Last night the league championship was on the line. Goodfellas came in at 5-2-1 and had 2 games against Baybrook who came into the night at 5-2 and sitting atop the standings. FOTS also has a game against Baybrook and was also in the running with a 6-4 record coming into the evening.

Goodfellas kicked off the night with a bang - home run, walk, home run. Unfortunately that pace never seems to be sustainable, but considering it was the "6:30 burn your retinas" game, this looked promising. Even though they were unable to keep up that torrid pace, the Goodfellas scored enough runs and played some great defense (with some help from the sun) to beat Baybrook Baptist 7-5.

Next up, FOTS got their turn against Baybrook. After making a furious rally to go up by 3 in their last at-bat, Baybrook was able to squeak out the win pushing 4 across in their last chance.

Then it was another FBCF classic as FOTS and Goodfellas battled it out. It was a low scoring affair as neither team could really string together any offense. In the end, it was another "sister kissing" moment as the FBCF teams tied at 8-8.

In the last game of the night, Goodfellas played Baybrook again, still needing another win to keep their hopes alive to be league champions. Goodfellas sputtered out of the gate, scoring 2 runs in the first and 3 in the second. Unfortunately, Baybrook was hitting on all cylinders as they scored 5 runs in each of the first 2 innings to take a 10-5 lead into the 3rd. Goodfellas pelted out 5 runs in the 3rd to tie the game at 10-10 on the back of Ball's home run (his 3rd of the night) and RBIs by Perry, Stan, Bruce, and Guidry. Baybrook scored 3 runs in the bottom of the 3rd so Goodfellas came up in the 4th needing to score at least 3 to push it back to Baybrook for their half of the inning. The Goodfellas came through after a leadoff out and had 6 consecutive hits to score 5 runs and take the lead 15-13. Baybrook would have one final chance to try and win the game. Fortunately for the Goodfellas, Baybrook was leading off the inning with their 2 bottom of the order guys, and they promptly delivered 2 outs to the Goodfellas. Next up the lead off batter did his job to keep the inning alive with a double that JP almost made an amazing play on. The next batter drew a walk which brought up their big #3 hitter. He launched the second pitch high into the sky. Both Perry and Greg let out audible displeasure as we were sure that it was a game ending 3 run walk-off tater. As we turned and looked, JP was traversing backwards up the hill, he may have a play on it! Sure enough, just a step or two from the top, the ball settled into JP's glove for the 3rd out and a much needed victory!

Next week, Goodfellas have one game against League City Church of Christ #1. If they win, they will be league champs, otherwise it will depend on what happens in the following games.

Stats Highlights for the Goodfellas
Best Batting Avg: Sumrall - 1.000 (3 at-bats), Ball, JP - .750 (8 at bats)
Best Slugging Pct: Sumrall - 2.333, Ball - 2.125
Most RBIs: Perry - 6
Home Runs: Ball (3) Heath (2), Sumrall (1), JP (1), Perry (1)
Triples: Ball, JP
Most Runs Scored: JP, Ball - 5
Most Walks: JP - 2

Stats Highlights for FOTS
Best Batting Avg: Nelson - .833
Best Slugging Pct: Matt - 2.600
Most RBIs: Joel - 8
Home Runs: Matt (3) Joel (2)
Most Runs Scored: Matt, Ben - 4

After 3 weeks of rainouts, the Goodfellas and FOTS were back in action on Monday night. It ended up being a slightly above average night for the FBCF teams who went 3-2, culminating in an exciting comeback finish for FOTS in their final game.

Let’s get the bad news out of the way early – FOTS lost two disappointing games to Clear Lake over on the Baybrook field in their early games. The stats bear the evidence as FOTS posted 2 of their 3 worst batting average and runs scored games this season.

The Goodfellas put their foot on the accelerator early as they jumped out with 15 runs in their first at-bat against League City Church of Christ #2. In that first inning, they batted through the entire lineup twice and both Heath and Chris had 2 home runs each in the inning! Their run production slowed down significantly after that (how could it not?!) and the ‘Fellas were able to claim the victory 21-10.

Next up the Goodfellas played Baybrook. This one ended up being close after Baybrook exploded for 8 runs in the bottom of the 3rd to go into the 4th with the Goodfellas in the lead 11-10. With not much time on the clock, the Goodfellas were only able to score one more run on a single by JP and an RBI double by Perry in the top of the 4th as time expired. So Baybrook came up to bat as the home team only needing 2 runs to tie and 3 to win. The Goodfellas got 2 quick outs and then Greg booted a hot line drive to 3rd that should have been caught. However the next batter hit a lazy infield pop-up and Greg was able redeem himself by making the out and ending the game with a win!

FOTS played Baybrook in our last game of the evening and they needed Stan and Greg as subs to field a team after a couple of injuries took out some guys in the earlier games. Things did not start off on the right foot and after 2 innings Baybrook held a 7-0 lead, helped along by a couple of nice double plays in the infield. FOTS finally got on the scoreboard with a run in 3rd, but Baybrook still held a commanding 10-1 lead. All of a sudden in the 4th, it was like a switch flipped. The defense held Baybrook to no score in the top of the 4th and Carlos led of the bottom with a massive blast to left center that was a no doubter home run as soon as it left the bat. That was like the dynamite that started the avalanche. FOTS batted around once and all but 4 guys got 2 at-bats in the inning. Highlights included a nice opposite field home run by Ben, and a perfectly measured line drive, grand slam, home run by Greg that bounced right on the top of the hill in right field (had the ball cleared the hill it would have been an out since Greg was playing as a sub). When the dust settled, FOTS held a 13-10 lead and took the field needing to hold the lead for the win. After getting the first out, the next batter got on base. With one out and a man on first the next batter hit a grounder to Nelson at 3rd. He fielded it cleanly and quickly slung it to 2nd where Goolsby made the out and made a quick throw to first. The throw bounced about 2 feet in front of Ben who made an amazing scoop just in time for the double play to end the game! So exciting!

The tourney is still scheduled to be played this Saturday, July 28 at Baybrook. Teams will be seeded based on their record up to this point. The rest of the rainouts are tentatively scheduled to be played on the following Monday nights.

Stats Highlights for the Goodfellas
Best Batting Avg: Josh, Perry- 1.000
Best Slugging Pct: Chris - 2.667
Most RBIs: Perry - 10!
Home Runs: Chris(2) Heath (2), Ball (1) Perry (1)
Most Doubles: Perry - 3
Most Runs Scored: Josh - 6
Most Walks: Guidry - 2

Stats Highlights for FOTS (not counting 1 game subs)
Best Batting Avg: Nelson - .833
Best Slugging Pct: Carlos - 1.286
Most RBIs: Carlos - 5
Home Runs: Carlos (2), Ben, Matt (1 each)
The Only Triple: Sam
Most Walks: Ben (3), Moe (2)

For the Spring Tourney, the other teams agreed to let us combine to field a team since there were only 7 who could play from Goodfellas and 4 from FOTS. So we played as the Mutts and won the whole thing!

In game 1 vs. Clear Lake Baptist, everyone had the 8am blues until about the 6th inning. The Mutts led 4-1 going into the 6th and all of a sudden they forgot how to play defense. Combined with some decent hitting by CLB, the Mutts were down 8-4 when they came up to bat in the bottom of the 6th. The middle of the order came through with 4 runs to tie the game. The defense came back in the top of the 7th and CLB didn't score a run. Taki led of the home 7th with a walk and then after 2 outs, Matt Mays came through with a clutch double to score Taki for the win!

Game 2 vs. Baybrook saw the bats come alive a little earlier in the game. Matt Mays led off the game with a nice inside the park home run (he also led off the 3rd inning with another inside the park homer). The Mutts were able to hold off Baybrook, but we didn't write down their score for the last 2 innings so I don't know for sure what the final was. I think it was either 10-8 or 10-9.

With only 3 teams in the tourney, these two wins put us in the championship game (and also gave us a much needed one game break)! CLB and Baybrook battled it out and CLB ended up winning in a low scoring game - so it would be Mutts vs. CLB for the Championship.

At first it looked like it was going to be another low scoring game, but then CLB busted out with 5 runs in the 2nd and 2 more in the 3rd to grab a 7-0 lead after 3 innings of play. At one point the Mutts got out 7 times in a row! Finally in the 4th the Mutts put up 6 runs! Coming up to bat in the bottom of the 6th, CLB was in the lead 9-6. With one out, Greg reached on a single, Mason followed up with another single. With 2 men on Joel ripped a double that scored Greg and sent Mason to 3rd. what happened next was pretty exciting. The score is now 9-8 and time has expired. This is our last at-bat. Richard hit a single but CLB fielded it fairly cleanly as Joel came into 3rd. However, they got lazy on their throw into the pitcher and Joel took off for home before Rico called time! He was able to score the tying run in a heads up play that had us all on the edge of our seat. With all the throwing around, Richard was able to make it all the way to 3rd. Unfortunately we could not hit Richard in and we had to go to extra innings.

In extra innings, every batter comes up with a full count. The batting team starts the inning with a man on 2nd. So basically the pitcher has one pitch to either get the batter to swing or issue them a walk. CLB's first batter took a walk. So 1st and 2nd with no outs. The next batter hit a sharp grounder to 3rd. Greg tagged the runner going to thrid and then zipped a throw to Matt at 2nd for a double play! After a single and another walk, Larry was up to bat with the bases loaded. I think we were all pretty nervous about this, but he ended up taking a walk, which scored a run. Mutts down by one. We were able to get the next batter out so we came up for our last chance only down by one.

Since Taki made the last out of the previous inning, he was our player who started off on second base (hallelujah!). Warren led off the inning with a single and Taki went to 3rd. Mike came in to run for Warren. Matt Mays came up next and blasted a double over the left center fielder's head. Taki scored to tie it up......but Mike. Mike forgot that we had walked in that run to put CLB up. He thought we had won. He was trotting to 2nd getting ready to go out in the field and start giving everyone high fives. We're all screaming at him, "RUN MIKE! RUNNNN!!!!!!" He finally came to his senses and was able slide safely into 3rd, giving many of us a mini heart attack in the process. Matt Ball hit a fly ball to left that was long enough to score Mike for the game winning run, despite his goof on the play before.  FUN TIMES!

Stats Highlights for the Mutts tourney
Best Batting Avg: Mike - .778
Best Slugging Pct: Matt Mays - 1.500
Most RBIs: Greg - 6
Home Runs: Matt Mays (2), Joel (1)
Triples: Greg (3), Josh (1)
Doubles: Mike (3), Taki (3), Joel (2), Matt Mays (2), Greg (1)
Most Runs Scored: Mike - 5