fresh kicks

First Place

Winter Co-ed Kickball on Capitol Hill Wednesday/Thursday

The Championship: One game to separate a contender from all the pretenders, the real stories from the fake ones, the regular season triumphs from the forever glory.

In mid-core we saw a heavyweight rematch with all the hype of Fury-Wilder II. Hold My Kick took a decisive regular season victory over Base Gods during an uncharacteristically loose performance from the latter team. Would the Gods have an answer for one of their toughest challengers in years and get a little revenge music?

Soft-core saw a very different kind of matchup: the solid and unified Fresh Kicks taking on a worst-to-first-cinderella-story-let's-ride-this-momentum-till-the-wheels-fall-off Indy#2 aka The Grapes of Wrath.

The ole Grapes had frankly had their butts kicked a few times this season, but when the games started to matter–including a wild-card play-in game–they played lights out defense and summoned a never-say-die attitude that had now had them one win away from the championship.

So what stories would hold up under the bright Championship lights?

Base Gods and Hold My Kick played to a near draw early on but a decisive defensive play by the Gods turned the tide. A Hold My Kick kicker seemed to find the perfect gap for a multi-base hit and scoring kick, but outfielder Derian soared into the frame out of nowhere to snatch the ball out of the air. The Base Gods were pumped, Hold My Kick were deflated, and the Base Gods took over from there, getting their decisive revenge and their first Winter championship.

The Indy Grapes of Wrath began their championship tilt again with some lights out D and even a slight lead, but midway through the game–with the team short-handed–the magic may have finally started to fade a little, and Fresh Kicks' experience in fielding and base-running took over. As always with these lovable Indys, when they're down they still never seem out–they had a fun two-out 3-run rally in the bottom of the 7th–but they couldn't pull out the final victory, and Fresh Kicks earned their championship.

Congrats Base Gods and Fresh Kicks, your Champs, and congrats to all on a fun season. Get warm!