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Burlington, NC Results | |
|
Burlington, NC Results | |
April 22, 2000
This Easter Weekend Tournament started out all too similar to last
weekend's tournament. Another slow start put Golden Corral Softball in the hole
early again. In the first game Saturday morning, GC faced Ultimate Softball from
Selma, NC. Golden Corral seemed barely awake in this one and was on the losing end
of an 18-5 drubbing.
Next up for The Corral was Morris Painting out of Eden, NC.
Another slow start by GC was offset by an equally poor showing from Morris. Golden
Corral finally got on track a bit in the third behind consecutive hits from Tommy Crews,
Charles Womack, JoJo Owens, John Hudson, Matt Hunt, and Kevin Neal. RBI singles from
Rodney Mosley and Tony Conner capped off the 6-run inning. Very little run
production from Morris Painting made this an easy one for The Corral, even though the bats
had not heated up yet. GC cruised in this one to a 15-5 victory.
***These low-scoring games were indicative of the entire day from all
the teams in the upper bracket as an extremely hard wind was blowing right into the
batters' faces all day long. Nearly anything hit toward the gaps stayed up long
enough to be caught and several balls were crushed...only to fall short due to the
constant, nearly gale-force winds. This was the case for all the teams in this
bracket...but, I digress...***
Golden Corral, then, met longtime powerhouse Superior Paint from
Winston Salem, NC. Both lit it up offensively (haha) as GC squeaked out a 7-6
win. Hudson, Hunt, Neal, Tuffy Eggleston, and Kirk Barnes all chipped in 2 for 3
efforts.
Morris Painting, at this point in the day, was prepared to take on GC again. After
blanking the Painters in the top of the first, Owens, Hudson, Neal, Curtis Duffer,
Eggleston, Barnes, and Lee Womack all hit safely to push 6 runs across. Consistent
scoring by Morris, however, brought them back into it, and heading into the bottom of the
sixth, Golden Corral found themselves down 17-11. Lee Womack, Crews, and Charles
Womack singled, and then with one out, Hudson, Hunt, and Neal also hit safely in
succession and were followed by a base-clearing triple from Duffer. After the RBI
single from Mosley, GC had retaken the lead. The game would go into extra innings
and GC would again find themselves down in the bottom half of their inning. This
time, GC was down 4 with two outs, and nobody on base in the bottom of the eighth.
Under pressure, Hudson, Hunt, and Neal hit safely again and were followed by a Duffer
double, and again, Mosley came through with a single. This time, tying the
game. After a couple of failed opportunities to finally win it, GC took advantage,
as Hunt drove in the game winner to end the marathon game with Golden Corral on top,
24-23.
This sent Golden Corral into a 1-game, winner-take-all championship
game versus Ultimate Softball. This was to be another low-scoring affair, as awesome
defensive gems were turned in from Crews on third, Owens at shortshop, and Eggleston in
center...just to name a few. Ultimate played solidly, as well, on the defensive
end. Neither team generated much offense, but GC held a slim lead most of the game,
until Ultimate strung some hits together to go ahead in the bottom of the sixth. GC
managed but one base runner in the seventh and fell by 1 run.
Team Leader: Tuffy Eggleston managed a .667 average on this VERY "batter-unfriendly" weekend, and John Hudson batted .619.