True to Form, Season Comes
Down to Final Outs
Final Day was everything we expected, and more. With 14 teams still in the playoff picture and more
than three dozen scenarios possible for seedings and division
titles, all we could do was watch, wait and ponder. As the games
and events unfolded from park to park, what eventually transpired
was the justification of every week, every game and every single
out.
In the end, the nine-team Playoff Championship Series field consists of no great surprises but a lot of suspense as NewsChannel 8 emerged as the MMSL's first sub-.500 playoff team by winning the Veirs Mill Division, CNN stormed back to capture the Capitalview/Homewood title in a classic battle with ABC News, and four teams vying for three wild-cards came down to fractions in runs differential.
The tournament field for this weekend's Playoff Championship Series at Cabin John Regional Park in Rockville is (in order of seed): the Washington Times, America Online, Post.com, USA Today, Gazette, CNN, Associated Press, ABC News and NewsChannel 8.
The
odd team out of the mix is U.S. News, which went 12-6 but became
victim to the weakness of the Veirs Mill Division having no teams
above .500 and owning an automatic berth, allowing 31 runs on
Final Day, and tiebreaker losses to USA Today and ABC News on
runs differential.
The division champs are: Washington Times (Wheaton Forest), Gazette (Layhill), AOL (Burning Tree), CNN (Capitalview/Homewood) and NewsChannel 8 (Veirs Mill). Each will receive a team trophy and championship t-shirts for the players.
The division title came down to one Final Day game for four teams. AOL captured the Burning Tree Division by upending Post.com, 14-8, behind pitcher Cliff Dickey, who was 6 for 6 with 7 RBI and 5 runs on the day while pitching two victories without allowing a walk. Once again this was a deep, fresh, efficient AOL team.
"We feel like we're in good shape going into the playoffs," says AOLiens coach Jim Brady, whose team enters as the No. 2 seed, with a head of steam, and 12 consecutive wins. "We have almost everyone there for the playoffs and feel like we learned a lot by making the playoffs last season."
At Veirs Mill, the division no one wanted was finally settled with an anomaly--victories instead of defeats. NewsChannel 8 won its fourth game in five outings and put itself into riding position by knocking off WJLA, 12-10, in a controversial opener that eliminated the Sevens. After America's Most Wanted eliminated WTTG in the other opener, the Crazy Eights wrapped up the playoff berth by beating WTTG, 20-12.
"It is a strange season for us," says Crazy Eights assistant coach Matt Mitchell, whose team is 8-10 and survived losing streaks of six and three games. "We have the talent, but couldn't get everybody on the same page or field, for that matter. I'm glad we got the chance to prove this weekend how good we really are."
Behind Mitchell, Carrie Connolly, Jason Hartelius and Brad Parker, who combined to score all 12 runs against WJLA, NewsChannel 8 escaped a big scare. Trailing 12-4 in the seventh, the Sevens rallied, cut the deficit to 12-8, had two runners on, one out and got a big blast into the left-center gap. No one came close to catching the ball and the two runners scored with ease, making it 12-10. The batter was into trot mode as he passed third and the ball wasn't within 300 feet of the infield, so the Channel 7 third base coach reached out to give the batter a congratulatory slap on the back for cutting the margin to 12-11.
But alas, the third base coach missed with the slap, touched the batter on the elbow instead and the umpire immediately called him out on "coach's assistance (see "Ask the Ump"). That took a run off the board, gave WJLA two outs, and really steamed the Sevens, especially when the next batter got a hit (that would have been the tying run) before the game ended.
It was not the way Channel 7 wanted to lose a shot at the playoffs in this long and emotional season, and who can blame them? But at Capitalview/Homewood, CNN, with 11 victories, was frightfully watching its season come to a quick end as the final three innings approached against ABC News. CNN trailed ABC News by a game but owned a prior victory. The winner of this game was getting the division title and the automatic playoff berth; the loser was in deep jeopardy.
Trailing 5-0 early and then 10-4 in the fifth, CNN mounted a rally, plated two runs and then got seven straight hits with two outs. Willie Lora capped the rally with a grand slam to give the CaNiNes an 11-10 lead. CNN added two runs in the sixth for a 13-10 margin and then had a highlight reel defensive seventh to clinch the division and automatic berth.
1b Jack Lynn made an incredible scoop of a throw to record the first out and then Dave Gracey went beyond the newly planted trees in left-center to make a running, snowcone grab of a Dave Fox blast. ABC News then put two runners on and had the tying run at the plate before having a pop out end the game, and, ultimately, U.S. News's season.
Had ABC News won the CNN game and captured the CV/Homewood crown, CNN would have been 11-7 and missed the playoffs in place of U.S. News. As it turned out, ABC News squeaked into the playoffs by virtue of the tiebreaker runs differential.
"When that aberration [of a sub-.500 team winning a division] occurs," says ABC News coach Eric Wray, completely sympathetic of U.S. News's plight, "someone has to pay a price. I hate it for U.S. News. They have a fine team. But it's just one of those things that happens from time to time."
Fate simply wasn't on U.S. New's side Saturday. At Wheaton Forest, they got a 20-16 victory against the Washington Post in which the Post walked 13 batters and nine scored. It seemed like a nice prelude to a playoff berth because USA Today came out flat against the Washington Times and got hammered, 14-2, in a game Gannetoids coach Mark Hayes said, "after the way we played you might have thought the playoffs and tournament were the last things on our minds."
Think about it: U.S. News already owned a prior victory against USA Today, they have just scored 20 runs against a solid Post team that can get into the playoffs with a sweep, and they see USA Today get only five hits against the Times. You've gotta feel pretty good about your season being extended.
And then they come out and get drubbed by the Gannetoids, 15-3.
The loss dropped U.S. News, at 12-6, into the tiebreaker with AP, USA Today and ABC News for the three final wild-cards (see Notebook). It was simply too many runs allowed, and too much other karma to withstand.
For the Post, the doubleheader defeat ended its season with an improvement to 10-8. "We're happy about that," says long-time shortstop Donald Beard. "But we have a ways to go."
For the Times, winning against USA Today clinched the No. 1 seed. It was a helluva Rags team on the field--turning double plays, getting timely hits and being aggressive on the bases. Saturday was one of the few times the Rags have had their playoff team on the field and SS Mark Stewart, 3b Keith Martin, OFs Monte Kruger and Monty Wood were sensational.
"That's a pretty sweet team," says Beard, who has been playing against the Times since the mid-1980s. "I really like that team. They play hard, they take every base and they have nice spirit."
At Layhill, the Gazette captured the division with a 13-5 victory against AP, which proved to be a critical win and sweep of their series because Comcast SportsNet posted a 3-2 win against the Green Machine in the final game.
Against AP, the Gazette shifted Jamie Amato to leadoff and he went 3 for 4 with a triple, long home run, single and three runs. Josh Cooley went 4 for 4 and also scored three runs while Rob Terry had three hits and two doubles.
"We really came out focused and ready against AP, something we'll need to carry over to next week," Terry says of the two-time defending champs, who looked much better on Saturday than in the previous three weeks. Still, Comcast SportsNet scored three in the first, aided by four walks, and then held off a seventh-inning rally attempt.
"Obviously we never got untracked against Comcast," Terry added. "A strange game."
It was a great victory and a great day for the SportsNuts, who got a little dose of humility during the week about their June lethargy and came out with a 14-player squad that was playoff caliber. They stopped the Press Club, 7-5, in their opener and ended the season with momentum against the Gazette. John Gardner allowed the Green Machine just two runs and struck out five. Phil Lazo's two-run single and run in the first inning was the difference.
"The Gazette game is the one game we really wanted to win. To beat these guys would at least give us hope for next year," says coach Christian Keller, whose team finished 6-12. "We ended the year on a positive note and wondered what could have been. It was a real disappointment seeing AP and the Gazette celebrating playoff berths. We can only use this to build for next year." v
