Summer turns around as Softball hits full swing

Well after a rough start to the summer things started to turn around this week. Both my Wisconsin Dells league and Mauston league started and we finally were back on the tournament circuit for softball.

The week began with our very first Dells league game which was pretty exciting because this was the first time that a lot of us had played together. We got a good draw with a game against Marley's who will probably finish towards the bottom of the league. We jumped out early and never looked back and cruised to a 15-0 win. I went 2-4 with two pop outs, a single, and a double. Marleys was only able to manage two hits, one of which was questionable. I tried to watch as much as I could of the games and will do my best two make a pick for where everyone in the league will finish. There are 12 teams in the league so some teams are guesses or are based on what others have told me.

Conteders
Stroede Bros- Won 9-1 and have a good amount of guys from my tournament team.
Moosejaw- Didn't see them play but, have heard their always towards the top of the league.
Knuckleheads- Lost in 10 innings but, are a young athletic team that should win a decent amount of games.
Sandbar- Last years champs that beat Knuckleheads.
Mt Olympus- Gotta put our own team and we did put up the most runs of the night.

Middle of the Pack
Scott Construction- Didn't see them play but, they have some big hitters and some guys that have played a decent amount of ball.
Edge O Dells- Lots of young guys that can hit the ball. Won their first game but, their D is suspect.
Monks- Lost their first game to Edge O Dells but, they have a lot of guys that have played a ton of ball and should rebound and give a lot of teams some trouble.
Ducks- Won their first game and were winning 9-3 when I left but, have a lot of players and a good portion of them haven't played a lot of ball.

Bottom Dwellers
Wilderness- Didn't see them play but, heard they lost 9-1 and that they weren't too good.
Royal Excavating- Lost their first game and didn't look to impressive.
Marleys- Lets just say that they are in for a long year.

Well did my best with that. May be off a bit but, in just seeing bits and pieces of games I think I did a pretty good job.

Mauston league was Wednesday night and game one we won 14-0 or their about, scoring 10 runs in the first inning and relaxing the rest of the way. We were playing Randalls who just couldn't get anything going and their pitcher served some up. I went 2-3 in the game with two home runs, a walk, and a nice little strike out. Game two was against a young Dream Sports team who we beat 12-2, with both of their runs coming in the last inning. This game I went 2-3 with two triples, a walk, and a deep fly out. The league only has five teams, so I got a chance to see all the teams and feel I can make a pretty decent prediction.

1. Harmony- Won the tournament last year and are even more stacked as they added a couple guys from Harmony 2 who were unable to put a team together.
2. Anjeros- My team won the regular season title last year but, fell to Harmony in the championship and will be missing arguably are best player from last year.
3. Randalls- Has a few players that have played a decent amount of softball and should be able to beat the bottom two teams.
4. Dream Sporst- Bunch of young guys that just haven't played enough softball.
5. Wonderlys- Not a lot of experience on this team and will probably struggle to win a game.

Thursday night was baseball night again which meant another loss for the Dells. We hung with Plain but, just couldn't get the big hit as we fell 4-1. We had a runner thrown out at home and twice had runners on third and couldn't bring them in. We looked decent though and hit the ball fairly well but, just couldn't get the runners across the plate. If we continue to improve we should win a few games in the near future.

This past weekend was a tournament down in Hub City. The tournament ended up getting rained out but, we did manage to get a couple games in before the tournament was called. Game one was against a young O'Finley's team from the Cazanovia area. They jumped on us early as we started out slow and found ourselves in a hole. We managed to tie the game up at 11 a piece before we blew up for 14 runs in the 6th inning. The O'Finley's team got down on themselves and just couldn't turn things around. Game two was against Bensons who we've seen many times before. This game had a couple rain interruptions and involved us playing defense in the pouring rain and with Bensons scoring six runs with only hitting a couple balls out of the infield. We were able to get five runs and then another two when the rain started to give us an early 7-0 lead and then were able to hang on for a water logged win of 17-14.

Tomorrow I'll try to do my best to rank the top teams that I've seen this year. It will be a little difficult because I don't usually see entire games and it makes a difference if your playing a good team or a not so good team.