| THE BIG DANCE quarterfinals 4 SEED) GONADS & STRIFE (2003) 5 SEED) THE PINK BANDANA GIRLS (2002) LINEUPS: G&S PBG 1- shelley goodpastor 1- jason biddle 2- nate tomko 2- justin shaffer 3- addam stainbrook 3- jared clayton 4- lee nespor 4- sean hood |
| PINK BANDANA GIRLS 19 GONADS & STRIFE 9 a combination of the abscence of andy esenwein and hot shooting by the pink bandana girls spelled doom for gonads & strife, who became the highest seed to be eliminated from the tournament thus far. esenwein, as he had done quite often during the gonads dissapointing 2003 season, was nowhere to be found come game time, and the normally potent offense of g-n-s was unable to keep pace with the sean hood's trio of rookie all-stars. while it is unclear wether the addition of the last mohican would have ultimately made the final score swing in favor of the orange-clad, it certainly would have made the score a bit less lopsided. playing from the visiting position after being drubbed in the stainbrook-hood scrum, the pbg wasted little time building a substantial lead. biddle, as he has done so many times in the past, led off the game with a double and was plated by twin sister shaffer one batter later. clayton found his longball stroke early to put his unit up 3-love, and hood kept the early streak going with a 3-bagger. biddle's next shot was off the mark and put back by stainbrook for a d.p., but another double-homer set by shaffer and clayton made the count 5-0 before hood missed for the final out of the pbg first. an unusual 1-2-3 inning for g-n-s kept the scoreboard still into the second. both teams enchanged leadoff solo homers in the second, the girls getting one from biddle and the gonads from young lee nespor, but double plays by tomko and clayton would quickly smother the scoring. the third stanza saw the pbg load the bases but produce no runs as jared clayton's 1-out grand slam attempt from the middle homer line was tapped back in by tomko. the gonads were able to capitalize, crossing the plate twice when goodpastor's triple scored both tomko and stainbrook to make the count 6-3 before shaffer tipped in a tomko homer attempt for his first double play of the evening. the score remained the same into the fifth when the pbg once again found their rythym. hood led off with a single from the left side, and biddle followed suit from the right. looking to load the bases for their big gun, shaffer lined up for a middle single. his shot was too hard off the backboard, but g-n-s was caught napping, and shaffer was able to follow up his own miss to load the bases. this time, clayton was able to deliver, drilling a middle homer to give his team a gigantic 10-3 cushion. unfortunately, it was far from over for team gonad in the fifth, as team pink would accumulate another 4 runs via smallball, the biggest hit coming when shaffer followed up his own triple miss for his second self-assist of the inning to drive in 2 runs. facing an 11 run defecit, gonads and strife were unable to get any real offense going in their half of the 5th, getting only the two runs nate tomko's 2-out homer brought in. score after 5: pbg-14, gns-5. the gonad defense looked much better in the 6th as they faced only 2 batters, with jason biddlet succumbing to a lee nespor psyche-out and shaffer missing for a stainbrook double play. sparked by their stingy defense, tomko's charges got themselves back into the game in the bottom of the 6th. goodpastor got the ball rolling with a leadoff double, and tomko plated her with a middle triple. stainbrook and nespor went back to back from the single line, and goodpastor's triple drove in both to make the score14-9. tomko pissed away a golden oppurtunity, muffing a single attempt that went back thru for 2 off the hands of shaffer, and the rally died with the next batter as stainbrook's double was well short. the pbg got 2 of their runs back in the 7th when hood's 2-out double drove in biddle and shaffer, but held on in the bottom of the inning to keep the gonads scoreless. the gonads returned the favor in the 8th, once again putting down the girls in only 2 batters and went to the bottom of the 8th trailing 16-9 and in desperate need of offense. unfortunately, they would find none as nespor's leadoff double attempt was nearly dunked back through by clayton. the wind out of their sails, the gonads watched as the normally solid goodpastor airballed her triple shot for out number 3. in their final at-bat, the bandana girls got 3 insurance runs as the trip of biddle, shaffer and clayton each drove in 1 before a tomko double play ended the scoring. needing 10 runs to extend the contest, the gonads got none. tomko's grand slam attempt was off it's mark and put back in by biddle to all but seal the deal in the first at-bat, and stainbrook's miss did seal the deal in the next. for the victorious bandana girls, who set up a showdown with the 2004 world champion serbian jew double bluffs, clayton notched a game high 3 homers and 8 rbi to go with his 3 double plays. shaffer contributed 8 hits and 5 rbi while biddle and hood evenly divided a half-dozen runs batted in. biddle connected on 9 of his 13 trips to the plate. tomko's 4 double play, 3 ribbie game was tops for his team. goodpastor knocked in a pair on 6 for 10 shooting and stainbrook added a pair of double plays. 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