D3's Improbable Road to Victory

Last night D3: The Mighty Drunks overcame a less than stellar season to improbably win the Wednesday night dodgeball title. After falling to a 2-4 record six games into the season, thoughts of even making the playoffs appeared fanciful. Fighting to keep their dreams alive, they squeaked out wins the final two weeks against Out Like a Fat Kid (by 1 game) and Rice Crackers (by 1 game as time expired).

That kept alive the mathematical possibility of making the playoffs, but D3 still needed three other teams to lose in the final week of the season to squeeze in to the playoffs as the #8 seed.

When all that happened, perhaps they used the momentum to propel them in the playoffs.

In the first round, Uniballers knocked off Money Shot for the second time this season. Money Shot was the #2 seed (Uniballers were #7) but wasn't able to fend off the Uniballers and avenge their week one loss. D3 went up against the #1 seed, Not in the Face, and won. Team AP took an early lead over G.I. Juggs, only to see it start slipping away when G.I. Juggs came back to tie the match 4-4. Team AP rallied and prevailed 7-4 to move on to round 2 vs. D3. The Rice Crackers, the #6 seed, squared off with the #3, Balls of Jericho, and won 7-0 to earn a 2nd round bid against the Uniballers.

Earlier in the season, the Uniballers beat Rice Crackers 5-2, but last night they improved, winning 7-1 to make it to the championship round.

D3 met Team AP for the first time this season, and the early games went back and forth before D3 pulled away.

D3 vs. Uniballers for the championship. It was a crazy season, one in which the Uniballers beat the top two division teams in both the regular season and playoffs. Unfortunately, they lost to D3 in week two, 8-1. Would last night be different? It was. It was a back and forth match with the crowd going nuts. The Uniballers took an early 2-0 lead, and D3 won the 3rd game. In game 4, the Uniballers raced ahead, knocking out most of D3. Unfortunately, they awakened a sleeping tiger named Erin Stinson. Erin was left on the court by herself against 4 or 5 Uniballers and proceeded to take them out, one catch at a time in perhaps the greatest single game performance in dodgeball history. After her first catch, Jessica came in and the Uniballers went after her, only to see Jessica make a catch while falling backwards. Andres Perez came in on the catch, but the Uniballers caught his throw and the tide seemed to turn again. Then Erin took the team on her shoulders, catching two more balls and D3 went on to win the game, evening the match at 2-2.

The next two games were close and down to the wire. With D3 leading 3-2, and time running out, the sides were even, 3-3, when Erin made another unbelievable catch to help seal the match and complete D3's improbable championship run. Congrats to D3 and Uniballers on an incredible, sweaty match, and congratulations to all the other playoff teams and the rest of the league on a great season!

In the divisional all-star game, the Midtown All-Stars went back and forth with the Old Sac All-Stars at the beginning, then pulled away to win 6-2. Congratulations to all the dodgeball all-stars!