| SBL 2005 PLAYOFF QUARTERFINALS JULY 31 & AUGUST 7 K-Y COURT @ ASSBANG FIELDHOUSE & THE TUBBIETRONIC SUPERDROME 6TH SEED) TRAIN ON TED'S SISTER VERSUS 2ND SEED) TEAM KOOPA TROOPA TEAM KOOPA TROOPA 24 TRAIN ON TERRY SHERNISKY 16 after burning uncle jed for 3 games in the first round, stud frankovich suddenly seemed pedestrian, and as a result the tots were cooled off by the national conference champions team koopa troopa. after sitting for nearly 3 hours while awaiting their turn to play, koopa came out of the blocks slow. they were double played in both of their first two at-bats, and failed to score a run until bryan frankovich assisted greg lackey to bring himself home in the third. fortunately, the taught koopa D allowed only 3 runs to the high-flying tots, and the defecit was considerably more bearable than the ones jed had to deal with. once they got their bats going, koopa quickly overtook the drained tots. a frankovich 2-run jack in the fourth handed koopa it's first lead, and they expanded on it with 2 more in the fifth and 4 in the sixth. the tots, on the other hand, were headed in another direction, failing to advance a runner past second again until the 6th. the game remained unchanghed until the top of the eight, when the tots suddenly came alive with 7 runs as mikey moroco nailed a homer and stud connected for a pair of longballs. the game, which had stood at 19-7 headed into the inning, was suddenly in doubt, but it didn't stay that way long. in the top of the ninth, koopa bounced right back with five more on 6 consecutive hits, and it was painfully obvious that the last wind had been taken from the tot sails. sure enough, a bryan frankovich double play led off the bottom of the ninth, and though stud would connect on one final 2-run homer, the game hurriedly came to a close. for the winners, greg lackey batted 9 for 13 with 7 rbi from the leadoff hole. bryan frankovich dropped in 8 of 13 shots with 2 homers, 9 rbi and a quartet of assists. mike frankovich added 7 rbi. in a losing effort, stud hit 4 homers and drove in 4, but missed 7 deep attempts. moroco and christman each hit safely 8 times. TEAM KOOPA TROOPA 5 TRAIN ON TERRY SHERNISKY 20 (7 INNINGS) aryn "jailbait" christman's 2-run triple in the bottom of the seventh would give the tots the 15-run advantage they needed for the mercy rule to kick in, leveling the series at one apiece and setting up a deciding game three. with captain ben smith returning to the lineup after a one-week hiatus, the tots felt they were more than capable of recovering from their loss in game one, even without the services of katie kelly. their decimation of koopa in game two proved their theory correct, and the entire momentum of the series had swung in their favor thanks to a dominating performance from all 4 players. after falling behind 2-0 after one, the tots righted the ship in the second, plating 3 runs on four conecutive extra base hits before a bryan frankovich double play would stymie the rally. the lead they gained, however, would quickly dissipate as frankovich would drive in a pair in a 3-run stanza for koopa moments later. trailing 5-4, the suede denim secret train on the brooklyn bridge would finally capture the lead for good in the fourth. ben smith would hit a pair of homers sandwiched between 5 base knocks to plate 7, of which smith would be credited with 5. things onyl got uglier from then on, as the tots would get five in the fifth before 2 each in 6 and 7 would seal the deal. smith finished up with 9 hits in 14 at-bats, including 3 homers, with 8 rbi and a quartet of double plays. mike moroco added 8 hits and 6 rbi from the leadoff position, and the late-to-arrive aryn christman would turn in a 6 for 9, 5 ribbie evening. for the losing koopas, bryan frankovich would collect team-highs in hits (4), rbi (2), assists (1) and double plays (4). TEAM KOOPA TROOPA 21 TRAIN ON TERRY SHERNISKY 23 by overcoming a one-game defecit as well as a 3-run hole in the deciding game, the tots punched their ticket to the playoff semifinals by virtue of their game three defeat of 2-seed team koopa troopa. things got off on the right foot for the tots, as they would score 3 runs in the bottom of the first after an aryn christman double play would keep koopa off the board in the top. it didn't last, unfortunately, as koopa would get on the board in the top of the second with 4 runs, culminating in back to back 2-rbi doubles by bryan frankovich and erin hayden. perhaps drained from their pair of three-game playoff series, the tots were unable to duplicate their first-inning offense for quite a while, accumulating only one hit in their next three at-bats as the frankovich-anchored koopa defense tipped in d.p.'s in each of the frames. koopa, meanhile, would get another 2-rbi double from frankovich in the top of the fourth as their lead swelled to 6-3 against a tot offense that appeared totally drained. another three runs in the top of the fifth would put the lead at 6, and the game looked as though it was in danger of getting out of hand. in the bottom of the fifth, the blue and green offense would come roaring back to life. mike moroco would bang home a single to kick things off, and before the tots would miss again, they had rattled off 12 consecutive hits. the final four of the inning were all homers, as ben smith, pat nespor and arn christman would all drill solo shots before moroco connected on a grand slam that put the inning tally to 15. score after 5, tots- 18, koopa- 9. shellshocked, tkt would fail to muster a hit in the sixth as christman would put in another d.p. and bryan frankovich's airball looked to have officially swung the game in the tots favor. koopa, though, refused to go down without a fight. in the eighth, still down by 9, they would beging chipping away at the lead. a frankovich assist would be the catylyst for a 6-run explosion, and the suddently insurmountable tot lead had ben cut to 3. by now, however, the tot offense was clicking on all cylinders, and they would have little trouble answering. led by a pair of nespor doubles, they would smallball their way to five of their own to rebuild a healthy lead. headed to the ninth, koopa would need 8 to keep the game alive. theings got off to an interesting start with 3 consecutive extra base hits, as well as a mcclelland 3-run homer with one out. unfortunately, that would be all koopa could come up with, and erin hayden's two-out triple miss would be the final koopa shot of the season. for the winners, christman nailed 8 of 12 with 6 rbi and 2 d.p. moroco added 8 hits and 7 ribbies, and smith and nespor each drove in 5. frankovich turned in a 9 fo 13, 10 rbi, 1 assist, 4 double play line for koopa. GAME OF THE SERIES: the decider, game 3 PLAYER OF THE SERIES: i'm gonna give it to mike moroco, who was a beast both weeks for the tots. however, bryan frankovich could not have humanly done more in a losing effort, so i'll give him some dap with co-honers. PLAYOFFS HOME |