The Resurrection Life Warriors ran off 17 straight wins to start the 2009 campaign before dropping six of their final seven games to finish at 18-6 overall. The Bloomington Assembly of God tournament was a tough one for Rez, as the team stumbled to a 4th place finish in the A bracket, going just 1-5 on the day.
Things started badly in the morning when the Warriors played the first game with just nine players, as two regulars were unable to attend and the one sub showed up late. Rez played hard but its three-man outfield was exposed on the 300-foot fences as several flyballs ended up dropping in the grass. Real Life defeated Rez Life 22-12 in the game. Austin Colby provided much of the offensive punch, going 4-5 with two runs scored, six rbi and a three-run homer while earning Player of the Game honors. Eric Johnson, Jason Merritt and Jonathan Engbrecht all added three hits in the game. Jamy Antoine mashed a two-run homer in the sixth.
The game was never close as Real Life put up six runs in the first while the warriors were scoreless. Real Life added five in the second while Rez again went scoreless. Trailing 11-0, Rez had three runs in the third, using rbi-hits from Jason and Austin. The defense picked up the slack too, holding Real Life scoreless in both the third and fourth innings.
Rez chipped away a little more with two runs in the fourth on a two-out single from Austin, plating Jonathan and Jason. In the top of the fifth, Rez added one more using singles from Eric and Andy before a sacrifice fly from Jeff scored Eric. The run made it 11-6 but Real Life erupted for nine runs after two were out in the bottom to seal the game. Rez didn't give up, putting five runners home in the top of hte sixth. Jonathan doubled and moved to third on Jason's single. Austin mashed a three-run homer to make it 20-9. After an out, Eric singled and came home on Jamy's long homerun to deep center.
Real Life added two more in the bottom half and Rez didn't score in the seventh.
With a full ten players in the second game, Rez played much better defense but couldn't get the bats going consistently. The Warriors fell 15-12 against Life AG. In the top of the first, Rez scored seven runs using six hits and a walk. Austin, sub Ryan Norman, Eric, Jamy, Chris Burr, and Jeff Johnson all had hits. The team hit for the cycle as Jeff homered, Chris tripled, Jamy doubled and the rest of the hits were singles.
However, the big lead was short-lived as Life came back with five first inning runs and six second inning runs, while holding Rez scoreless to make it 11-7 Life.
Rez again went scoreless in the third, stranding singles from Chris and Jeff. Life put five more runs on the board to go up 15-7 after three innings. Rez did manage one run in the fourth as Adam Hey singled and later scored on an error. The team left runners on first and third with one out in that inning.
In the top of the fifth, Rez started with two singles, but the next three players flew out to end the inning. Trailing 15-8 going into the final inning, Rez made a game of it, pushing four runs across. With one out, Austin lasered his second homer of the day to right-center. Ryan singled and so did Eric. Jamy then launched his second homerun of the day, this one a three-run shot to center. That was all the fireworks the bats had though, as the game ended 15-12.
Jamy earned Player of the Game with two hits, two runs, four rbi, a double and a homerun. Austin and Chris each had three hits in the game.
Game three was more of the same, as Rez fell to 0-3 on the day as Waukesha won 20-13. The bats were solid, but not spectacular. Austin captured his second POG on the day with a 3-4 game with three runs, five rbi, a double, triple and homerun. Jonathan had his second three-hit game on the day too.
Waukesha scored three runs in the top of the first but Rez stormed back with four in the bottom half. Jason walked and scored on Austin's triple. Ryan singled home Austin and jogged home on Eric's two-run homer through the wind to left. Jamy singled to keept it going but the next three guys got out to end the inning.
Waukesha exploded for 11 runs in the second and took a 14-4 lead. However, Rez didn't roll over and came back with six of its own runs in the bottom half. Jonathan and Adam started things with singles. Jason drove home Jonathan with a single and Austin plated Adam and put runners at second and third with a double. Still no outs, Ryan knocked out a two-rbi single and moved to third on Eric's single. Eric advanced to second on the first baseman's error and again the Warriors had second and third with no outs. Jamy lofted a sac fly for the first out, making the score 14-9. Chris doubled home Eric to make it 14-10, but the next two batters flew out ending the threat.
Waukesha kept its foot on the gas, scoring four more to increase its lead back to eight, 18-10. Rez scored three runs in its half inning. Jonathan and Jason singled with one out and Austin crushed his third homer in three games to right field to make it 18-13.
Rez was unable to score anymore runs though and Waukesha tacked on a couple insurance runs to make the final score 20-13.
The 0-3 pool play showing put Rez in the six seed in the A bracket. The tournament was single elimination for the first round and then you played out your place if you made it to the second round. Rez had to face Life AG again in the first round but this time the Warriors came out victorious, 14-11. Austin again earned POG going a perfect 4-4 with a run scored and four rbi. He had two triples in the game and played a great shortstop with three assists and five putouts.
Rez started the game well again with nine first-inning runs. Austin, Jamy, Ryan, Chris, Eric, Jonathan, Jeff, Adam, Jason and Austin again ripped out the hits. Austin capped the scoring with a two-run two-out triple. Life scored three in the bottom half and held Rez scoreless in the second. Life put two more on the board to make it 9-5 after two innings.
Rez added to its lead with two runs in the third inning, using another two-run triple from Austin. Life was scoreless in the bottom half and Rez scored one run in the fourth on three singles from Ryan, Chris and Andy Briggs. Again, Life couldn't muster any offense and Rez pulled out to a 14-5 lead with two runs in the fifth. The team had four singles and one walk in the inning. Adam, Austin, Jamy and Chris had the singles and Ryan had the walk.
Life put another goose egg on the board and Rez entered the final inning with a nine-run lead. Unfortunately, the Warriors left two runners on base without scoring in the top half. That almost came back to bite them as Life put together a great inning, scoring six runs but a flyout to Chris in left-center ended the game with two runners on.
Adam had three hits in the game and Jonathan had three rbi and two hits.
Now in the semi-finals, Rez was back down to nine players as Ryan had to leave to make a prior engagement. Down a man in the field hurt the team again, but it was a close game until the last inning and Rez fell 18-12.
Real Life was Rez's opponent for the second time and Real came out wtih three in the first. Rez came right back and tied it after one as Jason led off with a single and moved to third on Austin's double. Jamy hit a sac fly and Eric hit an rbi-groundout. With no on, Chris singled and scored on Andy's double.
Real Life had a big second inning, plating five runs and taking advantage of two Rez Life errors. Rez pushed two across on a double from Austin and a single from Jamy. The Rez defense held strong in the top of the third and the offense responded wtih four runs to take the 9-8 lead. Andy singled and moved to second on Jeff's single. After a flyout moved the runners ahead, Andy scampered home on Adam's groundout. Jason kept the inning alive with an rbi-single to make it 8-7 and Austin hit the shot of the tournament, his fourth homerun on the day, a two-run bomb that cleared the 300-foot easily and landed well into the fescue on the hill.
Real Life didnt' score again and Rez added to its lead in the fourth, scoring two more runs. Chris reached on a one-out error and scored on Andy's rbi-triple. Jeff singled to score Andy and Jonathan singled to put two on with one out. That was all the offense the team could manage, as back-to-back hard-hit flyouts ended the inning.
Real Life woke up in the fifth and stormed back to take a 14-11 lead scoring six times on five hits and two errors. Rez responded with just one run on Jamy's high, solo homerun to left field. The sixth inning started with Rez down two. Real Life kept its offense going with four more runs and Rez left two on base in the sixth to end the game 18-12 Real Life.
Andy earned Player of the Game with a perfect 4-4 day including a double, triple and two runs and two rbi. Austin stayed hot with three more hits, two doubles and a homerun.
More bad news for the Warriors occurred going into the 3rd place game. Another team member had to leave for the day, leaving Rez with just eight, very tired players going into game six of the day. Thankfully, most of the 20+ fans left for that game as the Warriors had nothing for Riverdale and fell 29-9. The team managed just 11 hits, three from Austin and Andy, two from POG Adam, and one each from Jason, Eric and Chris.
Adam played catcher at the end of the long day and had extremely great chatter to go along with his two hits and four rbi en route to POG.
On the day, the Warriors hit below .500 as a team. Of the nine regulars who attended, seven hit below their season average with just Adam and Austin hitting above. Austin was the only Warrior to earn All-Tournament this year, hitting .800 with ten runs, 21 rbi, four doubles, three triples, and four homeruns. By default, his performance earned him Tournament MVP for the Warriors.
It was another fun, tiring day at the Bloomington tournament and I'm sure the Warriors will be back next year, looking to make a better impression.
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