It’s been a long time, but the Adjusters are once again champions of the Sun City Softball League 16-inch postseason tournament.
In a tense battle, the Adjusters took home the title with a 5-4 victory over the Lumbarjacks. The champs went 5-0 in the tourney, winning it for the first time since 2014.
“We jelled at the right time this season,” Adjusters manager Phil Tarrant said. “It went down to the final inning and we scored a run in the eighth for a 5-4 lead. We didn’t have a lot of hits, but we were able to get them at the right time when we really needed them.”
Bob Banks had the key RBI hit for the lead, and John Toth was the winning pitcher for the team. The champs were 8-8 regular season before their unbeaten tournament run.
So congratulations to the team members, the Adjusters, also: Don Grex, Joe Jablonski, Paul Townsend, John Garland, Dan Vitale, Mike Grantham, Roger Lambert, Mike Gaynor, Jesse Rosas, Mike Netkow, Dave O’Neil, Ed Leukulich, Bob Ruckoldt, Larry Bunge, Newell Chiesel and Gary Struck.
The Adjusters won the first game of the championship series with the Lumbarjacks 4-2 Sept. 10.
The Lumbarjacks won the regular season title in the 16-inch evening league with a 14-2 record.
“Winning the league and finishing second in the tournament is still a great accomplishment to cap off two great seasons,” Lumbarjacks manager Joe Gattone said.
The Lumbarjacks were a combined 18-5 a year ago, so 37-9 total over two seasons.
“The Adjusters got the better of us in the championship series,” Gattone said. “We hit the ball hard many times, but right at them. They are a great team, too, congrats to the Adjusters. Seeing a team of dedicated players who give 110 percent on the field and the Lumbarjacks that I had the privilege of managing, and more importantly, these guys are all phenomenal people. I will miss the camaraderie, since the redraft of the entire leaguer will most likely be occurring next season.”
The tournament games were all a challenge for the Adjusters, who had to overcome an 11-3 deficit to the Coyotes for a 15-14 win. They also beat the Mustangs, 5-4 and Capitals, 3-2.
“It was a great game by both teams,” Tarrant said of the 15-14 win. “We scored a couple of runs to make it 11-5, then 11-7 and got it to 11-11 after nine innings. They went up 12-11, but we tied it in or half of the 10th. They scored two runs in the 11th, but somehow we got three runs in the 11th.”
Tarrant spoke triumphantly about the former curse.
“We broke our curse. We haven’t gotten past the second round of the tournament in 12 years. We just jelled (late in the season).”
Lumbarjacks advance
Some other exciting tournament games included, on Sept, 4, down 6-5, a three-run double by Jeff Spiller and subsequent errors scored Don Wickersheim and Bill Russell, who had singled ahead of him in the bottom of the eighth inning for an 8-6 lead over the Travelers. They added another run for a 9-6 win over the Travelers. The Travelers did not score in the top of the ninth inning, so the defending tournament champs Lumbarjacks moved on to a consolation title game against the Coyotes Sept. 8, which they won 5-4.
The Lumbarjacks trailed the Travelers by 6-1 after three innings before scoring four runs in the sixth inning. Wickersheim, Spiller and Pete Kilolbasa had RBI singles in the comeback.
Gattone summed up the game.
“As far as the entire tournament goes, I don’t feel we’ve played as well as we are capable of playing,” he said. “But we have done what it takes to win, other players picking up the team if one or two others were having a down day. That’s been our theme. No one person can mean everything in a victory or a defeat. It’s always a team effort. Our defense is usually pretty solid in most games, but our hitting could definitely be more consistent like it was through the regular season, which is a large reason we finished first with a 14-2 record. As I said before, every team in this league can be a threat on any given day. Game by game, one inning and one at bat at a time. That’s how we roll.”
