The Dog Bowl

Well, the Bulldogs had a rough go at the playoffs on Friday night.  In game one, their bats were slow and their defense was suspect, but they were able to pull out a victory in the final inning, against Dasbach.  But as the Bulldogs season goes, it wouldn’t be a game without a bit of controversy to go with it.

In the sixth inning, Chris Koelbel came up to the plate and tried stretching a single in to a double and was called out on a high tag.  As Nelson Rivera went out to argue the call with the umpire, Brandon Aiken of the Bulldogs, was cited for swearing on the bench by the Bolingbrook Park District representative on site.  This individual brought it to the attention of the umpire and the Bulldogs were charged with a 3rd out to end the inning.  The Bulldogs really became upset when they found out the curse word was “that sucked”.  The Bulldogs were able to re-group, however, and win the game in the bottom of the 7th inning.

In the nightcap, the Bulldogs faced off against Tailgators (aka Peanut Buttery & Jelly or PB & J).  PB&J was able to put the cap on their semi-final game which ran into extra innings and beat Aftershock to go to the final game against the Bulldogs.

Not without excitement both teams played great defense and both teams put up a ton of runs, but the Bulldogs ran out of time in the bottom of the 6th, as the second controversial event of the evening occurred.  The Bulldogs, who had the opportunity to close the door on PB&J in the bottom of the 5th, left two men stranded.  Going in to the top of the 6th, the Bulldogs were up by 10-runs (17-7), but then PB&J opened the flood gates, putting up 15 runs to take the lead 22-17.  Just before the Bulldogs were about to take the plate in the bottom half of the 6th, the umpires advised both teams that inning would be the last and he was going to call the game on time.

Obviously this caused another round of arguments regarding the timing of the umpires decision.  Nelson Rivera felt that the umpire should have announced the “last inning” at the beginning of the 6th, as opposed to right before their last at bats.  When Nelson consulted the Bolingbrook Parks rep on site, he agreed but wasn’t compelled to overrule the umpires on the field.  This didn’t sit well with the Bulldogs, since earlier in the first game, the BBPD representative was so vocal about the “cursing incident”.

The Bulldogs brought four to the plate in the bottom half of the 6th, but were unable to produce a run to regain the lead.

When Brandon Aiken was asked to comment after the game he replied by saying, “That Sucked!”

Obviously emotions were riding high on the playoff games, but this doesn’t diminish the success that the Bulldogs achieved this Summer going 13-1 and taking 1st place in the regular season.  It just “sucked” that they weren’t able to cap the season off with a Playoff Championship, as well.

Well the first round of playoffs are in the books.  The results have been posted to the Bolingbrook Park Districts Web site and the Bulldogs will be taking on Dasbach this Friday night in the semi-final round of the 2007 Summer Playoffs.

Dasbach (10-4) beat the Misfits (9-5) in the 1st round of the playoffs by a score of 12 to 1.  Based on the brackets that were posted late last week, the Bulldogs would play the winner of this game.

Tailgaters (12-2) took on the Southside Hitmen (9-5) in the first round and won by a score of 7-3.  Tailgaters, who slipped to 3rd place after dropping their game to Aftershock on July 27, will be looking for payback.  They will be squaring off against Aftershock (12-2) in the semi-finals this Friday.

As you may know, Bolingbrook Park District had changed the playoff schedule so that all games would be on Friday, August 3.  We had an issue with this and addressed it with Chris Corbett of the Bolingbrook Park District.

The primary reason for the change was due to the pending USSSA State Championship tournament on Aug 10-12.  One of the other teams who will be taking place in this tournament was trying to be proactive on the behalf of all the teams in Bolingbrook that would be taking part in the USSSA tournament that weekend.  This includes Tailgaters, PB&J, Aftershock and the players on the Bulldogs Softball Club that play for Adobo.

Without getting into details about what was discussed, bottom line is that we are back on with the original schedule of the first round on Friday, August 3 and the semi and final rounds on Friday, August 10.  This came out as a result of a conversation that Chris had with Mark Pawlowski (Director of the USSSA State Championship tourney) who guaranteed that none of the teams from Bolingbrook would play on Friday evening.

It’s the opinion of the Bulldogs Softball Club that the schedule shouldn’t have been changed in the first place, regardless of the USSSA schedule.  We feel that all schedule changes should be done with at least 2-weeks notice if not longer and with the consent of all owners, not just a subset.  The USSSA schedule is put out at the beginning of the year and both the Bolingbrook Park District and the teams which participate in these tournaments, could have (and should have) cross-referenced the schedules at an earlier date.

In the future, to avoid any of these conflicts, the Bulldogs will do a better job of working with Milo Phelps (Manager of Adobo Softball) to better understand the tournament schedule, to ensure that we do not have this type of conflict in the future.

The truth of the matter is that either night would not have been optimal for the Bulldogs and we, also,  would have preferred a single night tournament.  However, the schedule was set and we had additional individuals who made plans for this up coming weekend due to the bye that we earned for Friday, August 3.

Chris Corbett is new to the Bolingbrook Park District this year and this was a learning lesson for him, as well as ourselves.  He was not aware, as to how many teams in our league actually played tournament softball.  Chris will be sure to double-check these situations in all future seasons.

In addition, we feel that Chris understands our point of not being excluded from major decisions regarding the format, scheduling or any changes in our league.  The Bulldogs Softball Club is of the opinion that all teams should have an equal voice in all issues and decisions.  We will continue to work with the Bolingbrook Park District and Chris Corbett to ensure the integrity and quality of the Bolingbrook Softball league.  We appreciate Chris’ commitment to dealing with all issues that arise and know that he is committed to working with all teams to make this league a success.

Bulldogs Management

The Bulldogs Softball Club capped their 2007 season by taking two games Friday night.  The Bulldogs only needed one win to secure 2nd place with a chance at 1st place.  However, the Dogs would have required Tailgaters to lose at least one game Friday in order for only one win to clinch first place for the Dogs.  So instead, the Dogs decided to take matters in to their own hands and put up the two victories which guaranteed them 1st Place in the regular season regardless of the outcome of the games going on at Remington Lakes sports complex.

The Bulldogs played the Cardinals in the first game of the night.  The Bulldogs were the visiting team and didn’t waste any time putting runs on the board.  The Dogs jumped to an 11-1 lead after two innings.  Backed by a stellar pitching performance and great defense, the Dogs went on to win 15-1.

The victory in the first game secured a 2nd place finish for the Bulldogs Softball Club, but the only way to guarantee a 1st place finish was to win out the evening.  The Dogs had a rough start in the 2nd game only putting up 1-run in the first two innings.  Going in to the 3rd inning with a 1-1 score, the Bulldogs got their second wind, putting up 11 runs in the 3rd & 4th innings combined.  John Kontek, who put up 5-RBI’s in the first game, put up another 3-RBI’s in the night cap.  Brandon Aikens continued his hot hitting going 3 for 3 with 3 RBI’s in the night cap.  This brought his total to 6 for 7 for the night.

Sean Killham had a stellar night on the mound, only giving up one walk all evening.  Sean has been pitching strikes all season and helping to keep the Bulldogs in every game.  In addition,the Bulldogs played great defense last night, capped by an ESPN-highlight-reel play by Jeff McMahon in the night cap.  Jeff, who was playing right field, laid-out for  a line drive in right field making an unbelievable out.

The Bulldogs have relied heavily on good defensive plays over the past couple of weeks, as last week, Jim Janetopolous saved the win last week against Aftershock with an amazing stop at 3B to end the game.

The Bulldogs hope to keep their pitching and defense working for them as they head in to the playoffs.  Securing first place, they’ll have a bye in the first round and a week off.  They will resume play on August 10 as they play for the 2007 Playoff Championships!

Summer League Play Offs:

I spoke with Chris Corbett of the Bolingbrook Park District today. Here is the low-down on the up and coming playoffs.

So this means that we need to be prepared to play on August 3 and 10. If we are able to secure 1st or 2nd place this week or next, we will not have to play on August 3, as this will be just the first round of games.

We already know that Kenny will not be able to make August 3 & 10, due to unexpected travel with his new job. Please make sure to congratulate Kenny on his new position and wish him the best of luck.

We also know that Milo will not be available on August 10 due to company travel, as well.

This means that come August 10, we’ll be down to 10 full-time ballplayers. We will be leveraging our subs list for August 10.

If you know of any conflicts for any of the remaining weeks, please send me an e-mail.

Fall Ball Update:

As we had posted about previously, the Fall League is creeping up on us. We are already in the planning stages with the budget and night we will play.

Talking with Chris Corbett, his plan is to use an 80/20 rule in determining what league your team will be placed. The idea is that if your team wins 80% of your games or more, you will be bumped (regardless of what place you are in) to the A-League in the very next season. Likewise, if your team should only win 20% of their games in the A-League, he will give those teams the option of moving down to the B-League.

Right now, we have the option of playing either Thursday or Friday nights. We will be polling the following:

We will have a full squad tonight, so please start thinking about your answers now. We will begin gathering this information from you this evening and over the next week.

If anyone has any suggestions or comments about how we have run the team, uniforms, type of equipment we should look into (i.e. bats, hats, jackets, etc.), please share it with us. We will take all suggestions under advisement.

Here’s the updated schedule with results. We’re currently 3-1 with 74 runs scored vs 49 runs scored by our opponents.

Our next games are tonight against Ball Slappers and Hussman Brawlers.

1. 4/27/07 at 7:30 pm: at Southside Hitmen (Central Park) - Rained Out
2. 5/4/07 at 6:30 pm: at Cardinals (Central Park) - Won (17-16)
3. 5/11/07 at 8:30 pm: vs Tailgaters (Central Park) - Won (20-19)
4. 5/18/07 at 8:30 pm: vs Lincoln Mutual (Central Park) - Won (28-4)
5. 5/25/07: No Games - Memorial Day
6. 6/1/07 at 9:30 pm: vs Southside Hitmen (Remington West) - Loss (10-9)
7. 6/8/07 at 6:30 pm: at Ball Slappers (Remington West)
8. 6/8/07 at 6:30 pm: at Hussman Brawlers (Remington West)
9. 6/15/07 at 8:30 pm: vs Ronin Risk (Central Park)
10. 6/22/07 at 6:30 pm: vs Dasbach (Central Park)
11. 6/29/07 at 7:30 pm: at Ronin Risk (Remington West)
12. 7/6/07 at 6:30 pm: at Lincoln Mutual (Remington West)
13. 7/13/07 at 8:30 pm: vs Sojourners (Remington West)
14. 7/20/07 at 8:30 pm: at Fury (Central Park)
15. 7/27/07 at 7:30 pm: at Cardinals (Central Park)
16. 7/27/07 at 8:30 pm: vs Misfits (Central Park)