Logan Jordan took a leap of faith five weeks ago, and Sunday at the Busch Softball Classic at the Sherwood Sports Complex it all paid off as he and MTS/Hub City/Berties won the Men's Open division title.
They defeated Infinity Contractors 28-26 in a back-and-forth affair behind Jordan's three home runs and seven RBI.
This was Jordan's first time at the Classic, having joined MTS at the end of May in order to challenge himself and push to a new level of slow-pitch softball.
Infinity Contractors, representing Oklahoma, scored six runs in the top of the first inning, highlighted by a two-run home run by Stephen Chuculate. MTS, representing Tennessee, responded with a three-run home run by Chris Berry.
MTS scored seven more runs in the first inning, capped by John Bilbrey's grand slam, to take a 10-6 lead into the second inning.
Infinity Contractors threatened in the second inning putting two runners on, but Jordan made sure the score stayed where it was, fielding the third out. He followed that later in the inning with his first home run, a three-run shot.
Infinity Contractors scored four runs between the third and fourth inning, but a flurry of MTS hits that included two two-run home runs made it 18-11 at the end of the fourth inning.
MTS led the tournament in runs per game with 25.4 but hadn't hit more than five of their allotted eight home runs until Sunday when they hit all eight.
"Every weekend we feel like we have a good chance [to win]," Jordan said. "We say the only people that can beat us is ourselves. [It was the] right timing, the right guys swinging and just trusting each other to hit the ball. We couldn't have had a better weekend."
In the top of the fifth inning, trailing 18-11, Infinity Contractors' offense put up its best inning of the game, hitting three home runs and scoring nine runs to take a 20-18 lead. MTS kept the offensive showcase going, outscoring Infinity Contractors 10-4 in the next 2 1/2 innings to win the open division championship.
"It's great just to know that the work pays off that you put in during the week," Jordan said. "These guys are phenomenal. That's probably the best game that I've been a part of in the last five years."
Women's final
Game 1: OE Sports/NOP 18, Lady Yankeez 14
Game 2: Lady Yankeez 20, OE Sports/NOP 17
Mercedes Norfolk wasn't planning on playing two women's open-division games Sunday. Norfolk and the Lady Yankeez were set to face OE Sports/NOP in the championship game with the latter needing to win two games to take home the trophy.
OES understood what was needed and scored seven runs in the top of the first inning to begin Game 1. Lady Yankeez never overcame that deficit, trailing the entire way as OES won the opener 18-14.
So when it was time for Game 2, Norfolk made sure she walked away with the win she showed up looking for Sunday morning.
Through the first two innings, both the teams traded runs, with OES taking an 8-7 lead into the third inning. That's when Norfolk left her mark. Lady Yankeez loaded the bases on three consecutive singles just in time for Norfolk to clear them with a double to make it 10-8. Lady Yankeez would tack on another five runs, making it 15-8 heading into the bottom of the third inning.
In the top of the seventh with the score at 19-17 in favor of Lady Yankeez, four hours and 14 innings of back-and-forth scoring came to a head when Lady Yankeez's Rachel Walton collided with OES' Keri Lorbert on a play at third base.
Walton let Lorbert know about her frustration with the physical nature of the play, leading to both benches clearing. Both players, as well as one other from each team, were ejected as a result.
After a 30-minute delay, Lady Yankeez went back to bat with two outs. They added one insurance run before heading to the bottom of the inning and securing the final three outs.
"Everybody wants to win, right?" Norfolk said. "Emotions were high, but we are all just here to have fun. Everybody's anxious and wants to get the job done for the team. But once we all got through it, we just put together what we had and finished the last inning of the ball game."