| THE BIG DANCE preliminary round 9 SEED) XDEATHX/WSAC (2004) -) THE PURPLE UNDEPENDABLES (2001) LINEUPS: XDEATHX UNDEPENDABLES 1-jon biddle 1- jeff meyers 2- billy picciotto 2- terrance wareham 3- kip corbett 3- josh wareham 4- dank elly 4- tino sotopacheco B- jason betts B- gary swogger |
| XDEATHX/WSAC 9 PURPLE UNDEPENDABLES 11 (11 innings) behind the dominant play of jeff meyers and hammy wareham, the undpendables were able to pull off the tournament's first major upset, sending home 2004's smokers in extra innings. a two-on-two scrum pitting x's dank elly and jon biddle against meyers and swogger was a wash, as meyers got to the ball first, then plowed over both smokers on his way across the line. it proved big, as some 30 minutes later the undependables would twice squeak out a victory in the bottom of an inning. x got on the board first in the top of the second inning when biddle crossed the plate thanks to kip corbett's two-out triple. corbett then scored on dank's single, but biddle airballed a triple attempt in the next at-bat to end the rally. in the home half of the frame, the undependables got back to back to back solo jacks from meyers and the wareham brothers to take a 3-2 lead, one which they would carry into the ninth inning. the defenses took over in the middle innings, as each team could only muster a single run from the third thru eighth innings, solo shots in the fifth from picciotto and the elder wareham. during that stretch, both teams got double plays in every inning, tho sbl single-season recordholder jon biddle failed to tap one in until the ninth. in the ninth, the smokers caught fire, hoisting up 7 consecutive shots in a row, including a pair of run-scoring triples from corbett to gather another 5 runs. with only one out, however, fresh-off-the-bench jason betts airballed a homer that was put back in by meyers to end the inning. looking to their solid defense to take over the game, the smokers watched an oppurtunity slip by as sotopacheco's missed single fall between corbett and biddle harmlessly to the ground for a lone out. after that, the undpendables hit three straight from the double line, then a pair of triples before biddle's big double play ended regulation with the scores knotted at nine. meyers and biddle exchanged double plays in the tenth inning, and neither team advanced a runner past first in that stanza. in the 11th, the smokers threatened when dank elly led off with a single. betts and biddle's single attempts were off, and picciotto's homer attempt went in-and-out to prevent any damage to the undependables. when the underdogs took to the plate in their half of the 11th, they wasted no time as sotopachedo avenged himself with a single, then was knocked in by meyers right homer the very next at-bat. for the surprise victors, meyers tipped in 6 double plays and drove in 6. hammy added 3 rbi and a dp. for xdx, picciotto and elly evenly divided 6 rbi and corbett, elly and biddle each tipped in 2 double plays. jason betts recorded a pair of 8th inning psyche-outs. following the game, jeff beat up a girl and the smokers smoked some smokes. BACK |