Regular Season Comes to a Close

RMSA DIAMOND DUST, Week 13 (July 25 – July 31, 2010)
By Mike Kohli, RMSA Board Member

[RMSA Diamond Dust is a weekly synopsis of action in the Rome Men's Softball Association. It will spotlight feature games and stand-out players from each week's games]

RMSA completed regular season play this week with the competition fierce for the final automatic playoff bid in the Sunday Community League. The B-52s, holding the head-to-head advantage over Taylor Construction, needed a win and a Taylor loss to a tough Don's Auto squad to slip into the fourth place position.

With both teams playing at the same time, there was some obvious "scoreboard watching" occurring between the fields. The B-52s faced Ace Hardware on field two. B-52s began the scoring in the top of the first when Dan Jones, who finished four for four, doubled in Mike Noonan and Henry Simmons. Ace responded in their half of the second, tying it up on RBI singles from Matt Bloomfield and Pat Doherty. Doherty had three hits on the night.

The game remained close throughout with B-52s taking a 6-5 lead heading into the last inning. B-52s exploded for eight runs in the seventh and won 14-6. Simmons blasted a three-run in the inning to break open the game for B-52s and off to field one to watch the completion of the Don's Auto-Taylor Construction game.

The Taylor-Don's game remained close throughout. Up 6-4 heading into the home half of the fourth, Don's Auto's Mike Dominic smacked a two-run double to help score four runs and take a 10-4 lead. Taylor answered in their next at-bat, scoring four of their own to get back into the game. Lou Amberg provided the big blow for Taylor in the fifth, scoring three runs on double to left center field. Unfortunately for Taylor, they were unable to score any more the rest of the way and lost 17-8, allowing the B-52s to slip into the final playoff spot.

Taylor will now look to gain entry into the RMSA City Championship through either a Wild Card bid or by winning the Community League Play-In Tourney next Sunday at Haselton-Wright.

With all four automatic bids locked up in the Monday Burt Smith League last week, all that was left for the remaining team to play for were seeds in the Play-In Tournament. Brew Crew knocked off Rhine Haus/Slices 13-6, to take the third seed from the Smith League while Rhine Haus/Slices will take the number one seed into next week's play-in tournament, where they will face the 1-9 Wal-Mart Titans.

Twelve of the sixteen RMSA City Championship Tournament teams have been determined. The remaining teams will punch their tickets through individual Play-In Tournaments for each league beginning Thursday. In addition, a fourth team will be chosen as a Wild Card team.

The annual double-elimination RMSA City Championship Tournament is scheduled to begin play on Thursday August 12, with all sixteen teams in action. Play will continue with loser's bracket games beginning at 9:00 am on Saturday the 14th, culminating with the final on Sunday the 15th at approximately 4:00.

You can contact the Rome Mens Softball Association at info@romemenssoftball.org.