North-South - Close games, late inning heros.

BERWYN, IL - The first round provided some close games which came done to the late innings. Punch came out on top over Maxim, Woodpeckers edged Dogg Pound, Mudville slips by the Raiders, Outsiders topped the Twist in the final at-bat, and the Bucketheads scored 4 late to beat tournament host Danny Atkins team, Out There.

Maxim could not overcome the early 5-0 lead by Punch and ended up losing 7-4. Punch got on the board early with a 3-run homerun by Jim Raffini in the bottom of the first. Maxim started to come back with a 5-hit, 3-run in the top of the 3rd, only to have Punch answer back with 2 runs in the bottom of the ininning.

The Woodpeckers beat Dogg Pound 10-9 in 7 innings. The Woodpeckers put up 5 runs in the bottom of the 5th with a 2-run homerun by Mike Grieco, his second one of the night after hitting a 2-run homerun in the 1st. Grieco ended the night with 3 hits and 5 RBIs.

Mudville slipped past Teddy Sherman and the Raiders 10-8. Mudville lead all game, but held off a late charge by the Raiders. The Raiders, who were trailing 10-5 going into the top of the 7th, could only put up 3 runs to fall short of the victory.

Two games were won on the last at-bat. The Outsiders, who are 6-0 in Westchester, beat out Twist 8-7 on a 1-out single by Mike Marasco to score Paul Richards in the bottom of the 7th. The Bucketheads topped Out There 8-7 by scoring 4 runs in the last two innings, including a game-winning single by lead-off hitter Vince Croston to score pitcher Sal Milazzo.

For complete game recaps and box scores, check out the Results page by clicking on the Tournament link at the right side at the top of the page. Also, check out the latest tournament brackets and the sortable player stats page with stats from over 300 players in the tournament.