Wheels By R T /Shoe Carnival Wins Worth NIT

Twenty-six Teams Participate At USSSA Men's Class D World Qualifier

2005 USSSA/Worth Men's Class D N.I.T. Champions Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival

ROCKFORD: Twenty-six teams traveled to play a the Rockford's USSSA/Worth Sports Men's Class D N.I.T. held at Harlem Community Center, Harlem North on Saturday and at Forest Hills Diamonds on Sunday with Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival from Rockford winning the tournament with a perfect 5-0 record. The champions passed the 2005 USSSA Men's Class D World Tournament berth down to tournament runner-up Money (5-2) from Orland Park because they had previously won a berth in Iowa earlier in the year. The champions did pocket both a paid national berth and a paid state berth which they converted into sponsor travel money and passed those two than unpaid berths on down to the highest finishing team that needed those berths. Team Complete (4-2) from Ottawa took home third place, Junk (4-2) from Clinton, Wisconsin finished in fourth place, in a tie for fifth place was Locos (5-2) from Waukegan and Blackhawk Athletic Club/Mizuno (4-2) from Rockford and finishing in a seventh place tie were Lynch Mob (3-2) from Naperville and Shamrock Mortgage (3-2) from Oswego.
The champions Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival were led to the title of this National Invitational Tournament by the play of Steve Briggs who was named as the 'Tournament's Most Valuable Player'. Five other member of the Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival ball club were also named to the Worth All-Tournament team and they were; Kenny Bland, Jay Coffman, Pat Flavin, Bryant Mc Names and the All-Tournament team manager Roy Mc Names
Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival opened the tournament by receiving a first round bye before taking on Slick Rick's/Michelob Ultimate from Bloomington. Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival had opened a 9-2 lead entering the seventh inning before Slick Rick's/Michelob rallied to make the final score interesting at 9-7. Slick Rick's/Michelob Ultimate won their first round game by defeating Kline Construction from Elgin 13-11.
In their second and final game on Saturday Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival tangled with Yep! Softball from Lombard and posted a 9-6 win up onto the bracket board to move into Sunday's semifinal of the winner's bracket. Yep! Softball had advanced into this game by opening play with 8-6 win over Byron Bank/Cave Inn from Byron in the first round, and than defeating Advantage Consultation from Waterman 16-6 in the second round of play. Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival manager Roy Mc Names said, "Yep is a good young team."
On Sunday Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival squared off with Money to start their day of and promptly posted an impressive 15-3 victory onto the bracket board to mover into the tournaments undefeated game. Mc Names said, "We probably played our best game of the tourney coming out and hitting and playing good defense, and ended up ten running Money 15-3".
Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival and Team Complete locked horns in the battle between the last two remaining unbeaten team left in this tournament with Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival beating Team Complete 15-8 to earn their spot in the championship game against whichever team would emerge from the loser's bracket to challenge them in the title contest. Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival jumped out to an early lead and held on to win this game. Team Complete made it to the undefeated game by opening the tournament with a narrow 14013 win over Neighbors Bar & Grill from Rockford in the opening round of Tournament play. Team Complete took the field against Beam Softball from Chicago winning 20-16 in the second round of play before taking on and defeating Shamrock Mortgage 17-11 in the third round of tournament action to complete their tournament play on Saturday.
On Sunday morning Team Complete squared off with Junk and posted an impressive 26-10 win to move into the tournament undefeated game.
After the dust settled back down at the end of the loser's bracket championship game a rematch with Money awaited Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival in the championship game.
Money broke on top by a 5-1 score in the second inning before Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival rose to the challenge at hand as they defeated Money 16-10 to complete their sweep of the field of teams at this tournament. Having previously won a World Qualifying N.I.T. earlier in the season Wheels By R.T./Shoe Carnival converted the paid berths into sponsor travel money and passed down unpaid berths to the next highest finishing team that needed that berth at this tournament.
Mc Names said, "Congrats to Wheels by R.T./Shoe Carnival on winning their second straight N.I.T. in as many weeks. (They had also won the 8th annual Hawkeye Classic N.I.T. in Waterloo IA. the week before). This qualifies them for the World Class "D" tourney in Florida in late Sept." He closed by saying, "I'd like to also congratulate to Money on getting a birth to the World tourney."

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