The Cobra Kai made their stake as a legitimate contender for the league championship this past Friday by proving we are for real by outlasting the 1st place Beat Downs and winning in extra innings 15-14. In Crunch Time a team’s margin for error shrinks and a team’s heart is tested. More importantly a team’s belief in themselves is tested even more when the margin for error is nearly zero.

Well, we left no room for debate on our heart or belief in each other as we played unquestionably our most exciting game in team history and squashing any thought of folding under the pressure of an extra inning face-off with the league leading Beatdowns.

Our opponents showed heart early by playing a man down after one of their players suffered an injury in the 2nd inning after DonJuan Quintana placed an ancient Ecuadorian curse on him and amazingly it worked.

The game went back and forth from there as we struck early and jumped out to a 3-0 lead and played some solid defense behind Mad Dog’s crafty pitching. It should be noted that the Beatdowns have an absolute Murders Row of hitters from 1-5 that on any given night can park a ball in the ivy over any fence at Red Bug Lake park. To contain this lineup is a formidable feat in and of itself. The Beatdowns needed the Mitchell investigation and several other detective agencies to find where Mad Dogs pitches were going to break. They always broke in just the sort of way to prevent any sort of proper analysis by the batter and our defense never let them put together a huge inning. Capt. Tucci was busy patrolling the outfield with his usual vigor and he was determined for the OF to contain the Beatdowns big bats.

The game progressed back and forth as each team traded jabs but neither was ever able to land a knockout punch. Mikey Lemieux is absolutely dialed in like none other in the league and has been hitting the ball like a mad-man. Mikey has been consistently hitting frozen ropes scattered all over the filed for the last 4 games. If Mikey continues his hot hitting ways we could ride his bat all the way to a championship.

However, this was another classic example of game we won by pure teamwork. Everybody pitched in and came through when we needed it most. Roundhouse Reger continues to crush the ball and set the pace for the team by displaying the power we needed. His big bombs announced each and every one of our rallies. At one point Rob turned what should have been a deep single into a clutch double by going manno a manno against the Beatdowns deadly Left Fielder whom has been aptly compared to Brett Favre for his huge cannon and his uncanny likeness several times. “He’s Brett Favre on Crack” an anonymous player said. When Rob turned the corner at first base he never slowed down and caught the beatdowns by surprise as nobody ever tests his arm, but Rob simply wanted it more and he made it and it personified our team effort……..we simply wanted it more than they did. JW also found a way to come through in the clutch with one of his patented Tomahawk chops to drive in Rob to reward him for his efforts.

Big Daddy Guttierez has also found his power stroke and provided our other power bat in the line-up. “I just go up there and try to stroke it, I love to stroke it” said Rich after the game. We are not sure if Rich was talking about batting or something else, but we are sure that he has definitely found his power stroke. The biggest clutch hit of the night came from Koko. When we found ourselves in a hole in the top of the 8th inning Koko drilled one down the Left field line to spark our rally and give us the lead in extra innings.

However, the biggest clutch play of the game came in extra innings with the bases loaded and the game tied. Mad Dog could tell the Beatdowns were hungry and he baited the Brett Favre on Crack into hitting one over the fence to violate specific league rules on 2 HR’s in the same inning. On the next play Johnny Blaze came up with a clutch play to rob them of a hit and send us to the dugout knotted at 13 in extra innings.

That’s when you could see it in everybody’s eyes we wanted this game but more importantly everybody believed this was ours to win. Win is exactly what we did as we came up with 3 runs in the 2nd extra inning and all that was left to do was shut down the Beatdowns to close out the win. However, shutting down the Beatdowns is no easy task. Well, behind a solid defensive effort and with the game on the line that is exactly what we did and pulled out the win 15-14 in extra innings.

Wow!!!! Unbelievable and that’s all I got to say about that. Enjoy the win and be sure to Eat too much over this Holiday weekend. The Team reconvenes after the Thanksgiving break hungry to win our first league title. Have a Happy Thanksgiving!!!!!