Saint's Take SNECAA's First Playoff Championship!

“Playoff Week” was full of excitement and tension that built on Saturday and climaxed on Monday night with a 25-17 victory by the Armenian Saints over Praise Tabernacle at Tucker Field in Cumberland.

The stage was set by two very tight games that concluded play on Saturday, when the Saints defeated Praise Tab 9-7, followed by a walk off 13-12 victory by North Providence over Faith Tabernacle in Saturday's final game.

So on Monday night, North Providence met Praise Tab in game 1 for the right to play the Saints in the finals. Praise Tab held a 13-12 lead going into a tension packed seventh inning, in which neither team scored... perhaps the only scoreless inning of the high scoring tournament... Praise Tab prevailed by that 13-12 score with the final out coming on a line drive caught by their second baseman with two runners on base.

This set the stage for the final, a grueling back and forth slug fest marathon that lasted over two hours (with a 1-1 count!). The Saints powered ahead with a 10 run third inning, but the way the weekend had gone, even a 5-10 run lead didn't put the game out of reach. I think most fans, and probably many players, were glad that a third game wasn't necessary, as it would have begun after 10:00 PM, and could have easily lasted until midnight.

Hats off to the Saints for a perfect 4-0 playoff record, and all the participants (including our faithful fans!) in making our inaugural playoffs a week to remember!

Against All Hope Wins Sportsmanship Award!

We are pleased to announce that our first annual Sportsmanship award will go to the team representing Against All Hope. The award will be given on Friday night at Tucker Field in Cumberland at appoximately 7:30 PM (between the first two games). As you probably know the Sportsmanship Award is given to the team that best exemplifies sportsmanship and a Christ-like attitude on the field, and as such, is considered SNECAA's highest award.

Voting as held during the final week of the season. A team named 1st on each player's ballot received three votes, with two votes for 2nd, and one vote for 3rd. Based on this formula, Against All Hope earned its first place finish with an incredible 181 votes. On Friday night, we will also honor Getsemani Church, which received a very competitive 124 votes, and third place finisher Faith Tabernacle, which had 66 votes.

Please join us on Friday to honor Against All Hope, which has truly set an example for all of us to follow in future seasons.

Playoff Tip: Bring Your Lawn Chairs!

We would like to remind everyone who plans to attend the playoff games this weekend to bring lawn chairs with them, as seating is limited at Tucker Field.

... The Way the Game Should be Played

As we gathered to pray at the beginning of our playoff game vs. Against All Hope, our umpire asked if he could say a few words. He said it had been a pleasure for him to have worked our league on Monday nights, and "you guys play the game the way it should be played."

We lost a tough one tonight, 16-15 to Against All Hope, but that comment made my season... I took it as confirmation from the Lord that our work is beginning to bear fruit. Congratulations and thanks to all of you unsung heroes who played in that umpire's games and contributed to his feeling that this league gets it right.

SNECAA's First Phantom Game - Faith Tab 1 - AAH 0

League lineup has been great this year. Most SNECAA coaches report scores through it, and many do batting stats of various kinds. And lots of you have used it at least to check scores and standings, so much so that our league lineup site has received over 1300 unique visits this season.

But we just discovered something league lineup can't do... handle tiebreakers. There were three pairs of teams tied this year in our final standings. These should be settled by head to head results, but two of these pairs were posted incorrectly in the standings. So far, the only way we have been able to get the proper order in the standings was to create a "phantom" game between Faith Tabernacle and Against All Hope, with a 1-0 score in favor of Faith Tab.

We haven't given up on fixing this, but meanwhile, at least there shouldn't be any confusion about seeding for the playoffs. We apologize, especially to the great guys at Against All Hope for the extra loss

Urgent Prayer Request from NPAG Coach Mark Tufano

One of our beloved fathers, friends, leaders, and coaches has been suddenly diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. His name is Robert Irace. He is the father of our 3rd baseman Alexander and another injured player Corey. He is 52 yrs young and has served faithfully as a pastor and elder at our church. They have given him a diagnosis of incurable and inoperable. We do not agree in Jesus name!! We are believing and declaring in faith that God is able and God is willing to heal completely and miraculously!!! I am asking you all to stand with us fervently for Robert and his family. Thank you.

SNECAA 2014 PLAYOFF SCHEDULE

Monday, August 11th - 6:15 PM:

GAME 1 - # 9 seed @ #8 seed - Tucker field
GAME 2 - #10 seed @ #7 seed - George West field
GAME 3 - # 5 seed @ #4 seed - Norwood field
GAME 4 - # 6 seed @ #3 seed - Atwood field

Monday, August 11th - 7:45 PM:

GAME 5 - Game 1 winner @ #1 seed - Tucker field
 

Friday, August 15th - @ Tucker field:

GAME 6 - 6:15 PM - Game 2 winner @ #2 seed
GAME 7 - 7:35 PM - Game 2 loser versus Game 3 loser
GAME 8 - 9:00 PM - Game 1 loser versus Game 4 loser
 

Saturday, August 16th - @ Tucker field:

GAME 9 - 9:00 AM - Game 7 winner versus Game 5 loser
GAME 10 - 10:20 AM - Game 8 winner versus Game 6 loser
GAME 11 - 11:50 AM - Game 3 winner versus Game 5 winner
GAME 12 - 01:10 PM - Game 4 winner versus Game 6 winner
GAME 13 - 02:30 PM - Game 11 loser versus Game 10 winner
GAME 14 - 04:00 PM - Game 12 loser versus Game 9 winner
GAME 15 - 05:30 PM - Game 11 winner versus Game 12 winner
GAME 16 - 07:00 PM - Game 14 winner versus Game 13 winner
 

Monday, August 18th - @ Tucker field:

Game 17 - 06:15 PM - Game 15 loser versus Game 16 winner
Game 18 - 07:45 PM - Game 15 winner versus Game 17 winner
Game 19 - 09:00 PM - IF NECESSARY
 

• Games in the losers bracket as well as the "if necessary" game will be a flip of the coin.
• Games in the winners bracket - the better seed will have the choice of home or away.
• Count starts at 1-1 - an extra foul ball will be given.
• All extra inning games will revert to the International rule - last out will be placed on 2nd base with no outs.
• Games 1-10 will have a single umpire; games 11-16 will have two umpires and the games on Monday night will have a 3 umpire system.
• Balls will be provided - home teams for games on Monday will be responsible for bases.
• The league will pay for officials for all playoff games - home teams to pay officials for Games #1-5 - the league will be reimburse you.
• Coaches are responsible for their fans and players - head coaches are to speak to officials only.
• Any ejections will be subject to league committee ruling for suspension.
• No infield/outfield after the first inning and the pitcher is allowed 1 pitch after the first inning - players are to hustle in and out in order to stay on time.