The deja vu of the LABL continued itself this year. The last two years: go through the losers bracket, win the first game of the championship, then lose the second one to finish 2^nd. This year: same result. Well, kind of.

In the first game, we scored in the top of the 9^th to win the game 3-2. We rode our pitcher all 9, and had him pitch the first 3 innings of the second game. So there we are, bottom of the 3^rd, 2 outs, bases full, and we're down 2-1. Vernon gets up and hits a triple to the gap to score all 3 on base. Close play at 3^rd, they want him out, umps call him safe.

Then the rain continues to fall. We take the mandatory 20 minute break to see what is going to happen. The umps finally call the game and we pick Wednesday to resume play. Then the guys in charge of the league (yep, a real cracker jack group of leaders they are) tell us that we have to start from scratch on Wednesday. That nothing carries over because we didn't play 3 full innings. Here's where we wanted our guy to get called out sliding into third. So, we call up the league president, talk with him, tell him no postseason games start over anywhere, but it's to no avail. We played 3 innings, and got a nice lead, and they told us nothing counted.

At this point, our coach (well, assistant since Clint was having a great time in the Niabrara ....) pretty much told them to go ____ themselves. That my friends, is what Staplehurst baseball is all about. We forfeited a game that we were winning. It was our 5^th game that week, and the postseason tourney carries on much longer than it should. But, if anyone knows people on our team, that's just how we roll. A second place trophy means nothing now that we've won it 3 straight years. We would've cleaned house on Wednesday (yes Austin, we would've kept on scoring on you), but it's more about the principle. Well, that and us being very tired of playing so much baseball. Those pros playing 162 games is very, very impressive.

Oh yeah, Bryce had a 9-1 put out in the first game. For those baseball savvy people out there, you know you don't see that every day.

Also, when I get a free second, I'll be posting some pics of the plane ride that I got to go on.