We played the first game, although it was already marked as a forfeit on the part of the other team because they were not able to get enough girls to show up. Despite them having a few extra guys on the field over us, we did still manage to beat them, so that was cool.

Up next we played the team that won the Tuesday league last season, so we knew we were in for a challenge. We beat them earlier in the season, but the number 1 team lost to them. They are a team full of people who kick the ball far--there was pretty much not a single bunter among them, which meant we had to change our defensive strategy. Most teams are predominately bunters, with a few solid kickers interspersed. It's a different game when your outfield is doing all the plays.

We only managed to score one run, although we thought we might have a chance to come from behind and at least tie it up in the final inning, except that one of our players mistakenly stepped up to the plate out of turn. He was pitched to before the correct player realized and commented that it was actually his turn. Despite the fact that the incorrect player did not actually kick, and that the correct player wanted to play his turn and thus it was not done maliciously to help us have an advantage, we were given an automatic out. So that sucked. We were at the top of our lineup, with all of our good players, and we needed everything we could get, so starting out with one out did not help us. The end result was that we were unable to score any additional runs at all.

The number one team this season also wound up with a kicking out of order dispute as well, as the team they were playing apparently kept track of the kicking order, although they had not exchanged rosters. As a result, instead of names, they were just using written descriptions. Since the top team had a lineup with names crossed out, the refs decided they couldn't prove whether the team had changed the lineup later to reflect the change in kickers late in the game. The ruling was made to either forfeit the game or redo the play with the kicker that the other team thought should be up to the plate. This was of course the last play of the game, with 2 outs, and was what had them winning the game before the kicker was disputed. So, they redid the play and the end result was that they got out and the other team won.

Who knew kickball could be so controversial and that neither of the top 2 teams would even advance to the finals??

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