It was a Beautiful Day in Perry for the 2015 Tournament of Champions. After a week of Hot and Humid weather we finally got some cooler temps and it made for Great pitching weather. Thank You to Chuck Poole and the Perry Club for all they did to get ready for this tournament. They really did a great job Thank You Guys!

In the preliminary round we had eight classes fighting for the chance to move on to the finals to battle it out for the Title of 2015 Tournament of Champions Champ.

In Class A It was a Battle to the end between Louie Bonner and Matt Braswell. In their game Louie edged Matt out by just three points. Matt was on fire but needed some help to get a shot at Louie in a playoff. Louie was just to strong all day  and continued to win his games and never gave Matt a shot at a playoff. Matt came up one game short as Louie went undefeated to Claim the Class A Title and move on to the finals.

In Class B Taylor Coile and Tim Embry entered their final game with perfect records with the winner taking the Class B Title and advancing to the finals. Taylor was on fire early then Tim took off. Time ran out for Tim before he could catch Taylor and she won the Class B Title and moved on to the finals.

Frank Harris has been on Fire lately and he continued that streak in Class C. Frank’s closest game was with Donna Denney where the game came down to the last two shoes. With the score tied Frank needed to score to win the Class Frank did he got a Ringer Four and Donna came so close to keeping it tied but her shoe bounced away and Frank won the very tough match. Frank Moved on to the Finals with the win.

Don Cleaton Sr. had a fight to the end with Tony Bennett before he claimed the Class D Title. It took a perfect day for Don to claim the title. Tony was on his heels all day losing only to Don but coming up one win short of the title. With the Class D title Don moved on to the finals.

In Class E Jann Bennett gave Ronnie Miller a fight to the bitter end to see who would win the Class and move on to the finals. In their game it went back and forth all the way to the end. With only two shoes to go and down by four points Ronnie needed four points to tie or six to win. In a rare case of not choking Ronnie pitched first and got a ringer and a close shoe. Jann then pitched and missed with her first shoe but put her second shoe went on but it spun off and far enough away for Ronnie to get the four points and tie the game. That tie proved to be big as it gave Ronnie 4 1/2 wins to edge Jann out of the Class E Title  by one half a game and the chance to move on to the finals.

In Class F Marcus Waters was right on Coni Hix’s heels all day for the Title. When they Played Coni had saved her best game for Marcus even though Marcus had a Great game. Coni pitched a Smoking 76.6% game to win and take the Class F Title by one Game and continuing on to the finals.

Class G saw the only playoff of the Day. Larry Myers, Bobby Arnold and Regina Bonner all wound up the regular round tied on wins/losses. Bobby and Larry played first and Bobby took the game and  moved on to face Regina for the Class Championship and a spot in the finals. Regina took off at the beginning and looked to be cruising to the win. Bobby caught fire and came back to take the lead with ten shoes to go. Regina then took off again and pitched 6 ringers out of her last 10 shoes to take the one point victory and the spot in the finals.

Class H was another fight to the finish. Last years defending Champion Karla Harris entered her final game with a half game lead over Maria McIntyre. Maria started the day off a bit slow with a tie and a loss to start the day. Maria then got going and won the rest of her games. Karla’s last game was against Jeff Coile and Jeff was on fire and handed Karla her 2^nd  loss of the day giving Maria the half game victory over Karla and the Class H Title and also a spot in the finals.

The Tournament of Champions Finals was fight to the finish. Regina Bonner and Don Cleaton Sr. were deadlocked with one loss each and getting late in the round. Don had to face Louie Bonner who wanted to help his wife out with a win over Don.  Louie did that taking a hard fought two point victory over Don and helping Regina with a little breathing room. Regina took advantage of the lead and didn’t look back winning her next game and Claiming the Title of 2015 Tournament of Champions Champion. Don Sr. took a well deserved 2^nd Place finish after Ronnie Miller recovered from a drubbing at the hands of Maria McIntyre where it looked like a Skunk was headed his way to finally have  a Great game to hand Louie a loss and push him to the 3^rd Place spot. Maria finished 4^th with Coni Hix 5^th Ronnie 6^th Frank Harris 7^th and Taylor Coile 8^th. Congratulations to all of the finalists it was a Great Day of pitching.

We will be off for the next two weeks but Cordele is hosting a Backyard Style Non-Sanctioned tournament next Saturday at the Cordele clubs pits. It is $5 to enter the Singles and $5 to play in the bring your own partner Doubles. Sign up by 9:30 AM pitching starts at 10:00 AM.