FRANCHISE, FRANCHISE, FRANCHISE
8/24/03

In a classic title game, The Franchise escapes against the Dawg Crew to win the Sunday Men's Softball championship in eight innings 14-13. The win gave the Franchise their third consecutive league championship. This tied them with Atlanta Auto Group and Wide Right for the most men's league titles in CSA history.

The Franchise won their third straight regular season division title. This gave them home field advantage throughout the playoffs and that would be a key factor.

After a first round bye, they faced Ed Voyles Honda in the semi-finals. Ed Voyles was coming off a rout of Joint Effort and feeling good. The Franchise ended that good feeling quickly. The game was close for the first two innings, The Franchise led 8-6 at the end of three, but then the floodgates opened and the rout was on.

A two run homerun by Brad Hartman ended the game in the bottom of the fifth when the mercy rule went into effect. The Franchise advanced to the finals 19-7.

In the finals they would meet the Dawg Crew. The Dawg Crew got to the finals by eliminating the second place team, Dazed & Confused, 30-20.

The championship match-up was a tight game that went down to the last out. The game was marked by intense play and constant jawing between the teams.

After five innings, the score was even at 10. In the top of the sixth, Franchise pitcher and game co-MVP Mike Muzik was able to keep Dawg Crew off the board, and then in the bottom of the inning, the heart of the order was able to give Franchise the lead. Three runs scored, keyed by injured players Darren Ross and Travis York.

The game went to the seventh inning and Franchise was three outs away. They got the first two outs and Dawg Crew was down to their last out, trailing by three, with no runners on.

With their backs against the wall, they hung tough and managed to plate three runs after a couple of singles and then and inside the park home run, the top of the seventh ended with the game tied at 13.

The franchise simply needed one run. After a double by Muzik put the winning run on second with one out, Dawg Crew pitcher Russell Baron intentionally walked Joe Fassler. After a fielders choice erased Muzik at third,  with two outs, The Franchise had managed to load the bases. But Baron got out of the jam without allowing the winning run to score and the game went to extra innings.

In the eighth, Muzik was locked on and kept the Dawg Crew was held scoreless. Once again, the Franchise simply needed one run to win the game.

This time, a one out double by game co-MVP Brad Hartman put the winning run on second again. An intentional walk to Chad Wade put a force out in effect at all bases, but Chris Veronesi made that unnecessary with a single between short and third that scored Hartman and won the championship.