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Dixie-Dudley-2 |
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May 20, 2000
South Boston Golden Corral Softball won the Dixie-Dudley NSA
Men’s Softball Tournament held in Petersburg, VA on May 20. Golden Corral went 6-1
and now leads the points race for the overall title after 2 of 3 tournaments in the
Dixie-Dudley series.
Golden Corral opened Saturday morning versus Mikey’s
Trucking from North Carolina. GC came out ready and rolled to an easy 17-6 slaughter-rule
victory in this one. Tuffy Eggleston paced GC with a 4 for 4 performance that included a
big fourth inning grand slam that blew the game wide open.
Next up for GC was CRUSH, who opened up strong with 7 runs in the first
inning to jump to a 7-1 lead. The Corral answered in the second, however, with 9 runs of
their own. After CRUSH led again briefly 12-11 after four innings complete, GC rolled up 6
more in the fifth and held off CRUSH by the final of 18-14. John Hudson was 4 for 4,
including a base-clearing triple in the fifth inning to lead the way. Rodney Mosley, Kevin
Neal, Eggleston, and Lee Womack added 3 hits apiece.
In the next game, Golden Corral met Spirit Graphics/Hooters from the
Richmond area. After falling behind in this one early by the score of 8-2, GC rallied in
the bottom of the third behind a 3-run blast from Neal to cut it to 8-6. Consecutive hits
in the fourth from Tony Conner, Kevin Henderson, Womack, and Kirk Barnes pushed across 3
more to tie it at 9-9. After giving up only 1 in the top of the sixth, GC rallied again
when it counted. A huge bases-loaded, pinch hit single from Tommy Crews put The Corral up
for good. Fine defense preserved the win in the seventh as the game ended when Neal snared
a hard line shot on the mound for the final out. GC wins it, 13-10. Lee Womack was 5 for 5
in the game.
This put Golden Corral into the undefeated game against Murphy’s
Law, a strong, veteran team. Although GC had soundly whipped this team twice just a few
weeks ago, Murphy’s was prepared to battle in this one. The Corral came out rolling
on a Scott Lester 3-run shot in the first. Murphy’s, however, answered in their half
of the inning with a 7-run inning for a 7-4 lead. GC, then, really got heated up.
Neal’s huge 3-run bomb got the team going in the third, and back-to-back hits from
Lester, Eggleston, Curtis Duffer, Conner, Barnes, JoJo Owens, and Cordell Jackson finished
up the big inning. It was more of the same in the fourth; this time Eggleston blasted one
after several more base-hits to give GC a commanding 24-10 lead. But this game was only
half over. A few rare miscues on defense opened the door for Murphy’s and they came
barreling through it. By the end of the fifth, the score was 29-28, Golden Corral. The
game went back and forth into extra innings, but with two outs in the eighth,
Murphy’s managed to push 1 more run across to win it 34-33.
That meant that Golden Corral had to win another game before they could
get back to play for the championship. In this game, they met the Rattlers from Hampton,
VA, who had gotten hot and were on a winning streak coming into this game. They showed why
as they reeled off 6 runs in the first and 2 more in the second before Golden Corral even
scored. Down by 8, GC got a big homer from Eggleston and base hits from Owens, Barnes,
Conner, and Crews to cut the lead in half. Then, with two outs in the third, GC took the
lead for good when Eggleston blasted another one out of the park and Barnes knocked in a
run with a double. The Corral added several more runs on timely base-hitting and held off
the Rattlers last attempted strike in the top of the seventh to win it 17-14. Despite all
the cheering the Rattlers received from the Murphy’s Law fellas, who did not want to
face The Corral again, they were unable to eliminate the South Boston team.
This time against Murphy’s, it was all Golden Corral. A 14-run top
of the first was enough to bury their opponents, but to make it official, the game had to
go at least three innings. So, needing only 1 run to end it in the bottom of the third,
Mosley singled and quickly moved around to score the game winner for an 18-3
slaughter-rule final.
Now it was down to a one game winner-take-all final. Murphy’s Law,
glad that the previous thrashing was over, came out hitting in this one. Golden Corral got
off to sluggish start and seemed to be running out of gas in their seventh game of the
day, but trailing 10-0 in the bottom of the third, things got interesting. Barnes walked
and Conner and Womack singled to load the bases for Crews, who hit a high grandslam into
the wind and rain. This sparked the offense, which scored 6 more times in the inning,
powered by big hits from Henderson, Mosley, Neal, Lester, Eggleston, Owens, Barnes, and a
big 3-run blast from Duffer. Then, as their namesake implies, things did begin to go wrong
for Murphy’s Law as they only managed 2 in the fourth, and GC took command with a
5-run fifth and a 4-run sixth, while displaying sharp defense to preserve the 21-12
victory and the championship. Neal was 4 for 4, Crews 3 for 3, and Henderson 2 for 2 in
the final game, while Lester, Duffer, Owens, Barnes, and Conner were all 3 for 4.
Tuffy Eggleston was the unanimous choice for MVP, batting .760 with
6 homeruns, while anchoring a 3-man outfield all day.
Team leaders: Tuffy Eggleston (.760, 6 HRs), Rodney Mosley
(.720), Kevin Neal (.704, 2 HRs), Lee Womack (.696),
Kirk Barnes (.682).