The Sunshine Coast Fastpitch League finished their season last weekend with their playoffs at Brothers Park. In a season that showed more parity between teams than ever before, the playoffs looked to be anyone’s for the taking, but some familiar trends and rematches occurred.
With Gilligans amassing more wins this season than in the last four seasons combined, many predicted them to be the dark horse to upset several teams, but missing a few key guys they ended up in the Beer Cup in a rematch of last year’s Cup against Kurty D’s. Kurty D’s took advantage of several Gilligans errors to build a comfortable lead and cruise to a 20-3 win. Kurty D’s was able to enjoy their spoils of victory as they watched the final and unlike the night before, they left no man behind. Bright note for Gilligans during the game was when Aaron Hamilton crushed one over the fence to take the lead in the homerun race for the tournament.
In the first semi-final of the playoffs, top ranked Custom Carpet took on third ranked Lon’s Gun Show. Lon’s Gun Show was able to get to veteran pitcher Jim ‘Weepy’ Peers early with Connor Cross and Mike Sopow scoring in the top of the first to build a 2-0 lead. Custom did not wait long to battle back with Josh Gray reaching third to lead off the second inning by taking advantage of a fielding miscue. Lon’s Gun Show looked like they were going to get out of danger when they retired the next two batters – but Terry Gray had other plans, hitting a double to the fence to tie the game. After that Custom Carpet had all the momentum and took advantage of some Gun Show errors with timely hitting from Josh and Terry Gray to easily dispatch the Gun Show down to the other semi with a 9-2 victory.
In the second semi-final the Cutthroats, last year’s playoff champions, had fought through the backdoor behind some strong pitching from the ever improving Brad Kohuch to earn a rematch against Lon’s Gun Show. Lon’s Gun Show again jumped out to an early lead in the top of the first inning when Mike Husband hit a double to score Connor Cross and then Mike Sopow followed it up with a two-run homerun to secure a 3-0 lead. The Cutthroat’s looked to start a rally in the bottom of the sixth, but the strong arm of Matt Gopp was able to throw out the Cutthroat runner at home to kill the rally. Lon’s Gun Show earned a trip to the final with a 6-1 win and a chance to redeem their previous loss to Custom Carpet.
Lon’s Gun Show continued their trend of jumping out to an early lead when Bailey Karaloff hit a three-run homerun in the top of the first. The Gun Show continued to add to their lead in the top of the second with a two out rally when Jim Peers uncharacteristically hit two batters in a row to load the bases and Bailey Karaloff and Taylor Hanchar cleared them with some clutch hitting, bringing the score to 8-0. In the bottom of the fourth Custom Carpet was able to string a couple of hits together against Gun Show pitcher Mike Sopow, when Rudy Bracket hit a double off the fence and Josh Gray kept swinging a hot stick to cash him in, making the score 9-2. Custom looked to start to get something going in the bottom of the seventh with bases loaded, but a nice catch by Josh Mowbray and a beautiful throw by Nate Deboer to Jody Underwood to tag out a runner at third preserved the win for Lon’s Gun Show. Final score was 10-3.
The league would like to thank all the fans who came out to cheer on the teams, as the bleachers and sidelines were full all weekend. The league would also like to acknowledge all of the umpires for their contribution to our league, especially Ernie Barnum, Pat Taylor and Jim Gray.
– Submitted
