The first game of the tourney was against the local team Leicester Knights, who incidentally was the last game the Misfits had played in the league prior to the tournament winning 14-6 and the form continued as The Misfits opened their account at Labour Day with a 11-4 win. The shining moment in the game came from second basewoman Kat Peters who hit her first Home Run at a tournament. The second game of the day saw the team play against another local team The Pyros who had beaten the Misfits in the Finals at Leeds but the team, now stronger and wiser from the beginning of the season, did not let history repeat itself and won convincingly 16-5.

 

With two wins under their belt The Misfits coach decided it was time to expose a new pitcher to the pressures of tournament play (who had been undergoing recent practise sessions) and called upon Kat Peters to pitch a few innings. After a couple of nervy innings Kat settled into her stride and managed a few plays at one a fly out and her first "strike out" The Game ended 7-7 (although the team were actually ahead 12-7 but ran out of time so the it reverted back to the last full innings) which was an impressive result considering the new pitcher actually pitched the whole game. Home runs for Dave Cartwright, Sherry Kenyon and Kierum Bailey were also highlights of the game

 

The Misfits took on the Raiders from Manchester in their next game and the team were in no mood after missing out a win in the last game due to the count back and racked up runs in each innings to win the game comfortably 16-7 with Dave Cartwright and Nigel Peters adding to their Home Run tally's

 

The final game of Saturday saw the team matched against the Yorkshire Puddings from Leeds which was a tight game  with only 1 run splitting the teams for the first three innings until the bottom of the order turned the screw in the final innings with  Matt Lockwood, Kat Peters Jesus Gonzalas and Sherry Kenyon all scoring to win the game 12-7 and end Day 1 undefeated and top of their group.

 

Day two and The Misfits first game was against the winners of the other pool  MK Diamonds from Milton Keynes who are a very established and dangerous side and the team needed to be prepared. Unfortunatley, the team were ill prepared with 5 players arriving late due to a number of reasons and two ringers were brought in to fill the gap until they arrived. MK Diamonds showed their class early on by only allowing 1 run in the first Two innings but eventually after a few changes to the line up the team finally got going scoring 7 runs in the next inning. MK then shut the team out again and scored 3 runs to leave the team trailing 10-9. With two runners on Kat Peters came to the plate and hit to deep opposite field to drive in the winning runs and end the game 11-10....The Misfits remain UNDEFEATED!!! - Highlight of the game  to Paige Chudliegh who  hit her first EVER Home Run

 

The Next two games were against league opposition the first against the Alleycats which the team were 1 and 1 with in the league so a mini score to settle and the Misfits prevailed 11-5 The second against the Redbacks was an opportunity for the Misfits to gauge their skills against a team from the upper division of the league and ended being pleased with a comfortable 12-6 win. Unfortunately, the Daughter of Donna Bruce (Ella) sustained a nasty hit to the face from a wild throw after the game had finished causing a nasty bust nose and chipped tooth. But amazingly Ella showed her brave side ........with the help of cuddles from mum and a plate full of crepes with Nutella spread :-D

 

So with 8 games played and no losses the Misfits go into the semi finals as number 1 seeds for the tourney and gaining automatic home field advantage which saw them matched against the Redbacks AGAIN who finished fourth in the seedings. Worried about complacency the coach gave the team a pepp talk to play hard and dedicate the game to Ella and it seemed to work as the team had the most emphatic win of the Tournament winning 17-3 and booking their place into their third successive tournament!!!!!! highlights from the game included a trio of successive home runs with Nigel Peters Kat Peters and Dave Cartwright hitting one after each other ......IMPRESSIVE! 

 

The misfits came out the blocks flying for the final scoring 5 runs in the first innings with Dave Cartwright once again securing another Home Run but the team started to fade through the middle of the game allowing the Puddings to creep back into the game, However, Solid hitting from Amo suyat, Matt Lockwood and JC steady the ship and third time lucky The Misfits won the final 12-7 ( interestingly the same score line from when the two teams met earlier in the competition) Highlights from the game were Sherry Kenyon and Nigel Peters were also awarded MVPs for the Final.

 

A special mention to Matt Lockwood who in his first Tournament batted .857 and to Kat Peters and Paige Chudliegh  for hitting their first Home Runs and Andy Cartwright for stepping in at the final hour to EP (thanks to Kierum :-) and the rest of the Team for showing how awesome you all are.

 

#misfitswinthefinal