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INDEPENDENTS
DAY, AGAIN The Independents captured their third consecutive CSA championship by routing the second seeded Turbo Swiners, 16-8. Even with significant personnel changes from the franchises beginning in Spring 2002, The Independents have become one of CSA's most dominant squads. By beating the Turbo Swiners they have become only the third team in CSA history to win three championships (Wide Right in Men's Football, and Peaked In High School (5 titles) in Co-ed Softball). And like the other two, they have captured them consecutively. The Independents rode the strength of their number one rated defense to this title. In the regular season and playoffs combined, they allowed only 42 runs in nine games. In comparison, their championship game opponent, Turbo, allowed 45 runs in three playoff games. Led by pitcher and championship game MVP, Rick Stockfield, The Independents fell behind early, but rallied quickly and never looked back. In the top of the first, Turbo jumped out quickly with three runs. The last run scoring on a solo homerun by Charles Brown. In the bottom of the inning, The Independents answered with one run of their own and at the end of one inning, it was 3-1. In the second, the game swung in The Independents favor and it stayed their. Turbo went three up, three down, with the final out coming on a running error. Indy seized the momentum from that mistake to put four runs up. In the second, Chris Veronesi and Travis York started a rally that sent eight batters to the plate and the inning ended with The Independents up 5-3. After holding Turbo scoreless in the third, Indy sent another eight batters to the plate and scored four more runs to run the lead to 9-3. Turbo responded in the top of the fourth with three runs of their own to close the score to 9-6, but in the bottom of the fourth, The Independents blew the game open. An ill advised pitching change by Turbo opened the gates to a monster inning. Indy batted around, sending all 11 batters to the plate. At the end of the inning, they had scored seven runs and extended to a 16-6 lead. Turbo couldn't muster enough offense after that. They scored one run in the top of both the fifth and sixth innings, and even though they stopped The Independents from scoring in the bottom of those innings, they didn't have enough left for the final comeback. In the top of the seventh they got a leadoff double, but the next three batters were retired and The Independents were crowned the Thursday Aviation Spring Co-ed Softball champions. On this run, The Independents have made CSA history with the longest ever winning streak at 21 games, and they have won 27 of their last 28 games. In their history, The Independents are 39-12 overall after starting 12-11 in their first two seasons. THE INDEPENDENTS
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