"Destiny" - Game Recaps
Finals - Thursday, 6/1 - 8:30pm - Aviation Park - Field 2

(4) Game's Cancelled (10-1) at (2) Todd's Team (11-0)
Result: Game's Cancelled 13, Todd's Team 1

Runners Left on Base - Game's Cancelled 5, Todd's Team 2

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME BOXSCORE

CHAMPIONSHIP GAME LINE-UP

"THE FUTURE IS NOW" - THE COMPLETE GAME'S CANCELLED 2006 SPRING SEASON

Two teams on long winning streaks would face off with the title on the line. Todd's Team had been playing for weeks with a skeleton crew but in the semi-finals they had their leader back and dispatched their Wednesday night rival, More Cowbell, in a defensive struggle. The Wednesday league champion took their undefeated record into a showdown with the Thursday league champions, Game's Cancelled. Game's Cancelled reached the finals with a dramatic come from behind victory over the top seed, In Every Orphus. What looked like it would be a great defensive and pitching battle ended up being the coronation of the CSA team of the future. Game's Cancelled got out to an early lead and never looked back.

Defense was the order of the day and the difference was shown in the first inning. After Mat Wilson led off the game with a single, a fielding error at third base allowed Rebecca Rider to reach. With no one out and runners on first and second Clay Jordan singled to left, scoring Wilson with the games first run. After Todd Walker got the cleanup batter to strikeout looking, Andrew Bouton hit a relatively harmless flyball to rightfield, but the ball was dropped for the second error of the inning, and Rider scored from second. With runners on first and third, a fielders choice groundout by Melanie Shepherd erased Bouton at second base but brought home Jordan with the third run of the inning. Next up was Matt Hoover who hit a two out single to centerfield that  was misplayed, but when Shepherd attempted to score she was thrown out at home to end the inning.  Down by three, Todd's Team was looking to break their pattern of starting slowly at the plate. In the last two games they had failed to score a first inning run. It looked like the trend would continue. Ray Lee flew out to left-centerfield to start the inning and Toni Walker grounded out to third base. With two outs and no one on, Kerry Blackmon got Todd's Team on the board with a homerun to centerfield. A single by Cheryl Martin followed that, but the inning ended when Denny Crane grounded to second base and Martin was forced out at second.

End of 1st - Game's Cancelled 3, Todd's Team 1

In the top of the second it looked like Todd had gotten the defense back on track. After Sandi Johnson popped out to third base to start the inning, Hunter Williams singled to right. He was erased at second on a fielders choice groundout by Alicia Babin and when Wade Pearson flew out to centerfield, the top of the second ended with no runs being scored. The door was opened back up, but Todd's Team was unable to capitalize. Facing the best defense (statistically) in CSA history, and an MVP pitcher, Todd's Team couldn't even get any runners on base. Todd Walker flew out to left-centerfield to lead off the inning, a groundout by Sharonda Nelloms-Wright was the second out and Joel Borgman grounded out to second base to end the inning.

End of 2nd - Game's Cancelled 3, Todd's Team 1

The third inning changed the game for good and Game's Cancelled was on the way to their first league championship. Matt Wilson led off the inning by reaching by an error by the second baseman. Rider followed with a single to left and Jordan ripped his second run scoring single of the game, scoring Wilson and moving Rider to second. Andrew Mosteller, who struck out in the first, redeemed himself with a double to left that scored both Rider and Jordan. With three runs already in, Bouton flew out to rightfield, moving Mosteller to third. A groundout to third by Shepherd kept Mosteller on base and it looked like the damage would be minimized. However, Matt Hoover got his second two out single of the game, plating Mosteller. Sandi Johnson then reached on an error by the first baseman and Game's Cancelled had two runners on and four runs in. It looked like the inning would end with a routine fly ball to right, but the ball was dropped for the third error of the inning and Hoover was able to score. Todd's defense was able to recover on the play though, Borgman, who was playing right, relayed to shortstop Cyrus Samai, who gunned the ball to Denny Crane at third to tag out Johnson and end the inning. The damage had been done though. On the strength of eight hits and five errors Game's Cancelled had scored eight runs.
The life was completely out of Todd's Team and it was no longer a question of who would win, but how long it would take. To compound the problem's, Todd's Team had an automatic out in the line-up and that out was due up second in the third inning. After Samai doubled to lead off the third, Todd's Team had the rally diffused with an automatic out. With one out and a runner on second Chris Martin hit a sharp grounder to second that was snared by Clay Jordan, who fired to first, for the second out. With a runner now on third, Ray Lee flew out to left-centerfield for the final out of the inning.

End of 3rd - Game's Cancelled 8, Todd's Team 1

The defense for Todd's Team had short circuited and the offense had only gotten three hits in three innings. It got worse in the fourth. Alicia Babin led off the top of the fourth with a grounder to shortstop. It was misplayed and she reached first. Wade Pearson followed with a drive to leftfield. The ball was dropped and Babin advanced to third and Pearson took second. Matt Wilson was next and he hit a fly ball to rightfield, which was dropped, and after the play was over Babin and Pearson had scored and Wilson was standing on third. Three batters and three errors had opened up another big inning. Rider followed with single to score Wilson. Rider was forced out at second on a fielders choice groundout by Jordan. And Jordan was also out at second on a groundout by Mosteller. With three runs in and a runner on first, a double by Andrew Bouton drove in Mosteller with the fourth run of the inning. Shepherd flew out to end the inning, but the four runs, all unearned, extended GC to an 11 run lead. Even though they could have, Game's Cancelled didn't relax. The top rated defense remained solid behind their superstar pitcher and converted one of the most spectacular defensive plays in championship history.
Toni Walker led off the inning with a single, but was unable to advance when Kerry Blackmon fouled out to third base for the first out. With Walker still on first, Cheryl Martin hit a sharp grounder down the third base line. It was snared by Matt Hoover (who had just entered the game at third), moving away from the field into foul territory, Hoover blindly flipped the ball to Andrew Mosteller, who was still in the shortstop position, Mosteller than hesitated and fired to Clay Jordan (who alertly covered the base) at second for the spectacular force out. The simple force out was the seminal moment of the game and made Game's Cancelled champions. A flyout by Denny Crane ended the inning with no runs scored.

End of 4th - Game's Cancelled 12, Todd's Team 1

The fifth inning went much the way of the previous innings. Game's Cancelled managed to manufacture a run and Todd's Team couldn't put any runners on base. Matt Hoover led off with his third hit of the game. He advanced to second on a groundout by Sandi Johnson. Hunter Williams singled to right to score Hoover. Audry Wishnek, who had entered the game for Babin, flew out to rightfield for the second out. A fielders choice groundout by Pearson ended the inning with GC up by 12.
Todd's Team needed one run to keep the game going. With an automatic out due up fifth in the inning, they needed to score immediately or they wouldn't even have a chance. A flyout by Todd Walker started the inning and a strikeout on the next batter all but ended the game. TT needed to score one run with the next two batters. They never got the chance. Borgman was called out when he stepped across home plate and out of the batters box. The technical out was the last of the inning and the game ended by rule.

End of 5th - Game's Cancelled 13, Todd's Team 1

The dominant performance by Game's Cancelled gave them their first CSA championship and made them the first team ever to defeat two undefeated teams during one playoff tournament. Although their were many key performers, the Player of the Game (POTG) was Clay Jordan, second baseman for Game's Cancelled.