MONDAY, AUGUST 26 -- Last night, the #2 seed 10th & Willow Slingers squared off against the #1 seed Mission 50 in the Chris Davis Division Championship game at Mama Johnson Field.  These two teams met each other twice in the regular season splitting the games against one another.  What better way to have a rubber match between two explosive teams is by doing it in the championship game.

Both teams flashed the leather in the first 6 innings of the game, keeping hits at a minimum.  They each got into trouble in the 2^nd inning with runners on 1^st base and 2^nd base with no outs but did not panic, getting out of the jams without a run scored.

Going into the 3^rd inning, the Slingers had a 1 to 0 lead thanks to Jesse Daunno’s solo home run and looked to do more damage, but Mission 50’s 2^nd baseman Leah Minnick made a great snow cone catch running into shallow right field.  Mission 50 then took a 2 to 1 lead after 3 innings of great play from a 2 run homerun off the bat of Greg Bottita.

Mission 50 looked like they were going to take control of the game but the Slingers’ defense really stepped up in big moments.  In the bottom of the 4^th inning, Mission 50’s Jason Gurtman hit a line drive into center field but Drew Toresco made a great diving play to get the out.  In the bottom of 5^th inning Mission 50’s Mike Jamgotchian hit a shot up the middle but shortstop James Amadeo played the ball perfectly getting him out at first.  The defensive play of the night goes to Slingers’ left fielder Jesse Daunno who looked like Willie Mayes in the field, running back towards the fence and stealing an extra base hit off of a well hit ball from Mission 50’s Kaitlin Foley to prevent the lead from getting any further.

The Slingers were down 2 to 1 but Drew Toresco had some clutch hitting.  He tied the game up with an RBI double in the 4^th inning and gave his team a 3 to 2 lead in the 6^th inning with a RBI single.

The Slingers led the Chris Davis Division with runs scored and put up 19 runs in their previous game.  Mission 50 did a great job containing their offense in the first 6 innings of the game but the Slingers’ bats broke through.  They put up 5 runs in the 7^th inning and 8 runs in the 8^th, blasting 3 consecutive Home Runs.  Jesse Daunno (his 2^nd of the night), Jason Orr, and Dom Howlett all went yard.  In the end, the Slingers defeated Mission Fifty 16 to 4.

The Slingers had a great summer season.  Team captain Jason Orr put together a team that has the will to win and understands how to play the game right.  The Slingers finished the season with a record of 8 and 2 and scored 112 runs while letting up 50 runs, but the only statistic that matters is they are the Chris Davis Division CHAMPIONS.  ABL wants to thank them for a great and entertaining summer season.