THE CURSE HAS BEEN BROKEN

With one run victories in the semi-finals and finals, Roger's 2nd seeded We're Not Hungover, We're Still Drunk squad broke the "Curse of the Two Seed" and captured the Sunday Co-ed League title. They held off Chad Wade's top seeded It's All About the Beer 10-9 when Stewart Sadler recorded the final out in the bottom of the seventh.

Like the old saying goes, the 18th times the charm. Seventeen teams before We're Not Hungover had entered a CSA playoff tournament as the two seed, and all seventeen failed to win a championship.

September 30th was perhaps the best day of softball that CSA had this season. In the first semi-final game, Leland's Evil Genius team hung tough with top seeded It's All About the Beer. Playing with only eight, Evil Genius was even with IAAB at 15 going into the bottom of the fifth. An injury to EG's first baseman limited them to only seven players and the game was conceded.

In the other semi-final, the third seeded Shaggers tried to perpetuate the two seed curse by upsetting We're Not Hungover. In a very evenly matched contest, WNH was able to take advantage of their home team edge and scored one run in the bottom of the seventh to win 17-16. In a very tight game, WNH held off a relentless Shaggers team. The score was 9-4 at the end of two and 13-8 at the end of four, both in favor of WNH. The Shaggers kept coming, after scoring three in the fourth, they scored three in both the fifth and the sixth, and the score was 16-14 WNH heading into the final inning. The Shaggers tied the game, but in the bottom of the seventh, consecutive hits by Charlie Whalen, Jeff Cannon, and Ray Peebles plated the one run WNH needed and they advanced to the title game.

The championship game was equally exciting. In the first inning, WNH and IAAB traded jabs and it was 2-1 WNH at the end of one. In the second, It's All About the Beer shutout WNH and looked like they would blow the game open in the bottom of the inning. IAAB loaded the bases with no outs and looked ready to bust out. But consecutive infield popouts by Rebecca Campitela and Chad Wade seemed to deflate the inning. Then IAAB woke up and took advantage of sloppy defensive play. When the inning was over, IAAB had scored six runs and held a 7-2 lead.

WNH started to chip away, with one run in both the third and fourth inning, the score was 7-4 at the end of four. With four more runs in the fifth, We're Not Hungover took the lead 8-7 and when they shut out It's All About the Beer for the third straight inning, the game went to the sixth with WNH back in the lead.

It's All About the Beer responded by holding WNH from scoring in the sixth and they scored one run in the bottom of the inning to tie the game at eight and give us ONE INNING FOR THE TITLE.

The seventh inning would pit EMOTION versus THE CURSE. In the top of the inning, Roger Werner led off with a double down the third base line. After scoring to give WNH the lead again, the top of the order contributed by adding one more run and staking WNH to a 10-8 lead going into the bottom of the inning.

In the bottom of the seventh, the regular season champs needed to only score three runs to claim the title that eluded them in the spring. #3 hitter, Jeff Masisak flied out to left for the first out to lead off the inning, then Ryan Matteson hit a shot up the middle that was deflected by WNH pitcher Susan Bond to shortstop Ray Peebles. First Basemen Mike Muzik scooped the low throw to complete the 1-6-3 putout and put WNH one out away from breaking the curse.
Not ready to give up, IAAB's Michael Medina-Brodsky hit a home run to make it a one run game. The next batter, Patti Stuczynski was able to reach base after an error by Peebles and IAAB brought the championship winning run to the plate in the person of Stewart Sadler. Sadler was unable to deliver and flew out harmlessly to leftfielder John Dunning (Dunning's two seventh inning putouts slightly made up for his earlier strikeout) to break the two seed curse and give We're Not Hungover, We're Still Drunk the league title.

Emotion was able to overcome The Curse and WNH was able to win the title by having a consistent, aggressive effort all season, even if they didn't have consistent personnel. In the semis and finals, WNH was able to survive two one run games because of a very aggressive offense and solid defensive play, led by Championship game MVP, centerfielder Darren Hulst.

WE'RE NOT HUNGOVER, WE'RE STILL DRUNK
starting line-up

1. JEFF CANNON - 3B
2. RAY PEEBLES - SS
3. JOHN DUNNING - LF
4. DARREN HULST - CF
5. MIKE MUZIK - 1B
6. SUSAN WEIGEL - 2B
7. SUSAN BOND - P
8. ALLISON LEHR - C
9. ROGER WERNER - RF