Summer tournament

With the Glue on a beach in Alabama, Herbster and Clutch vacationing with family and Pete playing on another team Roll'em If Ya Got decided not to play in the summer tournament.  Instead Roberto took the Glues place on Boro City Rollers joining Fred, Cathy and me.  Our pool consisted of three Monday teams and one Wednesday team which was disappointing since those are the two nights me and Fred play on.
In the first game we took on the always entertaining Eclectics who edged us out as Monday night league champions.  The game was close throughout with the Eclectics slightly in front.  They had a chance to close out the game but had to settle for a 8-7 lead.  Roberto put his first ball very close to the pallino and they used three balls before Mick came through and also put one close.  After much looking and measuring our still slightly in.  Any kind of touch on the cluster of balls around pallino would most likely change the scoring so we debated throwing our balls away.  In the end we decided to take a humongous risk and have Roberto go for a knock since Fred hadn't been his normal reliable self.  This could backfire so many ways and give us a first round loss.  Roberto's executed the knock great but when the balls stopped the Eclectics were now in.  The good news was they were about twelve feet away and our last two balls easily got inside of them for the win.
In the second game we played the Elks who won the Monday night league towel tournament.  The game started out close but we made more clutch shots and pulled away for a 9-6 win.  This put us in great position as all we had to do was win our last game and we'd advance out of pool play.
In the third round we played the Usual Suspects who knocked Roll'em out of the Wednesday towel tournament.  The game started out great as we put a four banger on them right of the back.  They answered in a big way with shot after great shot and pulled away giving us a 9-5 butt whooping.  This put us in a position of having to hope the Eclectics defeated the Elks so we'd advance otherwise there would be a roll off.  The Eclectics didn't help us out and we went to a three way roll off.
Captain Fred hadn't really played well so he chose Roberto and me to throw in the roll off.  We were the second team to throw and Roberto's shot looked good until it caught the Usual Suspects ball and knocked them a little closer.  The Elks threw last a put an okay ball which was still in by a lot.  I went first in the second round and made a bad throw which knocked the Elks closer and the Suspects last ball was also off the mark which made the Elks number one in our pool.  In the second round the Suspects first ball was short and Roberto put his shot very close to the pallino.  Their last shot was off the mark and we moved on as the second place finisher.
In the first game of the elimination tournament we faced Here For Beer.  They put a four point frame on us right off the bat but me and Roberto put a three right back on them.  It was about here where Fred found his stroke and we pulled away and got the win 9-5.
In the quarter finals we faced the perennial contenders Big Muddy Monsters.  They got a fast start with a couple points but once again we came back and pulled away, winning 9-4 which advanced us to the finals.  Fred had been there a couple times but lost each time while it was a first for the rest of us.
In the finals we took on Pookies which is the team that Pete was playing for.  We stayed hot while they had a lot of very close misses which started to take a toll on them and the two on mine and Roberto's end seemed to get very frustrated.  I'm not really sure how but we kept pulling away until it was 8-3.  Roberto went short with the pallino which had backfired in the Wednesday towel tournament.  We traded point balls until I threw my first ball just short of their two, one of which was the point ball.  I'd had good luck throwing at our ball and moving them up so I decided to try and hit my first ball and move it inside their point ball.  The strategy was good but the execution was very poor.  I yanked my ball to the left about a foot.  At this point I was just hoping we could hold them to one point but my ball somehow clipped the left side of one of Roberto's ball and pushed it right enough to be the new point ball.  Our ball was protected in front by three other balls so they couldn't really hit it out.  Their next to last ball was on a good line but was too long.  It was at this point where it really dawned on me that if they miss we are champions.  Their next ball was once again on a good line but once again rolled long.

Surreal.  We were the champions.  Credit to Pookies, even though the frustrated and irritated they were sportsmen about it and shook hands like you're supposed to. 
Unbelievable, last thing I expected going into the tournament.  We got more than our share of great breaks and unexpected misses by our opponents.  In the end we won our elimination games 9-5, 9-4 and 9-3.  Not a single one of those games seemed like we were ahead by that much until I looked at the scoreboard after the game. 
Boro City Rollers, 2019 summer league champions.  Wow.