PLAYOFFS: Weeks 1-2
60's DIVISION — PLAYOFF WEEK 1
August 18, 2026 · Double Elimination Begins
Six teams walked onto the field. Nobody walked off eliminated. That is the mercy of a double-elimination bracket, and on opening night three ballclubs needed every ounce of it.
New Dawn Awning 12, Wholesale Outlet 5
Let the record show that in a league where a 20-run night barely raises an eyebrow, the top seed opened the postseason by playing a pitcher's duel. Wholesale Outlet scored five runs. Five. That is the lowest single-game output by any team in the 60's this season, regular season or otherwise, and it arrived on the biggest night of the year.
New Dawn did it without a single home run. Two in the first, one in the second, three in the third, five in the fourth — a slow, patient tightening of the screw. Butch Maciel, Mike Cacy and Chris Aguiar each went a perfect 3-for-3. Will Myers tripled and drove in two. Steve Grimm added a double and two more. It was less an offensive explosion than an eviction notice, served one inning at a time.
Wholesale never got closer than two runs after the opening frame. Dusty Shaw did everything a leadoff man can do, going 4-for-4, but he was an island. Nine other Wholesale hitters combined for six hits.
Hayes Auto Sales 20, Scott's Exterior 17
Hayes jumped Scott's for five in the bottom of the first and led by six after four. Comfortable. Settled. Then Scott's remembered it was the playoffs.
Five runs in the fifth cut it to 20-14. Three more in the sixth made it 20-17 with the tying run in the on-deck circle. And then the clock, that most undefeated of opponents, ran out. Hayes never had to pick up a bat in the bottom of the sixth. They won the game sitting down.
The performance of the night — of the playoffs, frankly — belonged to Scott's Max Nelson. Four at-bats, four hits, two home runs, a double, four RBI and eleven total bases. Nelson hit .721 in the regular season but was perfect on this night. Rob Blodgett went 4-for-4 behind him. Scott Estel drove in three. Nine of the eleven men in the Scott's order got a hit. They lost anyway. Sometimes that is how this works.
Efficient Energy 20, Realty Management 18
If you have read the paragraph above, you have read this one too, right down to the margin.
Efficient Energy led 17-11 after four and 20-15 after five. RMC came back with three in the top of the sixth, got to within two, and ran out of daylight. Twice on the same night, in two different games, a trailing team put a three-spot on the board in its final at-bat and fell short. Twice on the same night, the home team walked off the field without batting.
But dear reader, look at what Realty Management did in defeat. David Corral: 5-for-5 with three doubles. Ron Landers: 5-for-5 with three doubles and four RBI. The two of them combined for sixteen total bases and did not make an out. Marty Bitting went 4-for-5. Mike Holt went 4-for-5 with three RBI. RMC collected 33 hits and scored 18 runs and went home to think about it.
And still they were outhit. Efficient Energy put up a team batting average of .879 — twenty-nine hits in thirty-three at-bats. Eight different men were perfect at the plate. Jarvis Quenga came to bat three times, doubled three times, and drove in five. Brad Drennan singled three times and drove in four.
THE 1.000 CLUB — August 18
Twenty-six of the sixty-four qualifying hitters in the 60's Division went a perfect night at the plate. Twenty-six. If you were looking for evidence that everybody shows up in playoffs, this is your exhibit.
WHAT IT MEANS
New Dawn Awning, Hayes Auto Sales and Efficient Energy advance unbeaten. Wholesale Outlet, Scott's Exterior and Realty Management head to the elimination side, one loss from a long winter.
60's DIVISION — PLAYOFF WEEK 2
August 25, 2026 · The Best Game Nobody Expected
Here is the thing about seeding. It tells you who had the better summer. It does not tell you a single reliable thing about who is going to give you the best ninety minutes of softball you will see all year.
Realty Management 21, Scott's Exterior 20
The two teams with the worst records in the 60's Division played an elimination game against each other and produced an exciting finish.
They traded five-spots in the first. They traded five-spots in the second. Scott's led 17-15 after four. RMC surged ahead 19-18 after five. And in the top of the sixth — the last inning either team would see — Jeff Kahlor tripled and Mike Mayer singled him home, and Scott's Exterior had a 20-19 lead and three outs to get.
They did not get one of them.
Marty Bitting singled. Omar Randle singled, and the tying run came home. And Greg Goodell — who had already been on base four times — lined a single into the outfield to score Randle, and Realty Management Company won a playoff softball game 21-20 without recording an out in its final at-bat. Three men up. Three hits. Season over for Scott's.
Bitting went 5-for-5. Corral went 4-for-4. Bill Baxley went 4-for-4. Goodell drove in four. For a team that finished 7-12, RMC picked a spectacular evening to play their best ball.
Efficient Energy 19, Hayes Auto Sales 10
Efficient Energy scored four in the first, four in the second, and looked ready to run away with it. Then Hayes hung five on the board in the third to make it 8-7, and the ballgame had a pulse again.
It lasted about fifteen minutes. Efficient Energy answered with five in the fourth and five in the fifth, and Hayes managed two runs across its final three innings. Jeff Jackson and Rick Damon each went 5-for-5. Tim Webb went 4-for-4. Brad Drennan drove in five on two hits.
And then there is Jarvis Quenga, who is currently playing a game the rest of us are not invited to. 4-for-4 with three doubles and a home run, five RBI, ten total bases. Add it to his 3-for-3, five-RBI opener and Quenga has now gone 7-for-7 with ten runs batted in across two playoff weeks. He hit .906 in the regular season, which we call excellent. He has not made an out since.
Bill Groth was the lone bright spot for Hayes, going 3-for-3 with a double and a triple — one home run shy of the cycle.
Wholesale Outlet 21, Realty Management 16
Immediately after their walk-off, RMC had to do it all over again. Second game of the night, elimination on the line, legs full of concrete.
To their enormous credit, they made a fight of it. Tied 10-10 after two. Down five after three. Then five runs in the top of the fourth to knot it at 15-15 and set the whole thing on fire again.
Wholesale answered with six.
That was the ballgame. Bobby Delgado went 3-for-3 with a home run and four RBI. Les Bevis homered. Paul Supat hit two triples in three at-bats. Terry Barrow drove in four. Dusty Shaw kept right on hitting — 4-for-4 with a triple, giving him eight hits in eight playoff at-bats. Five different Wholesale hitters piled up seven total bases apiece.
Realty Management Company's season ended at 8:22 p.m. They won a walk-off and got eliminated on the same night, which is either poetry or cruelty depending on which dugout you were standing in.
THE 1.000 CLUB — August 25
Fifteen perfect nights, headlined by Bitting's nine hits in nine at-bats across two games. Corral went 7-for-7. Damon and Jackson went 5-for-5.
CYCLE WATCH
Two men came within one hit: Bill Groth (Hayes) and Dusty Shaw (Wholesale) each collected a single, a double and a triple. Both needed a home run. Neither got one.
WHERE WE STAND
Efficient Energy is 2-0 and playing some great softball. New Dawn Awning sat out the round at 1-0. Hayes Auto Sales and Wholesale Outlet each carry a loss. Scott's Exterior and Realty Management are done.
50's DIVISION — PLAYOFF WEEK 1
August 25, 2026 · Six Teams, Eighty-Two Runs, One Very Loud Night
The 50's opened its bracket a week behind the 60’s and wasted no time making up the difference. Three games. Eighty-two combined runs. Fourteen home runs' worth of noise and a top seed watching from home with its feet up.
Legacy Sports Bar 25, Incredible Pets 16
Legacy never trailed. Not for one half-inning. Five runs in the first before Incredible Pets had scored at all, four more in the second, five in the third, and by the time the Pets found their footing the deficit was permanent.
Mikey Rodriguez drove in six runs — an RBI single in the first, a three-run homer in the third, a two-run single in the fifth. That is the highest RBI total posted by anyone in either division in the entire playoffs.
Marko Andrade was every bit as good in a quieter way (which is ironic if you know Marko): 5-for-5 with a double and a home run, four RBI, and a run scored every single time he reached base. Donald Ambrose also went 5-for-5 with four driven in. Shawn Rogers went 4-for-4.
And then there is the detail that tells you everything about how the 50's regards Matt Widell. He hit a three-run homer in the first inning. In the second inning, Incredible Pets intentionally walked him. In a slow-pitch softball game. Widell added an RBI single later and finished with four RBI anyway, because of course he did.
Legacy hit .833 as a ballclub with four home runs. In the regular season they hit .703 — dead last in the division. Timing is everything.
Incredible Pets refused to go quietly, scoring in five of their last six innings. Mel James smashed a home run and nine total bases, and Shant Hagopian went 4-for-5 with a homer of his own. Chris D'Auria singled, doubled and tripled — one swing short of the cycle. It was not close to enough.
Capital Gold Bail Bonds 25, BJ's Restaurant 21
BJ's led this game exactly once, and it was glorious while it lasted. Bill Buck hit a three-run home run in the bottom of the first to turn a 4-0 deficit into a 5-4 lead, and then Field 2 came unglued.
Capital Gold scored five in the second. And five in the third. And five in the fourth. And five in the fifth. Four consecutive five-run innings — a metronome with a bat in its hands — and BJ's spent the rest of the night chasing a lead it could see but never quite touch, trailing by four or five at every checkpoint.
The sixth was an open inning. Both dugouts knew what that meant. Both teams scored exactly one run. Sometimes the drama simply declines to show up.
Ted Ursino went 5-for-5 for Capital Gold. Mike Boe went 4-for-5 with four RBI. Ted Crumbley went 4-for-4. Al Smythe and Aaron Tavalero drove in three apiece. Lee Nunes tripled.
BJ's did not lose this game for lack of hitting — they batted .800 with three home runs. Buck finished 4-for-4 with four RBI. Chris Feeney went 4-for-4 with a two-run shot and four RBI of his own. Kevin Robinson homered. Aaron Gallwitz went 4-for-4. They put 32 hits on the board and still came up four short, which is the kind of box score that keeps a manager awake.
Epic Sports Cards 18, Hunter's Barber 11
For four innings this was the game of the night. Hunter's scored five in the top of the first; Epic matched them in the bottom. Hunter's led 6-5, then 7-5. Epic went back in front 8-6, then 9-7. Hunter's put up three in the fourth to tie it 10-10, and the two clubs headed to the fifth dead even.
Then Hunter's Barber stopped scoring.
They had put runs on the board in each of the first five innings. Over their final two, they managed nothing at all — while Epic scored three in the fifth and five in the sixth to turn a coin-flip into a comfortable evening. Jason Kopp's three-run homer in the sixth was the shot that ended the suspense; he finished 4-for-4 with two doubles, a homer, five RBI and nine total bases. Travis Hale added a three-run homer of his own in the second. Steve Phulps went 4-for-4 with a double and a triple — one home run from the cycle.
Hunter's got a 4-for-4 night from Todd Phillips with two doubles and a 4-for-4 night with a home run from Derek Wilson. Their other ten hitters combined to hit .400.
THE 1.000 CLUB — August 25
Twenty-one perfect nights out of sixty-one qualifying hitters. Andrade, Ambrose, and Ursino all went 5-for-5.
CYCLE WATCH
Steve Phulps (Epic) and Chris D'Auria (Incredible Pets) each collected a single, a double and a triple. Both needed a home run to complete the set. Both fell one swing short on the same night in the same division.
WHERE WE STAND
Legacy Sports Bar, Capital Gold Bail Bonds and Epic Sports Cards advance without a blemish. Elite/Onyx, the top seed, sat out the round. Incredible Pets, BJ's and Hunter's Barber move to the elimination side with everything still to play for.
