Seven teams are now down to two in the city of Sedona’s 2019 Adult Summer Softball League.
Top-seeded and undefeated Rokzoo earned one finals spot on Wednesday night, though they did so
in an unexpected way. The other finals spot was claimed by No. 4 A Day in the West,
who punched their ticket on the strength of two monster games.
A Day in the West got its day started in an early game
with a 14-0 win over the No. 6 seed, Red Mountaineers. That earned them a
game with No. 2 Pago’s, who held on for a tense 4-3 win over No. 5 Dirty Rats in
the other early game. A Day in the West came out strong in the matchup with Pago’s,
scoring two runs in the third, fifth, sixth and seventh innings and cruising to an
8-1 win over Pago’s. “I think we played amazing, great,” A Day in the West’s Randy Rodriguez
said, “I think we’re a really hard team to beat when we’ve got a full squad. We’ve been lacking.
That’s why we lost a couple of games. In the first week of the season, we had a full
squad and won both games. I think when we have a full squad, we’re a good team — and it showed today.”
While winning two games by a combined score of 22-1 doesn’t sound especially
stressful, A Day in the West had a much tougher path to the finals on Wednesday than Rokzoo.
The No, 1 seed was scheduled for a game against Slapnut Magoos. The winner of that game
would have earned a spot in the finals as the Winner’s Bracket champion. The loser
was scheduled to take on the Pago’s vs. A Day in the West winner for the Loser’s
Bracket crown and the other spot in the finals.
As the early games were winding down, though, word came that, for unclear reasons, Slapnut Magoos had forfeited their game
against Rokzoo. In turn, the game against A Day in the West was forfeited, as well. That
effectively gave Rokzoo its second bye in the postseason. It also made A Day in the West’s game against
Pago’s a semifinal rather than the originally intended quarterfinal.
The season will come to an end on Wednesday, Aug. 15. Rokzoo and A Day in the West will square off at 6:15 p.m. If Rokzoo wins
that game, they’ll be the champions. Should A Day in the West win that game, the two will have a winner-take-all
rematch immediately after. Given that they’re the top seeds, undefeated, and have a clearer path on Wednesday,
Rokzoo is definitely the favored team entering the finals.
Despite that, though, A Day in the West feels confident about its chances heading in. “I think we have our guys peaking at the right time,”
A Day in the West captain Pedro Ortega said. “We lost to them [Rokzoo] by two runs with only nine guys last
week. It was a good game. Having any kind of 10 on my team, we’ll take our chances with anybody.”
Michael Dixon can be reached at 282-7795, Ext. 131, or e-mail to mdixon@larsonnewspapers.com
