I noticed that I messed up my brackets and forgot to remove the championship banners, so I redid them. This is now as I expected with all first-round games being a NCA vs SCA matchup. After that, the rest is based on placement in the tournament brackets.
BATTLE FOR THE NORTH TOURNAMENT
#11 County Crossing 5 at #6 FHE 3
The Bloodbugs pulled off the Battle for the North's only first-round upset with a three-run rally in the top of the 7th to take a 5-3 lead. County Crossing benefitted from two hit batsmen by FHE pitcher David Kiwi to help load the bases. Manley Nebeker hit an RBI single, and Tom Mastodon hit a sacrifice fly to give the Bloodbugs the lead. Later, pinch runner Mike McDonie scored on Kiwi's fielding error.
#8 University Point 11 vs #1 Easy Town 12
The Assaultons scored a lot early, taking leads of 8-0 after two innings and 12-4 after four. However, the Deathclaws rallied back with three in the 7th and four in the 9th before falling just short. Sean Samuels led the Assaultrons, going 3 for 3 with a double, two walks, three runs, and three RBI. The UP pitching walked nine batters in the game.
#5 The Slog 6 vs #4 Warwick 4, 13 inn.
The day's final game went well into the night, finishing at 12:50 AM. Lernz Tentsleep's two-run home run in the top of the 13th made the difference in ending the game when it did. There had been six straight scoreless innings before his home run untied the game. The Mirelurks' Brad Krol was 3 for 5 with a home run, a walk, a run, and three RBI. Melon Sanderson had five hits.
BATTLE FOR THE SOUTH TOURNAMENT
#11 Roxbury 6 vs #6 Concord 7
The Radstags broke a 5-5 tie late on David Stahl's two-out, two-RBI double. Ricky Ticky Laughy and Dan Erb both went deep for Concord, which became the only higher-seeded team to win a game in the first round of the Battle for the South Tournament. Grognak Inman had four hits for the Knuckle Punchers, and Travis Phillips hit a home run.
#9 Jamaica Plain 2 vs #1 Goodneighbor 8
The #1 seed cruised to victory with six late runs to break a 2-2 tie heading into the bottom of the 6th. They scored the go-ahead run in that inning on Jason Juras' solo home run, and then scored three in the 7th and two in the 8th for the six-run difference. Quincy Eloquent pitched 8.0 innings, allowing just two earned runs on nine hits with two walks and eight strikeouts for the defending CBO champions. He allowed a home run in the 5th inning to the Red Rockets' Aaron Erickson.
#12 Sunshine Tidings 3 vs #4 Nordhagen Beach 2
For the second-straight day, the Chemists pulled off the day's biggest upset, this time knocking off Brotherhood League champions, the Party Boys. In the top of the 9th with Night Demon Archaki attempting to earn the save with a 2-1 lead, he walked a batter, allowed a single, and then a batter reached on an error. Josh Noob then tied the game with a sacrifice fly and then Justin Zent hit an RBI single to give Sunshine Tidings the lead for good. Tony Bertha pitched eight innings, allowing two earned runs on seven hits with a walk and six strikeouts to earn the victory.