Playoffs

Under a full moon and clear skies, the Dawgs defeated the Boston Beer Garden last Tuesday to win the 2008 M Street Softball championship. It was the second straight championship for the Dawgs (formally known as the Lynx). In a class move, the players of the Dawgs decided to donate their championship winnings to the wife of team founder, Danny Ekasala.

Over the past few years, Ekasala assembled one of the strongest teams to play out of the Boston area in decades. While most softball players relax around the beaches during the summer weekends, the Dawgs spent them traveling across the country playing against the best competition imaginable. This was a serious team that was built to perform a much higher level of play than M Street could offer. For the most part, each player could make a strong argument for being the best at his position. In fact, they were so deep in talent this year that they won an A.S.A. National Championship held in Atlanta.

With Jerry Thomes and Nick French on the mound they have two dependable starting pitchers to carry the workload. In the rare occasion that you hit them hard then their infielders (Toco Soto, Juan Sanchez, Mike Hoadley, Dan Brown, and Tim Morgan) picked up the slack and made one incredible play after another. If you got it past them then their outfielders (Kevin Ohara, Eric Gibson, Rob Copolla) were always in the right place to make the play. Once in awhile your hits would find holes which would lead to some runs being scored. However, they would battle right back with runs of their own as hitting was probably their strongest asset. Folks, this team could beat you in so many ways that anything less than a championship would have been a historic upset as far as softball goes.

In the best of seven finals, the Beer Garden hung right in there with them in the first game but fell, 6-5. The series would break for the weekend and resume with a doubleheader played last Monday evening. Perhaps the break wasn't the best thing for the Beer Garden as they came out flat in game two and lost, 9-2. Lefty pitcher Nick French proved to be too much to handle and limited their attack to just five hits. Now facing a must win situation, the Beer Garden knew they needed a great performance from all of their stars. However, they were facing veteran pitcher Jerry Thomes, who had pitched in many of these pressure games over his career. Thomes was brilliant as he mixed his off speed pitches while sneaking in a fastball here and there. The Dawgs won the game 7-3 and were now up 3-0 in the series and looking for the sweep.

In game four, the Dawgs had a unique situation as all three pitchers (French, Thomes, and Mike Hoadley) wanted to start the game. Whether they drew straws or not Hoadley got the start and again gave the Dawgs a solid effort on the mound. Leading 6-1 after five innings of play, Hoadley gave way to French who closed out the game (7-3) and gave the Dawgs their second straight championship.

Before reaching the finals, the Dawgs first faced the Stadium in a best of three quarter final. Looking for an upset, the Stadium played a great game and nearly took down the defending champions. With the Dawgs leading 11-2, the Stadium rallied for nine runs to tie it in the fifth inning. However, Tim Morgan's RBI single in the home half of the sixth put the Dawgs back on top and Nick French was able to nail down the win, 12-11. Once that game was over most knew that was the Stadium's chance to win the series as they were facing an uphill battle in trying to win two in a row. Jerry Thomes took the ball in game two and made sure there wouldn't be another game as he led the Dawgs to a 10-3 series ending victory.

The Dawgs then took on Shennanigans - a team that has steadily been improving each year and one that could possibly beat the Dawgs if their pitching held up. Just a day before the series started, the Dawgs were in Atlanta competing for the National Championship. If ever there was a game that would be tough to get motivated to play this one was it for the Dawgs. Of course that wasn't the case for Shennanigans as they found the timing perfect.

In game one, it was Jerry Thomes against Steve Mills. Both pitchers had good stuff and kept the batters guessing throughout the game. Thomes and the Dawgs would build a 5-4 lead and would eventually hold on for the victory.

In game two, Shenanigan's hopes rested on hard throwing right handed pitcher Jimmy Pinkston. The Dawgs countered with their own flamethrower in lefty Nick French. Many observers felt this would be a classic pitcher's dual but they would be proven wrong.

The Dawgs got to Pinkston early and took a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the second inning. But Shenanigan's answered back in the home half of the inning with five straight singles and four runs cutting the lead to 6-4.

Shenanigan's would draw closer with a run in the fourth making it 6-5 but the Dawgs got some timely hits and distanced themselves with three runs in the fifth, 9-5.

Again it was Shennanigans who wouldn't go away and fought back with single runs in the fifth and sixth innings making it, 9-7. Luis Colon helped the cause with a big two out RBI hit in the sixth.

The Dawgs added an insurance run in the seventh to take a 10-7 lead and were looking to go up 2-0 in the series. It was the last call for Shennanigans and with one out Danny Nash got things started with a triple down the right field line. Joe Cavaleri and Brian Pacheco followed with singles making it a 10-8 game. With the tying runner on first base, left handed batter Dave Conti stepped into the box looking to keep the rally going. Conti did more than that as he ripped a 2-1 French offering to deep right center field and then scampered around the bases for a 3-run walk off homerun, 11-10 Shennanigans. The series was now tied at 1-1 with the pivotal game three just 24 hours away.

In game three, Shennanigans was doing everything right and built a 7-0 lead through the first three innings of play. However, Jerry Thomes (6 K's) and the Dawgs would battle back and take it away with a dramatic two-run homerun by Mike Hoadley (4 hits, 2 RBI) in the bottom of the seventh inning.

With the hangover from game three's loss still freshly etched in their minds, Shennanigans took the field in a must win situation. The Dawgs played another superb game and cruised to a 6-2 victory behind the stellar pitching of Jerry Thomes. The veteran righty scattered seven hits while picking up four strikeouts to earn his fifth playoff win. It was now on to the finals.

With all of the accolades going to the Dawgs, it would be unfair not to write about the season that the Boston Beer Garden just completed. Although they were swept in the finals, Coach Pete Hourihan and his troops enjoyed its most successful campaign to date. Their record during the regular season was good enough to earn them second place in the division and a first round bye. However, most league observers felt that they would be bounced from the playoffs by last year's finalist, Shamrock Pub, who they faced in the quarter finals.

They stumbled in the series opener by falling behind 7-0 after just three innings of play. However, they picked themselves up and rallied from the dead to tie the game and set the tone for the rest of their playoffs - they were not going to give up or go away easily. They eventually lost that first game, 9-7 but learned that they could compete against the top teams in the division. Game two was a completely different story as it was the Beer Garden who jumped out to the early lead and would hold on for the 10-4 series tying victory behind a great pitching performance by Keith Zewiey.

In the series finale, it was the Beer Garden that kept the momentum and stepped up their play by scoring six runs in the bottom of the first inning. With Zewiey picking up where he left off in game two, the Shamrock Pub couldn't recover from the early inning deficit and ended their season quietly with an 8-2 loss.

The Beer Garden was now set to face the team that had the best overall record in the league, the Sidewalk Café in a best of five semi-final. After a scoreless first inning, the Beer Garden's offense erupted with eight runs in the second. Sidewalk would make the game respectable with a big seventh inning but the rally would come up short and game one was in the books, 11-8 Beer Garden.

In game two, the Beer Garden built an early lead (8-2) only to watch the Sidewalk Café rally to tie the game in the sixth. However, they wouldn't be denied as they scored the game winning run on some aggressive base running by Dennis Toner and were in control of the series.

With Sidewalk facing elimination, they would throw everything they had at the Beer Garden and for six innings the plan was working well. However, things would dramatically change in the seventh. With Sidewalk leading the game 8-5 and two outs and nobody on base, the Beer Garden rallied for six runs to take an 11-8 lead. Pitcher Keith Zewiey took it from there and the Beer Garden completed the series with a thrilling come from behind victory. It was on to the finals.

The Fall League got underway with ten teams competing in the first annual five week semi season. Games are played on the N Street field on Monday and Tuesday nights and on the M Street field on Wednesday and Thursday night. All games start at 6:30pm. Paul Turner is usually in attendance and can find you a nice seat to watch the games from our beautiful stands.

In closing, we would like to extend a "thank you" to all of the coaches and players who participated in the league this year. Coaches, your hard work in organizing a team doesn't go unnoticed at this address. Another much deserved "thank you" goes to Chuck Allen and his crew of umpires (Chuck Feltch, Earl Garrett, Bobby Hendricks, and Mike Lydon) for another great year of service calling our games. Thank you to Steve Forcillo and his grounds keeping crew from the Boston Parks and Recreation department. And also to Billy Catizone, who was responsible for trimming our trees in the outfield. And lastly, a special "thank you" goes out to the neighbors of M Street Park who put up with us playing ball in their front yard all summer long.