2012 Santa Fe Springs II Tournament

MACABBI USA MAKES IT TWO IN A ROW!

The fifth tournament of the year was held in Santa Fe Springs with just about perfect weather.  Temperatures were in the high 70's and a slight breeze made for two great days of ball.  There were 13 teams in the tournament, the largest one outside of Las Vegas since 2008, to compete to see who would be the champs at the end.

A first for the SCIFL, and no one was able to remember if it had ever happened, was a coin flip to decide the number 1 seed for the single elimination.  Both J&B Painting and San Diego Primetime had 3-0 records and were tied with runs allowed and scored.  J&B won the flip to get the number 1 seed.

The team of the day was Macabbi USA, who playing short-handed on Saturday and turned in an 0-3 record to wind up as the 12th seed for single elimination.  Once again without their full squad on Sunday, in their first game of the day Macabbi faced the #5 Panteras with Jason Gluckman getting the start and limiting the Panteras to 1 run for a 3-1 win.  With a game rest, Macabbi's next opponent was #4 Palm Springs Express.  Dan Winnick had the ball in this game and received outstanding support from the offense as they defeated the Express 14-3.  In the semi-finals, the road did not get any easier as they faced #1 J&B Painting.  Gluckman had the ball and shut down J&B with the offense once again scoring big for a 7-0 victory.

In the Championship game, Gluckman did not give up the ball and faced "Pappa Joe" Salcido and Balboa.  Both teams went quietly in the first. In the top of the second, Gluckman contributed with his bat and opened the inning with a double.  He later scored on a fielders choice for a 1 run lead.  Balboa tied the game in the bottom of the inning and the score remained 1-1 until the fourth. 

Macabbi scored 2 runs in the top of the inning, capitalizing on 3 hits and 2 errors but the lead would not hold for long as Balboa also took advantage of a couple of miscues to score 3 runs and take a 1 run lead.

In the fifth inning with Jim Flanagan in the circle for Balboa, Macabbi scored 4 runs on 5 hits including a double by David Shapiro to take a 7-4 lead.  Both teams settled down and went scoreless the remainder of the game and Gluckman went the distance to give Macabbi USA their second tournament of the year. 

Balboa started the day as the #10 seed from the round robin as they posted a 1-2 record.  In their morning game they faced Black Curtain with Debbie Day in the circle and won 6-2.  In their second game of the day they faced #2 seed San Diego Primetime with Pappa Joe pitching,  They went extra innings and CJ Salcido hit a 2-run homer to end the game and onto the semi-finals against the Colton Dirtbags.  Day once again took the ball and Balboa won 3-1. to go on to the championship game. 

Next tournament is schedule for June 23 & 24 at Little Lake Park in Santa Fe Springs.