The Frankie Brin Financial 70’s team won the 70’s bracket of The 2018 Villages Softball Championship.
There were 3 teams in the 70’s bracket for the Championship this year.
The teams were Frankie Brin Financial 70’s & 74’s and Optimotion Orthopedics.
On Friday, October 19, the seeding games were played. After the seeding games
were completed, the first seed was Frankie Brin Financial 70’s team (FB 70’s); the second seed was Frankie Brin Financial 74’s team (FB 74); and the third seed was Optimotion Orthopedics. FB 70’s won both of their seeding games by defeating Optimotion 20-9 and FB 74’s 25-13.
On Saturday October 20, the double elimination part of the tournament began. FB 70’s received a bye because of their number one seed while FB 74’s and Optimotion played at 9:15 a.m. Optimotion defeated FB 74’s. Optimotion then played FB 70’s. After 3 innings in this game, FB 70’s was ahead 10-6. In the next 4 innings, FB 70’s out scored Optimotion 10-3 and the final score was FB 70’s winning 20-9.
FB 70’s advanced to the championship game Sunday morning. FB 74’s and Optimotion played Saturday in the losers bracket with FB 74’s winning 23-10. Optimotion was eliminated.
In the Championship game on Sunday at the Buffalo Glen Complex, FB 70’s defeated FB 74’s 28-16. The game was close as the score was 21-16 after five innings. The FB 70’s broke the game open with 7 runs in the sixth inning.
This is the third year in a row that FB 70’s has won The Villages Championship. The leading hitters during the tournament for FB70’s were Steve Long .900; Darrel Smith .867 (9 RBI’s); Dale Travis .857 (2 doubles, 3 triples); Charles Pope .786 (10 RBI’s); Ed Krisha .750; Ron VanDuser .733; Jon Birkhofer .733. Other team members are Bob Buchanan, Ralph Hollis, Dave Hinkley, John Iorio, John Rebardo, Carl Roberts, Carter Honkonen, and Linwood Manning. As a team, FB 70’s batted .720 for the tournament.
