| SKS Finish the 2009 Tournament Season at the Top of the NSA Class B National Rankings |
Crossville, TN 10/12/09
by TJ Jorgensen
The 2009 tournament season began in Cincinnati, Ohio in March with the WSL Bash for
Cash and it ended this weekend outside of Nashville, Tennessee at the Super "B" World
Series, and after 20 tournaments, the Street Kids/Suburban South/PAS softball team ends the
2009 campaign as the number one ranked NSA Class B team in the nation.
This weekend started like any other tournament for the SKS team from South Bend, Indiana,
arriving at the hotel in Nashville Friday evening, just prior to the live draw for the 2009 NSA
"B" Super World Series. The team took a party bus for the nine hour ride so they could relax
and have fun on their way down. The weekend didn't get off to the best start as the bus was
90 minutes late picking the team up in South Bend Friday morning.
"Not a good start to the weekend," said pitcher Mark Hershberger while awaiting the tardy
bus driver. His words would be the title track to the weekend's very unexpected chapter in
SKS tourney stories.
A few players rode down separately and arrived at the hotel early and when they tried to
check in, they were told there was only one room available, not the seven I paid for on
Hotels.com. I made a call to Hotels.com and found out they forgot to send the confirmation
over. They said it would not be a problem and the rooms would be ready for release in 10
minutes, so I hung up and continued my ride to Nashville. Three hours later, I am standing in
the lobby of the hotel, listening to the front desk clerk explain to me that they still have no
rooms for me.
"Not a good start to the weekend" I remember Mark saying...
After several phone calls, an hour of waiting in the lobby, we were finally checked in and
along with assistant manager JR Shapior, I was off to the coaches meeting at another hotel
outside of Nashville.
There had been a lot of rain in the Nashville area for the previous four days, leaving very wet
conditions on the fields where the tournament was to be held. As a precaution, tournament
director Mickey Blue told all the coaches to call the rain out line in the morning to make sure
the fields would be ready. So morning comes, and as we are getting ready to leave the hotel,
I get a text message from Jim Thornton, who coaches the Thorntons/B&C/Miken team,
saying the tournament was on a delay and there would be a coaches meeting at 1pm to
explain. Now at this time, its around 9:30am, so if they were planning a 1pm meeting, there
was no way the games would start until late in the afternoon or evening. We decided to go to
the park anyway and take batting practice.
When we reached the park and walked up close to one of the fields, we were blown away
that not only did the infields look like a pig slop of mud and water, but no one was even
working on them!
"Not a good start to the weekend" came in my head again.
We took batting practice in the outfield and when we were about to leave, I decided to call
Mickey Blue and ask him what is going on.
"There is an issue with having the tournament at Cane Ridge Park and we are meeting with
area parks to see about moving the event," he told me. "We will meet at the host hotel for a
coaches meeting at 5pm with some answers.
Keep in mind its now Saturday. In a tournament that traditionally starts on Friday night, it was
going to be at least Saturday night before they could begin. So we didn't think too much
about it, went to lunch, checked back into another hotel and then myself, JR and Kyle Yerkes
from the team headed over to the meeting at 5pm.
When we got to this meeting, that we expected to be about 30-45 minutes long, we were told
Mickey was not there yet but he was on his way back from another facility. He arrived
around 5:30pm and did not look too happy. He was clearly frustrated, stressed and very
tired, and he appeared to have a solution.
"Gentlemen, the city of Nashville will not let us use the fields, so we have spent the better part
of the day trying to find another place," he said to all us coaches. "We found a park and have
people working on the fields right now. We should be able to start the tourney at 7am and
have it completed in one day."
Even though we lost an entire day, the coaches were happy to know we would start in the
morning. Then Mickey got an urgent call and had to go get on a conference call and asked all
the coaches to stick around. An hour later, he returned and the look on his face was not good.
"Guys, we lost the fields," he said with a very sad look. "After we spent $600 on diamond dry
and put it on the fields, they told us they will not let us use the fields."
Mickey looked so tired. His eyes were heavy, his voice shaking... You could tell he was
doing his best for the NSA and this tournament, but it appeared that there was no way he
was going to get this event in. One coach who met with him privately said Mickey started to
cry a little.
"He just wants to do his best for all of us and no one would give him a damn park," the coach
told me.
Mickey continued.
"I have one place that will allow us to play this tournament this weekend but its 117 miles
away in Crossville, Tennessee. Its straight East and the park is very nice."
We were all stunned. It was now around 7:30pm and not only have none of us played ball
yet, but if we wanted to play at all, we would have to travel two hours East to do it.
"I know its not something any of us planned guys," Mickey said. "But its our last option
before canceling the tournament directly, which I know no one wants. Teams have airline
costs, hotels, thousands of dollars invested and we all want to play."
After offering the teams a choice of either playing in the morning at 7am or withdrawing with a
full refund, it was set for 18 teams of the originally scheduled 25 teams to be in the new
bracket. The next part was where it got pretty sticky.
"Some people have expressed an interest at starting tonight at 10pm," Mickey started. "The
only way that can happen is if everyone goes out of the room and calls or meets with your
team and decide if you want to do that. We could start it at 10pm and run it all night and into
tomorrow, sort of like an all-nighter event. Its a rough request, but with only four fields, that is
the only way we can be sure to get the entire event in by a decent time on Sunday so players
can travel 8-14 hours back home or catch flights."
After I got the news, I made the entire team meet in one hotel room and they put me on
speaker phone, where I offered the situation. The team was not happy about playing tonight,
especially seeing that no one slept all day like you typically do to prepare for an all-nighter,
and to pull this off would be almost impossible for any team. But the team said they were here
to play and would do whatever I decided. After speaking it over with JR and Kyle, who
drove us there, we decided we would stay and play. But 10pm was nearly impossible.
"With teams having to check out of their hotel rooms, get their stuff ready and drive two hours
to play, 10pm is not a logical time frame," I said to Mickey and the other coaches.
Mickey then offered the tourney to start at midnight and eight teams would begin then, and
the others would be in two more time slots. Now prior to this announcement, a couple of
teams already decided to leave. One of them was Suburban/SKS of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Suburban coach BJ Roberts told Mickey that if the tourney was to begin at 10pm that they
were out of it, so he shook my hand, wished us luck and headed out the door. Sitting here
recalling the evening, I wish I would have called BJ and told him they were moving it back
two hours, but I didn't think that would make him want to stay, so I didn't bother.
After another blind draw, the SKS team was told we would play at 2:40am (ouch!) so we
got the hell out of the meeting, made our way back to the hotel to talk to the team about what
our plan was. When I arrived at the hotel, the team was eating pizza and hanging out in the
lobby. After talking with everyone, we decided we would still go to Crossville and play, but I
needed to call the driver of our party bus to make sure he was on board. That conversation
did not go well, and basically he said no. So if we wanted to play, we would have to find
another way to get our team and all of our bags and overnight bags (remember we had to
check out because we would have no clue how long we would be gone) to Crossville.
I called Matt Lavender of Suburban/SKS and asked him what he thought. He told me if we
can get a rental van, we should go, but if we couldnt, just bag it and go out and have fun in
downtown Nashville. I thanked him for his advice and told him I would call him back if we
decided not to go.
Terry Patesel and Mark Hershberger of the team both joined me and we went to the nearby
Nashville Airport to attempt to rent a passenger van. An hour or so later, we were pulling the
van up to the hotel. About 90 minutes later, we were on the road to Crossville, Tennessee to
play in the first ever "all-nighter" for a Super World Championship!
Part 2
We left off the story with us picking up the van and preparing to head out to Crossville, but
what I failed to mention is that we had to check out of the hotel - just a few short hours after
we checked in! What a complete waste of $400! But in hindsight, we would have still needed
a place to hang out for a while awaiting to leave for Crossville, but I would not have had to
get so many rooms!
The team was not crazy about going to this event; you could see it in their faces, but they
would not admit it. "We're here for the team, coach!" That was the motto of the evening. We
were all tired and had no chance to sleep, but we would still give it our best shot.
Our first game was against St. Louis Swing, the same team that put 48 runs on us on their
way to a NSA Regional title back in August. So we knew we would have to score a lot of
runs to beat them, and prior to the game, I looked at other scores from games being played.
Almost every team scored at least 30 runs. One game being played right before ours was
TNT/Mojo and the Premier team from California, and those two teams kept scoring runs
back and forth. I think the final was something like 45-38 or something weird like that. My
point is this was the highest program in the country for NSA and this tournament featured the
best. We would have to play our best to have any chance of a high finish.
The field conditions were horrible on two fields, and less than average on the other two
diamonds. Lazer Show, the team that defeated us in the finals of the NSA World Series a few
weeks back, was experiencing just how hard the playing conditions are, slipping on the infield
mud, having your shoes stuck in the soft outfield ground. It was clearly a horrible time but the
only thing that gave me solace was knowing that every team had the same conditions. We
were all on the same level playing field.
St. Louis Swing took advantage of our slow start, leading us 8-4 after three innings, and 18-6
after four. But the Street Kids team would answer back in the top of the fifth inning, scoring
nine times to get the game closer. A three run home run by Chris Firebaugh followed soon by
consecutive run scoring singles by Terry Patesel and Kyle Yerkes were the highlights of the
inning. But in the home half of the fifth inning, Swing put up six runs and added another in the
home half of the sixth. SKS would not manage a comeback and lost 25-16 in seven innings.
Terry Patesel paced the Kids with five hits while Kyle Yerkes added four hits.
After a loss in the first round (following a bye) of a tournament that is being played at 3:30am,
in the cold, wet conditions, the first thing that comes to your mind is lets get out of here. The
chance of us winning the tourney from this deep in the losers bracket would be slim. But
instead we stuck it out and prepared to play TNT/Mojo, who just scored nearly 40 runs and
lost.
For some reason, and maybe its just because we had nothing to lose, SKS came out strong.
We scored six runs in the first, six more in the second and four in the third inning, but Mojo
hung right there with us, scoring runs at will. They out up nine runs in the third inning and three
in the fourth, but SKS answered that rally with a little of their own, scoring seven in the fourth
and seven more in the sixth. When it was all said and done, Street Kids came out on top,
30-29, advancing to the next round. Kyle Yerkes, Mike Malesko and Scott Zaciewski all
had five hits each in the win, while pitcher Mark Hershberger - who had a fantastic weekend
both on the mound and at the plate - added four hits.
After a break, where most players went out to the rental van and slept for about 30-45
minutes, SKS was set to play against Unleashed, a team that just lost for the first time against
Whiskey City, also by a very high score. Again, we knew we had to score runs to have any
kind of chance to win this tournament, and it proved right again against Unleashed.
In this epic game of tug and war, Street Kids came out swinging in the top of the first, scoring
six runs. Mike Malesko and Mark Hershberger each hit two run homers to highlight the
inning. Unleashed would keep up with SKS though, and after four innings, SKS led 14-11.
But Unleashed put up eight runs to tie the game in the fifth. After the Kids scored three in the
sixth and two in the top of the seventh, they went into the bottom of the seventh inning with a
five run lead and only three outs away from eliminating Unleashed from the tournament. But
Unleashed took advantage of some sloppy defense and scored five times to tie the game, and
force extra innings.
In the top of the eighth inning, Street Kids scored six times and this time they were hoping that
would be enough, but alas, it would not be as Unleashed answered back with six of their own
to tie it once again. To the ninth inning we go! Scott Zaciewski hit his third home run of the
game, and record tying seventh hit of the game, and Mark Hershberger drove in Chris
Firebaugh to give SKS a 35-30 lead. In the bottom of the ninth, Unleashed led off with a
home run, their only one they could hit, which brought them one run closer, 35-31. They were
out of home runs but that did not stop the next two batters from hitting them anyway! Two
swings, two balls over 330' over the fence, two outs! After a single by the leadoff batter, the
number two hitter, who had four hits in the game, decided to make all three outs in the inning
the same... he launched a long home run to end the game, giving the Kids the win!
In this long game - it lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes - Firebaugh tied his own team record with
four doubles and Mark Hershberger just missed tying the record for RBI's in a game (12, set
by Dan Garey in 2003) with 11 runs knocked in. Scott Zaciewski and Chris Firebaugh tied a
team record with seven hits each in the game, while Kyle Yerkes and Mark Hershberger both
added six hits each.
Street Kids would have to play back to back from this point on in the tournament as teams
were being eliminated. Their next game was against Commission from Illinois. Despite
Commission putting up six runs in the first inning, this game would be all SKS. Street Kids
only scored three runs in the first - a three run home run by Malesko - and one in the second
inning, but they put up eight in the third inning and led 12-8 after three. Commission would
only score one more run the rest of the way, and the Kids would keep going, scoring three in
the fourth, five in the fifth, then scoring four in the sixth, eventually ending it on a walk off
home run by Zaciewski (the picture at the top of the page is the exact moment he connected
for the walk off). Street Kids eliminated Commission, 24-9 and advanced to the final six
teams!
At this point, we were starting to feel a little something... yes, we were tired, and we knew
our limo driver back in Nashville was waiting for us to return, calling me every 45 minutes to
see if we were on our way or not. But we were on a roll and actually felt like we could keep
it going.
"Guys, this is the kind of stuff champions are made of," I said to the team.
Our next opponent would prove to be our biggest yet, the newly crowned ASA East
National Champions, Softball Times. They had won the ASA tournament in Columbus that
the Kids also competed in, and they also had won a USSSA Regional Championship around
the same time. So the Kids had their work cut out for them.
Softball Times elected to hit first in this game, and they were unable to score. The Kids
managed one run in the home half of the first, and Times put up 10 in the second inning. SKS
answered back with five, with three home runs (not what we wanted but we took it). After
Times put up five in the top of the third inning, Street Kids would have a big inning in the
bottom of the third, scoring 10 times and taking a 16-15 lead. Scott Martin hit his second
home run of the game to spark the offense and Mark Hershberger hit a big two run double -
one of four hits in the game for Hersh - in the same inning. Then they added four more in the
fourth inning to take a 20-15 lead after four complete.
Times would strike back though, scoring seven times in the top of the fifth to take the lead
back. SKS would not answer in the home half of the fifth, and Times put up two more in the
top of the sixth. In the bottom of the sixth inning, trailing by four runs, Chris Firebaugh
connected for a three run home run, his fourth hit of the game, and Mark Hershberger
followed with a solo home run to tie the game heading into the seventh and final inning of the
game. The score was tied at 24 all.
Time would untie the game, however, as the leadoff batter in the inning singled to center and
the next batter launched a two run shot to give Times a 26-24 lead. The Kids defense shut
down the next three batters and we went to the bottom of the seventh inning trailing by only
two runs and no home runs to hit. Three runs and we would have defeated a very powerful
Softball Times team and advance to the final four of the tourney.
Kalei Enterline led off the inning with a double and that brought up the top of the lineup in
Terry Patesel, Kyle Yerkes and Mike Malesko. At this time, I am reminding Kalei at second
base that there were no outs and he needs to get moving if the ball is hit to the right side.
Patesel hits a sharp rocket back up the middle, but the pitcher for Times was able to get a
glove on it and threw out Patesel. Yerkes hit one of the hardest shots up the middle toward
the bare hand side of the pitcher (they shifted to a four man infield, thus creating a huge hole
up the middle) but he made a fantastic play again, grabbing the sharp one hopper and
throwing out Yerkes.
The Kids were down to their last hope in Malesko, who already had five hits in the game. He
hit an absolute rocket up the middle, but the outfielder had him played perfectly and caught
the hard liner to end the game, and eliminate Street Kids from the NSA Super World Series.
"You can't hit a ball any harder than that," I said to Mike later. "That's just the way it goes
sometimes."
Softball Times would go on to lose their next game and Sons of American Legion would
come out of the losers bracket to face St. Louis Swing in the finals, and beat Swing in the first
game, forcing the "if" game. But Swing continued their red hot season and beat SAL, earning
the Super "B" World title. And it could not happen to a better group of guys. Congratulations,
Swing!
Despite the loss, we didn't seem that upset. Kyle Yerkes reminded us that we got farther than
any other Indiana team, and a fifth place finish at the Super Worlds of the highest NSA class
in the country is pretty good, especially with a first game loss. The team was tired and I think
a little bit relieved. It was around 2:30pm on Sunday but it seemed like bed time to us. We
made our way back to Nashville where our angry limo driver was awaiting us to board the
party bus and head back to South Bend.
While on the bus, I was watching the results get posted to the PlayNSA.com website and
noticed that the points were also being updated on the national list. Lazer Show was the
number one team in the country coming into this weekend, but after a disappointing 0-2 finish
(shocked a lot of us), they were only given a certain amount of points. With our finish, we
jumped to 1775 on the season, jumping over Lazer Shows 1690. We started to get excited
on the bus knowing that depending on how the tournament finishes and how many points
SAL, Softball Times, Whiskey City and Stl Swing had, we had a shot at ending the NSA
season as the number one Class B team in America. But we didn't get too excited until the
final score was posted.
I watched message boards to see the final outcome and discover that Swing had won, and I
immediately checked their point total prior to this tournament. They had 700 point. The next
thing I needed to check was to make sure they did not get more than 1,080 points for the
Super World championship win, because if they did, they would jump over all of us in the
ranking. I found the details of the team points page on the website and saw the points that are
given to a Super title winner: 1,000.
With a final ranking score of 1775 to 1700, the Street Kids/Suburban South/PAS softball
team had finished the 2009 season as the number one Class B team in the country! I told the
guys on the bus and they also shared in the excitement. Kalei Enterline grabbed me by the
neck and whispered in my ear...
"All the hard work you did, all the time spent putting this together... it all paid off, TJ. You just
built the nations number one ranked team at the highest level of NSA softball."
We had a great run this year, hit some highs (winning the Hooters against Thorntons was one
for sure) and we had some lows (getting swept by Lazer Show in the finals of the World
Series - but a second place finish is also a high). But the strong finish to the season (third
place in NSA Regionals, 2nd place in NSA Worlds, 5th place at NSA Supers) shows just
how much heart this team has. The mid season additions brought not only some talent and
experience, but laughter and a way to have fun again while playing the game we love (never
forget Kyle straddling Hersh on the bench at the Kiracofe!). The way our team never gave up
when down by seven runs to DMB in the seventh inning this year and came back and won... I
will even go back as far as our first tournament of the year in the Jackson Dome, being down
by eight runs in the last inning and coming back to win.
Street Kids has taken their fair share of abuse on message boards, but none of us let that
affect the way we play on the field or the way we act off the field with Street Kids Care. I am
proud of each player on this team and look forward to a fantastic awards banquet this year
on November 21st, held at the beautiful Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, Indiana!
The Street Kids team (112-42 overall) will finish up the fall season this week on Wednesday
and Thursday and finally wrap up the 2009 season for good.
SKS was led by Mark Hershberger (19-for-25, .760 avg, team high 24 rbi's) at the plate,
but this was a group effort as you can see by the box scores below.
by TJ Jorgensen
The 2009 tournament season began in Cincinnati, Ohio in March with the WSL Bash for
Cash and it ended this weekend outside of Nashville, Tennessee at the Super "B" World
Series, and after 20 tournaments, the Street Kids/Suburban South/PAS softball team ends the
2009 campaign as the number one ranked NSA Class B team in the nation.
This weekend started like any other tournament for the SKS team from South Bend, Indiana,
arriving at the hotel in Nashville Friday evening, just prior to the live draw for the 2009 NSA
"B" Super World Series. The team took a party bus for the nine hour ride so they could relax
and have fun on their way down. The weekend didn't get off to the best start as the bus was
90 minutes late picking the team up in South Bend Friday morning.
"Not a good start to the weekend," said pitcher Mark Hershberger while awaiting the tardy
bus driver. His words would be the title track to the weekend's very unexpected chapter in
SKS tourney stories.
A few players rode down separately and arrived at the hotel early and when they tried to
check in, they were told there was only one room available, not the seven I paid for on
Hotels.com. I made a call to Hotels.com and found out they forgot to send the confirmation
over. They said it would not be a problem and the rooms would be ready for release in 10
minutes, so I hung up and continued my ride to Nashville. Three hours later, I am standing in
the lobby of the hotel, listening to the front desk clerk explain to me that they still have no
rooms for me.
"Not a good start to the weekend" I remember Mark saying...
After several phone calls, an hour of waiting in the lobby, we were finally checked in and
along with assistant manager JR Shapior, I was off to the coaches meeting at another hotel
outside of Nashville.
There had been a lot of rain in the Nashville area for the previous four days, leaving very wet
conditions on the fields where the tournament was to be held. As a precaution, tournament
director Mickey Blue told all the coaches to call the rain out line in the morning to make sure
the fields would be ready. So morning comes, and as we are getting ready to leave the hotel,
I get a text message from Jim Thornton, who coaches the Thorntons/B&C/Miken team,
saying the tournament was on a delay and there would be a coaches meeting at 1pm to
explain. Now at this time, its around 9:30am, so if they were planning a 1pm meeting, there
was no way the games would start until late in the afternoon or evening. We decided to go to
the park anyway and take batting practice.
When we reached the park and walked up close to one of the fields, we were blown away
that not only did the infields look like a pig slop of mud and water, but no one was even
working on them!
"Not a good start to the weekend" came in my head again.
We took batting practice in the outfield and when we were about to leave, I decided to call
Mickey Blue and ask him what is going on.
"There is an issue with having the tournament at Cane Ridge Park and we are meeting with
area parks to see about moving the event," he told me. "We will meet at the host hotel for a
coaches meeting at 5pm with some answers.
Keep in mind its now Saturday. In a tournament that traditionally starts on Friday night, it was
going to be at least Saturday night before they could begin. So we didn't think too much
about it, went to lunch, checked back into another hotel and then myself, JR and Kyle Yerkes
from the team headed over to the meeting at 5pm.
When we got to this meeting, that we expected to be about 30-45 minutes long, we were told
Mickey was not there yet but he was on his way back from another facility. He arrived
around 5:30pm and did not look too happy. He was clearly frustrated, stressed and very
tired, and he appeared to have a solution.
"Gentlemen, the city of Nashville will not let us use the fields, so we have spent the better part
of the day trying to find another place," he said to all us coaches. "We found a park and have
people working on the fields right now. We should be able to start the tourney at 7am and
have it completed in one day."
Even though we lost an entire day, the coaches were happy to know we would start in the
morning. Then Mickey got an urgent call and had to go get on a conference call and asked all
the coaches to stick around. An hour later, he returned and the look on his face was not good.
"Guys, we lost the fields," he said with a very sad look. "After we spent $600 on diamond dry
and put it on the fields, they told us they will not let us use the fields."
Mickey looked so tired. His eyes were heavy, his voice shaking... You could tell he was
doing his best for the NSA and this tournament, but it appeared that there was no way he
was going to get this event in. One coach who met with him privately said Mickey started to
cry a little.
"He just wants to do his best for all of us and no one would give him a damn park," the coach
told me.
Mickey continued.
"I have one place that will allow us to play this tournament this weekend but its 117 miles
away in Crossville, Tennessee. Its straight East and the park is very nice."
We were all stunned. It was now around 7:30pm and not only have none of us played ball
yet, but if we wanted to play at all, we would have to travel two hours East to do it.
"I know its not something any of us planned guys," Mickey said. "But its our last option
before canceling the tournament directly, which I know no one wants. Teams have airline
costs, hotels, thousands of dollars invested and we all want to play."
After offering the teams a choice of either playing in the morning at 7am or withdrawing with a
full refund, it was set for 18 teams of the originally scheduled 25 teams to be in the new
bracket. The next part was where it got pretty sticky.
"Some people have expressed an interest at starting tonight at 10pm," Mickey started. "The
only way that can happen is if everyone goes out of the room and calls or meets with your
team and decide if you want to do that. We could start it at 10pm and run it all night and into
tomorrow, sort of like an all-nighter event. Its a rough request, but with only four fields, that is
the only way we can be sure to get the entire event in by a decent time on Sunday so players
can travel 8-14 hours back home or catch flights."
After I got the news, I made the entire team meet in one hotel room and they put me on
speaker phone, where I offered the situation. The team was not happy about playing tonight,
especially seeing that no one slept all day like you typically do to prepare for an all-nighter,
and to pull this off would be almost impossible for any team. But the team said they were here
to play and would do whatever I decided. After speaking it over with JR and Kyle, who
drove us there, we decided we would stay and play. But 10pm was nearly impossible.
"With teams having to check out of their hotel rooms, get their stuff ready and drive two hours
to play, 10pm is not a logical time frame," I said to Mickey and the other coaches.
Mickey then offered the tourney to start at midnight and eight teams would begin then, and
the others would be in two more time slots. Now prior to this announcement, a couple of
teams already decided to leave. One of them was Suburban/SKS of Kalamazoo, Michigan.
Suburban coach BJ Roberts told Mickey that if the tourney was to begin at 10pm that they
were out of it, so he shook my hand, wished us luck and headed out the door. Sitting here
recalling the evening, I wish I would have called BJ and told him they were moving it back
two hours, but I didn't think that would make him want to stay, so I didn't bother.
After another blind draw, the SKS team was told we would play at 2:40am (ouch!) so we
got the hell out of the meeting, made our way back to the hotel to talk to the team about what
our plan was. When I arrived at the hotel, the team was eating pizza and hanging out in the
lobby. After talking with everyone, we decided we would still go to Crossville and play, but I
needed to call the driver of our party bus to make sure he was on board. That conversation
did not go well, and basically he said no. So if we wanted to play, we would have to find
another way to get our team and all of our bags and overnight bags (remember we had to
check out because we would have no clue how long we would be gone) to Crossville.
I called Matt Lavender of Suburban/SKS and asked him what he thought. He told me if we
can get a rental van, we should go, but if we couldnt, just bag it and go out and have fun in
downtown Nashville. I thanked him for his advice and told him I would call him back if we
decided not to go.
Terry Patesel and Mark Hershberger of the team both joined me and we went to the nearby
Nashville Airport to attempt to rent a passenger van. An hour or so later, we were pulling the
van up to the hotel. About 90 minutes later, we were on the road to Crossville, Tennessee to
play in the first ever "all-nighter" for a Super World Championship!
Part 2
We left off the story with us picking up the van and preparing to head out to Crossville, but
what I failed to mention is that we had to check out of the hotel - just a few short hours after
we checked in! What a complete waste of $400! But in hindsight, we would have still needed
a place to hang out for a while awaiting to leave for Crossville, but I would not have had to
get so many rooms!
The team was not crazy about going to this event; you could see it in their faces, but they
would not admit it. "We're here for the team, coach!" That was the motto of the evening. We
were all tired and had no chance to sleep, but we would still give it our best shot.
Our first game was against St. Louis Swing, the same team that put 48 runs on us on their
way to a NSA Regional title back in August. So we knew we would have to score a lot of
runs to beat them, and prior to the game, I looked at other scores from games being played.
Almost every team scored at least 30 runs. One game being played right before ours was
TNT/Mojo and the Premier team from California, and those two teams kept scoring runs
back and forth. I think the final was something like 45-38 or something weird like that. My
point is this was the highest program in the country for NSA and this tournament featured the
best. We would have to play our best to have any chance of a high finish.
The field conditions were horrible on two fields, and less than average on the other two
diamonds. Lazer Show, the team that defeated us in the finals of the NSA World Series a few
weeks back, was experiencing just how hard the playing conditions are, slipping on the infield
mud, having your shoes stuck in the soft outfield ground. It was clearly a horrible time but the
only thing that gave me solace was knowing that every team had the same conditions. We
were all on the same level playing field.
St. Louis Swing took advantage of our slow start, leading us 8-4 after three innings, and 18-6
after four. But the Street Kids team would answer back in the top of the fifth inning, scoring
nine times to get the game closer. A three run home run by Chris Firebaugh followed soon by
consecutive run scoring singles by Terry Patesel and Kyle Yerkes were the highlights of the
inning. But in the home half of the fifth inning, Swing put up six runs and added another in the
home half of the sixth. SKS would not manage a comeback and lost 25-16 in seven innings.
Terry Patesel paced the Kids with five hits while Kyle Yerkes added four hits.
After a loss in the first round (following a bye) of a tournament that is being played at 3:30am,
in the cold, wet conditions, the first thing that comes to your mind is lets get out of here. The
chance of us winning the tourney from this deep in the losers bracket would be slim. But
instead we stuck it out and prepared to play TNT/Mojo, who just scored nearly 40 runs and
lost.
For some reason, and maybe its just because we had nothing to lose, SKS came out strong.
We scored six runs in the first, six more in the second and four in the third inning, but Mojo
hung right there with us, scoring runs at will. They out up nine runs in the third inning and three
in the fourth, but SKS answered that rally with a little of their own, scoring seven in the fourth
and seven more in the sixth. When it was all said and done, Street Kids came out on top,
30-29, advancing to the next round. Kyle Yerkes, Mike Malesko and Scott Zaciewski all
had five hits each in the win, while pitcher Mark Hershberger - who had a fantastic weekend
both on the mound and at the plate - added four hits.
After a break, where most players went out to the rental van and slept for about 30-45
minutes, SKS was set to play against Unleashed, a team that just lost for the first time against
Whiskey City, also by a very high score. Again, we knew we had to score runs to have any
kind of chance to win this tournament, and it proved right again against Unleashed.
In this epic game of tug and war, Street Kids came out swinging in the top of the first, scoring
six runs. Mike Malesko and Mark Hershberger each hit two run homers to highlight the
inning. Unleashed would keep up with SKS though, and after four innings, SKS led 14-11.
But Unleashed put up eight runs to tie the game in the fifth. After the Kids scored three in the
sixth and two in the top of the seventh, they went into the bottom of the seventh inning with a
five run lead and only three outs away from eliminating Unleashed from the tournament. But
Unleashed took advantage of some sloppy defense and scored five times to tie the game, and
force extra innings.
In the top of the eighth inning, Street Kids scored six times and this time they were hoping that
would be enough, but alas, it would not be as Unleashed answered back with six of their own
to tie it once again. To the ninth inning we go! Scott Zaciewski hit his third home run of the
game, and record tying seventh hit of the game, and Mark Hershberger drove in Chris
Firebaugh to give SKS a 35-30 lead. In the bottom of the ninth, Unleashed led off with a
home run, their only one they could hit, which brought them one run closer, 35-31. They were
out of home runs but that did not stop the next two batters from hitting them anyway! Two
swings, two balls over 330' over the fence, two outs! After a single by the leadoff batter, the
number two hitter, who had four hits in the game, decided to make all three outs in the inning
the same... he launched a long home run to end the game, giving the Kids the win!
In this long game - it lasted 2 hours and 20 minutes - Firebaugh tied his own team record with
four doubles and Mark Hershberger just missed tying the record for RBI's in a game (12, set
by Dan Garey in 2003) with 11 runs knocked in. Scott Zaciewski and Chris Firebaugh tied a
team record with seven hits each in the game, while Kyle Yerkes and Mark Hershberger both
added six hits each.
Street Kids would have to play back to back from this point on in the tournament as teams
were being eliminated. Their next game was against Commission from Illinois. Despite
Commission putting up six runs in the first inning, this game would be all SKS. Street Kids
only scored three runs in the first - a three run home run by Malesko - and one in the second
inning, but they put up eight in the third inning and led 12-8 after three. Commission would
only score one more run the rest of the way, and the Kids would keep going, scoring three in
the fourth, five in the fifth, then scoring four in the sixth, eventually ending it on a walk off
home run by Zaciewski (the picture at the top of the page is the exact moment he connected
for the walk off). Street Kids eliminated Commission, 24-9 and advanced to the final six
teams!
At this point, we were starting to feel a little something... yes, we were tired, and we knew
our limo driver back in Nashville was waiting for us to return, calling me every 45 minutes to
see if we were on our way or not. But we were on a roll and actually felt like we could keep
it going.
"Guys, this is the kind of stuff champions are made of," I said to the team.
Our next opponent would prove to be our biggest yet, the newly crowned ASA East
National Champions, Softball Times. They had won the ASA tournament in Columbus that
the Kids also competed in, and they also had won a USSSA Regional Championship around
the same time. So the Kids had their work cut out for them.
Softball Times elected to hit first in this game, and they were unable to score. The Kids
managed one run in the home half of the first, and Times put up 10 in the second inning. SKS
answered back with five, with three home runs (not what we wanted but we took it). After
Times put up five in the top of the third inning, Street Kids would have a big inning in the
bottom of the third, scoring 10 times and taking a 16-15 lead. Scott Martin hit his second
home run of the game to spark the offense and Mark Hershberger hit a big two run double -
one of four hits in the game for Hersh - in the same inning. Then they added four more in the
fourth inning to take a 20-15 lead after four complete.
Times would strike back though, scoring seven times in the top of the fifth to take the lead
back. SKS would not answer in the home half of the fifth, and Times put up two more in the
top of the sixth. In the bottom of the sixth inning, trailing by four runs, Chris Firebaugh
connected for a three run home run, his fourth hit of the game, and Mark Hershberger
followed with a solo home run to tie the game heading into the seventh and final inning of the
game. The score was tied at 24 all.
Time would untie the game, however, as the leadoff batter in the inning singled to center and
the next batter launched a two run shot to give Times a 26-24 lead. The Kids defense shut
down the next three batters and we went to the bottom of the seventh inning trailing by only
two runs and no home runs to hit. Three runs and we would have defeated a very powerful
Softball Times team and advance to the final four of the tourney.
Kalei Enterline led off the inning with a double and that brought up the top of the lineup in
Terry Patesel, Kyle Yerkes and Mike Malesko. At this time, I am reminding Kalei at second
base that there were no outs and he needs to get moving if the ball is hit to the right side.
Patesel hits a sharp rocket back up the middle, but the pitcher for Times was able to get a
glove on it and threw out Patesel. Yerkes hit one of the hardest shots up the middle toward
the bare hand side of the pitcher (they shifted to a four man infield, thus creating a huge hole
up the middle) but he made a fantastic play again, grabbing the sharp one hopper and
throwing out Yerkes.
The Kids were down to their last hope in Malesko, who already had five hits in the game. He
hit an absolute rocket up the middle, but the outfielder had him played perfectly and caught
the hard liner to end the game, and eliminate Street Kids from the NSA Super World Series.
"You can't hit a ball any harder than that," I said to Mike later. "That's just the way it goes
sometimes."
Softball Times would go on to lose their next game and Sons of American Legion would
come out of the losers bracket to face St. Louis Swing in the finals, and beat Swing in the first
game, forcing the "if" game. But Swing continued their red hot season and beat SAL, earning
the Super "B" World title. And it could not happen to a better group of guys. Congratulations,
Swing!
Despite the loss, we didn't seem that upset. Kyle Yerkes reminded us that we got farther than
any other Indiana team, and a fifth place finish at the Super Worlds of the highest NSA class
in the country is pretty good, especially with a first game loss. The team was tired and I think
a little bit relieved. It was around 2:30pm on Sunday but it seemed like bed time to us. We
made our way back to Nashville where our angry limo driver was awaiting us to board the
party bus and head back to South Bend.
While on the bus, I was watching the results get posted to the PlayNSA.com website and
noticed that the points were also being updated on the national list. Lazer Show was the
number one team in the country coming into this weekend, but after a disappointing 0-2 finish
(shocked a lot of us), they were only given a certain amount of points. With our finish, we
jumped to 1775 on the season, jumping over Lazer Shows 1690. We started to get excited
on the bus knowing that depending on how the tournament finishes and how many points
SAL, Softball Times, Whiskey City and Stl Swing had, we had a shot at ending the NSA
season as the number one Class B team in America. But we didn't get too excited until the
final score was posted.
I watched message boards to see the final outcome and discover that Swing had won, and I
immediately checked their point total prior to this tournament. They had 700 point. The next
thing I needed to check was to make sure they did not get more than 1,080 points for the
Super World championship win, because if they did, they would jump over all of us in the
ranking. I found the details of the team points page on the website and saw the points that are
given to a Super title winner: 1,000.
With a final ranking score of 1775 to 1700, the Street Kids/Suburban South/PAS softball
team had finished the 2009 season as the number one Class B team in the country! I told the
guys on the bus and they also shared in the excitement. Kalei Enterline grabbed me by the
neck and whispered in my ear...
"All the hard work you did, all the time spent putting this together... it all paid off, TJ. You just
built the nations number one ranked team at the highest level of NSA softball."
We had a great run this year, hit some highs (winning the Hooters against Thorntons was one
for sure) and we had some lows (getting swept by Lazer Show in the finals of the World
Series - but a second place finish is also a high). But the strong finish to the season (third
place in NSA Regionals, 2nd place in NSA Worlds, 5th place at NSA Supers) shows just
how much heart this team has. The mid season additions brought not only some talent and
experience, but laughter and a way to have fun again while playing the game we love (never
forget Kyle straddling Hersh on the bench at the Kiracofe!). The way our team never gave up
when down by seven runs to DMB in the seventh inning this year and came back and won... I
will even go back as far as our first tournament of the year in the Jackson Dome, being down
by eight runs in the last inning and coming back to win.
Street Kids has taken their fair share of abuse on message boards, but none of us let that
affect the way we play on the field or the way we act off the field with Street Kids Care. I am
proud of each player on this team and look forward to a fantastic awards banquet this year
on November 21st, held at the beautiful Blue Chip Casino in Michigan City, Indiana!
The Street Kids team (112-42 overall) will finish up the fall season this week on Wednesday
and Thursday and finally wrap up the 2009 season for good.
SKS was led by Mark Hershberger (19-for-25, .760 avg, team high 24 rbi's) at the plate,
but this was a group effort as you can see by the box scores below.
Box Score from Super World Series at
the bottom of this page
the bottom of this page
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