2012 KVKL Tournament Opening Rounds in Review

The post season KVKL tournament always provides an atmosphere unlike any other felt throughout the course of the year.  Every team’s slate is wiped clean and there is a chance for glory at the end of the journey.  Then the games begin and one by one teams are eliminated.  This year, however, there is a shot at redemption not only for teams who lost their first round games, but also for winners of round one who lost round two; pretty bad ass.  That means more teams than ever will continue playing into the second weekend of tournament play.

The first round of the tournament went completely chalk, so no real surprises there.  The only close games (at least by score) seemed to be the #16 seeded Corksuckers holding off #17 Liberty Hall for a one run victory, and that is the closest seeded game in the tournament.  The other two close games both looked to have been two run victories: Screamers over the Ghosts 10-8 and the Shaolin Shadowboxers defeating Channel 6 News 11-9.

From there, teams were separated into the Fully Awesome Bracket and the Less Awesome Bracket.  Winner from the Less Awesome bracket will continue to play a single elimination tournament to find out who is truly the Least Awesome team.  At stake is 17th place overall and the coveted commemorative Princess Diana plate.

As for the Fully Awesome bracket there have been a couple of changes this season.  The losers of Round two in this bracket will continue playing on for the newly formed Reasonably Awesome Bracket, and play on into the second and third weekend of the tournament (single elimination style) for the overall 9th place trophy, which to my understanding is still yet to be decided upon.  What glorious tangible piece of merchandise is a middle ground between an aluminum rusty cup and a commemorative plate?  Only time will tell.

ROUND 2: Fully Awesome Bracket

As for the games in Round 2, the scores were definitely a lot closer.  The closest seeded game played, the #8 Los Matadores vs. the #9 Hurtz Donuts, was a rematch of the week 11 GOTW, and it went into extra innings this time before finally being decided by one run with Los Matadores coming out on top 15-14.  I wish I could have seen that game.  It sounds like it was a goodie.

#7 Wildman held off the #10 Screamers, winning 13-7 in what I heard was quite an argumentative contest.  Not totally sure what happened there, but it sounded a bit heated.

I caught the second half of the #6 Das Boot vs. #11 Sacred Sword game.  This was a rematch of a great game earlier this season where Das Boot came from behind to pull off a one run win.  When I showed up to this game on Sunday it was a two run game and I don’t think it ever got any larger than that.  For the final stages of the game it was a one run Das Boot lead and the final was the same, with Boot winning 10-9.  This game was very competitive and you could feel the intensity from both sides in the later stages of the game.

The #5 Goats were upset by #12 Party!! on Sunday as well.  I have no idea what happened in this game but I’d love to hear how Party!! pulled off the upset.  Congrats to those guys and gals for surviving opening weekend as the #12 seed.  This is probably about as close as we’ll see to a Cinderella story in kickball.

#4 Chalmersiz cruised to an easy win against #13 Slowride winning 18-7.

#3 Love Garden took down the Shaolin Shadowboxers 13-5 at Holcom.

#2 Barracudas had a very competitive matchup against #15 Red Lyon, a rematch of a second round matchup from a year ago in post season play.  I said it before and I’ll say it again, when Red Lyon holds off on the serious drinking and comes to play they are capable of beating nearly anybody.  This game was back and forth for about 6 or 7 innings before the Barracudas finally got out to a six run lead in the top of the 9th and were able to keep the fleet-footed Red Lyon lineup at bay to close out the win.

#1 Pita Pit dismantled the #16 Corksuckers 21-2 as they continue their push through the tournament as the overall favorite.

Round 2: Less Awesome Bracket

All of the games in the less awesome bracket went according to chalk with the exception of #28 Tellerdactyls putting on a clinic against #21 West Coast Saloon.  The Tellerdactyls must have been playing some inspired kickball as they ran away with the game, winning 13-2.  What a glorious send off for Jake Wilson who is moving on to greener pastures elsewhere in the country.  You will be missed Mr. Wilson.

It looks like Spacepussy put up a good fight against Free State as well, only losing by 4 runs, 12-8.

Liberty Hall is still alive in their attempt to defend the Princess Di trophy after a 15-10 win over the Bald Beavers.

I’m sure there are plenty of other stories and interesting things I missed this week.  It’s hard to keep up with everything going on when there is so much kickball going on at some many locations all in one Sunday evening.  If you have any additional input please feel free to chime in.

If you’re at all like me I’ve been stiff as ever after playing two games this past Sunday.  With any luck I’ll get the same opportunity this coming Sunday.  I’m sure everyone else feels the same way.  Rest up and keep those muscles good and stretched out.

KM