Spring tournament

Saturday was the 2018 spring tournament.  Roll'em was the #2 seed in their pool of four teams.  With Herbster and Clutch still on vacation Roll'em again turned to my cousin Roberto and long time friend Ted.
In the first game we had the #1 seed in our pool, the Old Rome Rollers.  The game started out close at 1-1 but then it was all the Rollers as they were on fire, especially Maggie who put the ball on or very close to the pallino every time.  Their other rollers were rolling great too and they cruised to a 9-1 shellacking of Roll'em.
In the second game we took on Usual Suspects, another Wednesday night team.  Roll'em started finding our groove and in a reverse of the first game we were the ones on fire as we won going away 9-0.
After two games everyone in our pool was 1-1 so the third game would be win and advance.  Oddly, all the first two games in our pool were either 9-0 or 9-1.
Needing a win to advance we took on Clarks 2.0 in the third game.  The Clarks are several area ex-softball players that both me and Ted played against many times in the past.  Once again we came out ready to play and slowly pulled away from the Clarks and won 9-5 to advance into the single elimination tournament.
In the first round we took on Can't Be Trusted featuring ex-super subs Danny and Jean.  One of their players, Pete, had got called away which they knew could happen so they added Ian who's been a thorn in our side many times.  This had the makings of an exciting game with all the players being interwoven.  Danny and Jean have played with us, Ted has played with them, Ian is on Holy Ballz and Pete also is on the Eclectics.  The game started out close with many really good shots but with the score 6-4 us the Glue and Roberto put a three pointer on them for the win with the third point barely edging out their ball.
In the semifinal we took on Big Muddy Monsters.  The Monsters jumped out to a 3-0 lead but we closed the gap with the score moved to 6-5 Monsters.  Then disaster struck.  Ted had been playing well but his first two throws were unable to get inside their ball and I had my two worst throws since the first game.  With none of our balls very close they had two chances to get the final point but shorted the first to give us hope.  Their second ball however was on the money for a 9-5 win and a disappointing loss for Roll'em.  It's going to take a while to get over those two throws.
The Monsters went on to beat the Ringers in the championship and while congratulations go out to them I can't help but think what would have happened if we hadn't ended with those throws.
A couple week break and it's time for summer league.