Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat Wins USSSA D/E

Twenty Teams Particiapate At Sugar Grove Sports Complex On 7/30 & 31

SUGAR GROVE: The Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat (5-0) from Glen Ellen won the Annual Sugar Grove Corn Boil Tournament that was sanctioned as a USSSA Men's Class D/E Equalizer Tournament and was played at the Sugar Grove Sports Complex in Sugar Grove On July 30th & 31st. The champions earned a berth to play at the 2005 USSSA Men's Class D Great Lakes National Tournament to be held over Labor Day Weekend in Blaine, Minnesota. St George's Club (5-2) from Aurora was second, Shamrock Mortgage (3-2) from Oswego took home third place, Plano Legion/Vineyard Liquors (3-2) from Plano was fourth with both the Assassins (4-2) from Carol Stream and Lovell's (3-2) from De Kalb tying for fifth place at this twenty team event.
The Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat opened tournament play with a first round bye before taking on and defeating G-Force Labels & Printing from Plano in the second round by a final score of 12-5. G-Force Labels & Printing had won their first round game by defeating Chet's Champs 18-1 from Sugar Grove to advance into this second round contest with Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat.
The Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat improved their tournament record to 2-0 with a 10-7 win over Whitey's from Oswego in the third round of tournament play. Whitey's made it to the third round by opening the tournament with a first round bye before beating The Village from Elgin 21-10 in the second round of play.
On Sunday morning the Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat tangles with Plano's Legion/Vineyard Liquors and came out on top by the final score of 4-0 in a defensive game. This win put Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat into the winner's bracket finals. Stallions/ Furious Lunchmeat manager Steve Tenuto said, "We were 0-2 against Plano before this game, and our excellent defense, led by pitcher Brian Best, brought us a shut-out in this key game." Plano's Legion/Vineyard Liquors made it to this game by opening the tournament with a first round bye before taking on and defeating I.B.E.W. # 461 from Aurora 5-4 in the second round of tournament play and than stopping Masonry Structures from De Kalb 3-0 on Saturday afternoon to move into Sunday morning's semifinal game of the winner's bracket.
In the game between the tournament's last two remaining unbeaten teams Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat squared off with Shamrock Mortgage from Oswego an din a very close game came away with a one run victory edging out their Oswego opponent 13-12 to win the winner's bracket and assure themselves of a spot in the tournament's championship game against which ever team emerged from the loser's bracket to challenge them in the title contest. Manager Tenuto said "We were down ten runs in the sixth inning and won the game in the bottom of the seventh inning on a two out, bases loaded smash off of the third base bag by OF Tenuto."
The team that emerged from the loser's bracket to challenge Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat turned out to be St Georges Club from Aurora and in another close game the Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat found a way to win yet another one run game claim their title to this tournament with a perfect 5-0 record after edging St Georges Club 6-5 in the title game. Manager Tenuto said, "Our back-up pitcher Mark Labanowski did a great job holding down this hard-hitting team, and our infield defense really played solid to win this close game.
For this tournament the Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat ball club was led in hitting by 1B Dustin Wirgau .615 with 6 RBI, P/C Mark Labanowski .705 with 5 RBI, OF Steve Tenuto .545 with 4 RBI, and OF Dave Adams .667 with 3 RBI.
Tenuto closed by saying, "Plano Legion, Shamrock, and St. Georges are all tough teams-we look forward to seeing them in Rockford for State."
St Georges Club took a much longer path to the championship game as they needed to play five games on Sunday coming through the loser's bracket to get into the finals.
On Saturday St Georges Club opened play with an 18-11 win over the Misfits in the second round of play after both teams had received a first round bye in the twenty team event.
St Georges Club closed out play on Saturday with an 11-7 win over Lovell's from De Kalb to move into Sunday's semifinal round of the winner's bracket. Lovell's advanced into this third round game by opening the tournament with a first round bye and than defeating the Assassins 6-3 in the second round of tournament action.
On Sunday morning St Georges Club started their day out with a quick hangover losing to Shamrock Mortgage from Oswego 11-10 to drop them into the loser's bracket where they now needed to run off five straight wins to win this tournament. The St Georges Club went about doing just that as they started with the Assassins and sent them to the parking lot to repacking their cars for the trip home after beating them by a final score of 18-12. The next team to exit this tournament at the hands of the St Georges Club was Plano Legion/Vineyard Liquors who left after dropping a close 12-11 decision to St Georges Club.
Now St Georges Club had only Shamrock Mortgage, the team that had put them into the loser's bracket earlier in the day standing between them and a shot at the unbeaten Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat ball club. St Georges Club took advantage of this opportunity to get a little revenge as they sent home the team who had previously beat them, Shamrock Mortgage after beating them 11-8 to earn the right to play in the championship game.
A tried but game St Georges Club took the field to play unbeaten Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat in the championship game but the Aurora based St Georges Club came up a little short in the title game losing 6-5 to the Stallions/Furious Lunchmeat and with this loss having to accept second place from this tournament.
St Georges Club did not provide Illinois Softball Report with any team information, stats, highlights or quotes on how they were able to finish in second place at this twenty team qualifier.