| THE BIG DANCE preliminary round 11 SEED) THE NO TALENT ASS CLOWNS (2001) -) THE SHORT BUS ALL-STARS (2004) LINEUPS: ASS CLOWNS ALL-STARS 1- nate tomko 1- chris mclaughlin 2- josh robbs 2- billy weisberg 3- lenny crist 3- lee nepsor 4- alberta hood 4- ted gilliland B- jeff pallini |
| SHORT BUS ALL-STARS 10 NO TALENT ASS CLOWNS 9 chris mclaughlin's 2-out, 2-run homer gave teddy gilliland's short bus all-star extravaganza a huge upset win over 2001's no talent ass clowns in one of the best games of the premilinary round. the two teams traded leads throughout much of the contest, and did the same in the one-on-one scrum pitting nate tomko against billy weisberg. tomko looked to have control of the scrum when weisberg swatted the ball out of his hands right before he crossed the hoffa centre finish line. the two wrestled as the ball rolled to the other side of the yard. when weisberg was finally able to get up, he outraced tomko to the ball, then put a head fake on nate that appeared to seal the deal, but tomko was able to get just enough of weisberg's ankle to knock him down as he went soaring past. again, the ball popped out, but this time it was tomko who reached it first, and after shrugging off a flying tackle by weisberg, rumbled across the finish line to give his team home field advantage. the all-stars took advantage of their first at-bats, plating a pair of runs on back to back doubles by weisberg and nespor after mclaughlin led off with a single. teddy ballgames first missed homer resulted in a robbs put-back, and mclaughlin's double rimmed in and out to end the first for short bus. the ass clowns tied the game when robbs' homer in his first at-bat drove in tomko, who had reached on a triple. alberta hood was d.p.ed by weisberg, and crist's double missed wide right to end frame one. after a scoreless second inning for short bus, the clowns grabbed their first lead of the contest as tomko drove in hood with two gone to take a 3-2 lead. robbs missed a double that would have scored tomko to preent the ass clowns from building on their lead. again, short bus went down in two straight batters as gilliland and mclaughlin missed solo homer attempts, the first being put back thru by tomko for 3. this time, however, the ass clown were unable to capitalize and the score remained at 3-2 heading into the 4th. billy weisberg led off the top of the 4th with a triple, and lee nespor finally found his range from downtown, banking in a 2-run homer to give the lead right back to the all-stars. a gilliland solo shot one batter later extended the lead to two, but weisberg and mclaughlin missed in succession to end the rally. the score stayed at 5-3 thru the middle innings, and niether team could manage much offense. then, in the top of the 7th, the ass clown broke the game open again when lenny crist dropped through a two-out grand slam to give his team a 7-5 lead. tomko followed with a solo jack of his own, and the lead swelled to 3. but the all-star lineup also had a few big hits in them, as chris mclaughlin broke out of a game-long slump with a solo shot to get the ball rolling. weisberg and nespor went back to back from the triple line, and following a d.p.ed gilliland miss, mclaughlin hit another base-clearer, this time of the 2-run variety to end the scoring in the 7th with sbas sitting on a 9-7 lead. in the eighth, alberta hood led off with a single, but crist, tomko and robbs went down 1-2-3 to end the threat. a ted gilliland solo homer gave short bus a 10-7 cushion heading into the final frame of the game. in the top of the ninth, hood again lead off with a single, and again, lenny was double played attempting a homer. with only one out remaining, tomko and robbs calmly swished through back-to-back triples to bring themselves within one, but alberta hood's magic would run out, as her single attempt was off it's mark, and both tomko and robbs missed assist attempt that would have extended the game. tomko hit on 6 of 9 shots and drove in 5 to pace the losers. both he and robbs tipped in a trifecta of double plays. for the winners, gilliland hit 2 homers and drove in 3 while mclaughlin knocked in a pair. mclaughlin and weisberg each tipped in a pair of d.p.'s. BACK |