by one run. Brad Ferger followed with another clutch hit to score Phillip and Souses Lounge/Rogers Drywall now led by two runs. With Ron Nunez on 3rd and Ferger on 1st, Rob Nunez stepped to the plate and proceeded to drive one high and deep to left for a 3 run HR - and what would be the nail in the coffin. Marathon started the bottom of the 8th with a single but then Meyers and Nunez turned a beautiful double play to take any life out of the comeback plan.
C. Phillip led the way with four hits, as his teammates; Ron Nunez, D. Phillip, Rob Nunez, Jeff Meyers all had three hits during this win.
Now playing in the loser's bracket championship game a tied but game Souse's Lounge/Roger Drywall gave it all that they had left in their tanks but fell short and lost to the Journeymen Profs/Monster Energy from Souse's Rogers ran out of gas with the final ending 26-11. Leading hitters were Ferger, and Turner with four hits, as Rob Nunez added 3 hits and Ron Nunez chipped in with 2 hits. As Souse's Lounge/Roger Drywall went home with third place from this twenty-five team event.
Manager Hardy closed by saying, "Yogi (Dan Hancock) took control of the mound and never relinquished control. Yogi played the position like a champion. Fielded absolutely everything and averaged less than 1 walk per game over the six games we played on Sunday. Glen Adam (.649) led the team in total hits, rapping out a total of 24 hits in the 8 games and Ron Nunez (.611) followed with 22 hits. Dave Phillip (.568) and Craig Phillip (.636) followed with 21 and 20 hits respectively. Rob Nunez could only play the Sunday games but went 16-24 (.667). As a team Souses hit .550 as a team and averaged 17.25 runs over the 8 games."
The tournament champion Expert Carpet Cleaning from Michigan opened tournament play with a 21-4 win over Mortgages. In their second game the Michigan based ball club stopped The Boys of Summer 27-11 to advance again. Kevitt/Field House/Easton was excused to the loser's bracket after losing to Expert Carpet Cleaning (no score was reported) in a semifinal game of the winner's bracket. In the undefeated game Expert Carpet Cleaning stopped Journeyman Prof's Monster Energy 19-9. In the tournament's championship game it was Expert Carpet Cleaning over Journeyman Prof's Monster Energy 24-21 to complete their undefeated run to the tournament title.

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