Krooked makes their presence known in Nevada
By Softball West
Rich "Shrek" Mercer touches third and fires to first to complete a double play. Smedes photo.
SPARKS, NV - Eighteen men's D teams competed in the Nevada ASA Helping Hands Softball Tournament held April 1st-2nd. A three game guarantee as well as benefiting charity brought teams together to the Don Mello Complex.
The first and second place teams, Krooked (part of the old D-12 team) and BFC, both from Sparks, NV faced each other three times scoring a total of 90 runs.
BFC easily advanced to the winner's bracket final with wins over Team Nutz 17-5, Sonoma Merchants 26-7 and Outkast 23-17. Krooked had an easy first win, 22-11 over DSS Bats, but then just sqeaked by Turbulance 17-16 and Frozen Rope 13-8.
The winner's bracket final game went to Krooked by the score of 13-9 over BFC. BFC fought their way back to a rematch, downing World Gym 18-15. World Gym (formerly Nevada Fitness) from Carson City, NV finished in third place. All tourney selections were Jason Lewis, Chris Scott and Chad Eaton.
In the championship game both BFC and Krooked scored in all but one inning. BFC never trailed however and forced the if game, winning 24-20.
In the if game it was Krooked who scored first and lead from the first inning. BFC stayed close heading into the seventh inning trailing by three runs. Holding BFC to just one more run, Krooked held on for a 13-11 victory.
Offensive MVP from Krooked was Josh Rumesburg while Ben White from BFC was given the Defensive MVP award. Krooked's all tourney awards were given to Mike Lee, Richy Diaz, Angel Olvera and Jordan Kendall. All tourney for BFC were Richie Mo, Chris Baker and Jason Carlson.
"Good plays and good hitting made both the championship and if games close," said tournament director Doug Foremaster.