24 Teams Battle for “Tournament of Champions” Crown
The Guns & Hoses annual T.O.C. took place on Nov. 8th and this final tournament marked the end of the 2009 season series. The grand finale was held right where the 2009 season began, at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. The Fall weather Gods smiled upon the fields and set the stage with picture perfect softball weather. The TOC celebrations were in full swing with pumping tunes from “No Limit DJ Productions”, the always-friendly Guns & Hoses “Hotties” and the magic hands of “Christine” the G & H Massage therapist. So, although there was lots of fun to be had in between games, it was “all business” on the fields, with tight scores, impressive comebacks and surprising upsets.  The competition was solid, with all the participating teams gunning for TOC glory and the chance to earn double G & H points in the tight points chase for the overall team season standings. 

All teams played 3 round-robin games and were then seeded according to their record in pool play, for the single elimination bracket portion of the tourney. Once the bracket games kicked off, it was a “win and advance” or “lose, pack your bags, and get ready for next season” scenario. To add a little mystery and excitement to the mix, after each teams last round-robin game was completed, the team captain had to select a random envelope to see where that team ended up on the bracket. All the #1seeds, #2 seeds and so on were still separated from each other on the bracket, but the placement was indeed random. With this format a team could potentially start out on a tough or easy half of the bracket. It would all fall into place after the last hour of round-robin games. But, prior to the brackets, the round robin battles resulted in the following records:

DIVISION I Bracket Play

Let the brackets begin!  After the seeding was all set in stone the quest for TOC supremacy opened up with NAVY “Tomahawk Strike” striking hard, fast, and often against a “less than sober” Pomona PD “27” team. The boys hailing from Pomona are definitely a much stronger team than what showed in this game and even the NAVY team captain said Pomona wasn’t playing up to their normal level in this game as they booted too many balls all over the infield and outfield. But, team Pomona vowed they would be back to rumble in 2010! The “Win” or “Go home” games continued with the “Fighting Leathernecks” of USMC Miramar facing off against the Sheriffs of LASD “Diamondbacks”. The snakes had looked strong in round-robin play, but a little sluggish in this game and were upended by the Marines 25-5.  Over on field #3 a truly great G & H rivalry was yet happening again as two very evenly matched opponents locked horns once more. The defending 2008 G & H TOC Champs Southbay “Outlaws” PD Combo looked across the diamond to see the familiar faces of LASD Norwalk. When these two teams play each other in G & H tourneys it’s always a high scoring affair and more times than not, a “one-run” victory for the team that wins. That exact scenario played out once more as the Sheriffs from Norwalk edged the “Outlaws” 22-21 to move on. On field #4 the OC Sheriff “Hitmen” stood toe-to-toe with NAVY “Gov’t Issue”. The always-strong OC “Hitmen” were not themselves on this day and struggled during pool play as well. They found their “A” game for this battle, but came up just short as the NAVY team took the win 24-17. The last game of this round pitted the always-dangerous NAVY “Tomahawk Strike” against the prison guards of CYA “Lockdown”. Lockdown has continued to improve from month to month throughout the 2009 season and looked solid earlier in the day. Team CYA picked up right where they left off and “locked down” the NAVY teams offense, final count 12-6. Only four teams remained and all four certainly had the horsepower to win it all. In the first semi-final match-up, the prison guards of CYA “Lockdown” and the Jarheads USMC Miramar traded punches back and forth until the final bell sounded with “Lockdown” again playing some tight “D” walked off with a 16-10 victory. The other semi-final saw the Sheriffs of LASD Norwalk standing nose to nose with NAVY “Gov’t Issue”. Both of these teams have a lot of heavy hitters, but it was “Gov’t Issue” that consistently kept crossing the plate, keeping Norwalk off balance. Final tally, 31-10 NAVY “Gov’t Issue” advances to the final. Over the past few G & H tournaments these two teams have went back and forth beating each other up. They were both undefeated all day and after a long day of hard fought softball battles they approached the G & H directors, and stated they had decided to be “Co-Champs” and split the prize package and call it a day. Congrats to both NAVY “Gov’t Issue” and CYA “Lockdown” for going undefeated with victories over very competitive opponents all day long at the 2009 Guns & Hoses TOC.

DIVISION II Bracket Play

The Division II brackets opening round kicked off with an absolute sonic boom! The games were all very competitive as there were no real blowouts and it could have gone either way in all games. First up was #3 seed Santa Fe Springs CHP against #2 seed Huntington Beach PD “Blues”. The CHiP’s cleared the roadway of all obstacles and cruised back to the station with a 19-10 decision. In another Guns vs. Guns firefight #3 seed LAX PD “Bravo Tango” faced off against a #2 seed in Hawthorne PD “Lawdogs”. Hawthorne had looked very solid during pool play while LAX went 0-3. But “Bravo Tango” put the past behind them as they upset the #2 seed 15-7. Over on field #2 LASD “MCJ Red” took on the “Regulators” hailing from Oxnard PD. Oxnard was looking strong all day and continued the momentum by tripping up the Sheriff team 19-8. Field #3 was a classic Guns vs. Hoses slugfest in which the only Firefighter team to compete in the 2009 TOC and #1 seed Santa Ana Fire went blow for blow with #4 seed Buena Park PD. Buena Park PD faced with some injured players, had struggled during pool play, but clutched up when it mattered most and squeaked by with an upset victory 20-19, sending the Fire-stompers home to fight another day. Next up was last years TOC Division II returning Champs Ontario PD “Force” against the deceptively good, never say die, scrappy “Ten Ringers” Police Combo. This team can catch you off guard and outright embarrass you if your not paying attention. But the returning Champs were keeping their guard up and used an all out “Force” field to hold the “Ten Ringers” to only 6 runs. Final tally 18-6 Ontario PD moves on. Field #4 was witness to yet another #3 seed beating another #2 seed as #3 Riverside County “Heat” traded bullets with #2 Santa Monica PD “One Time”. The “Heat” hit the mark slightly more with a final score of 10-8. “One Time” packed their bags and will be back to battle “another time”. The final game of the opening round was the scrappy Sheriff team of LASD “South Bags” trading hits with SoCal “Dawgz” whom drove up from San Diego to get in on the action. When both teams were all punched out, it was the “Dawgz” advancing 13-4.  The next round saw some outstanding quarter-final dog fights with some great match-ups. First up was Culver City PD “Chaos” trying to wreak havoc upon the tough bunch of Chippies from Santa Fe Springs CHP. This was an absolute back and forth boat race to the finish as both teams exploded offensively, scoring a combined 44 runs in an hours game. But unfortunately for the CHP team, Culver City PD scored 24 of those runs to their 20. Culver City moves to the semi’s. Across the way #3 seed LAX PD “Bravo Tango” again upset a higher seed as they toppled #1 seed Oxnard PD “Regulators” 23-16. Oxnard had been undefeated all day until being caught slippin in this crucial game. LAX PD advances token to the final four. #4 seed Buena Park PD was looking to upset another higher seed as they took on #2 seed Ontario PD “Force”. Unfortunately, Buena Park's day ended when their injuries caught up with them and the tank was empty. Final count 20-7, as the “Force” was with Ontario in this game. The last semi-final game was another seesaw match up as Riverside County “Heat” was in an old west style shoot-out with SoCal “Dawgz”. When the dust finally settled it was SoCal “Dawgz” victorious 21-15. The Final Four teams had great resumes going into this round. Culver City PD holds 2 G & H tourney titles, LAX PD also has 2 G & H past tourney titles this season, Ontario PD is the defending Division II TOC Champs, and SoCal “Dawgz” also has 2 previous G & H tourney titles this season. So these two games were truly up for grabs. On field #3 Culver City PD “Chaos” looked across the diamond to see LAX PD “Bravo Tango”. “Bravo Tango” had got the best of Culver City in their previous four meetings. The boys from Culver City PD had different plans for this game as complete “Chaos” broke out and Culver City lost their damn minds racking up 33 runs! LAX PD missed the flight entirely, looked jet-lagged and they had to file a lost baggage claim on top of it when they could only muster up 7 runs. Culver City PD had a very smooth approach and landing as they found themselves in the Championship game. Ontario PD “Force” looked solid in pool play and even stronger once the brackets started. But SoCal “Dawgz” were hungry and wanted something to “gnaw” on. The “Dawgz” had given Ontario their only loss during an earlier pool play game. Ontario was seeking revenge, but the “Dawgz” became absolute “guard dogs” on defense and protected the plate ferociously as there was a disturbance in the “Force” and Ontario only plated 4 runners all game. The canine’s broke off their leash and crossed the dish 12 times, earning a trip to the Championship game. The final game saw two old rivals Culver City PD “Chaos” vs SoCal “Dawgz” face off yet again. But this time was for the lifetime bragging rights associated with being crowned 2009 Guns & Hoses TOC Champs. It was a great back and forth battle through all of the innings. Culver City took the lead late in the game only to have the “Dawgz” come back and retake the lead in the top of the 7th inning. Culver City had the last at bat and the opportunity to clinch the title. The boys from the west side of LA looked poised to do just that as one solid shot cleared the fences and some runs were scored. With 1 out and each additional home run in this inning meaning another out, Culver City did just that as the next two batters also hit lasers that cleared the fences (each for outs) to end the game.  Congrats to both of these teams as they had great seasons followed by an outstanding 2009 TOC. But in the end it was the Police Combo team of “SoCal Dawgz” that climbed through the brackets to be crowned the 2009 Guns & Hoses TOC Champions! Congrats to the SoCal “Dawgz”!

For their efforts, the Champions in each Division earned the big Guns & Hoses Logo “Champions” Beer Steins, Team sublimated uniform Jerseys, the huge “Champions” Team Plaque, Photo and brass plate placement on the Perpetual G & H TOC Trophy, and the bragging rights of being “2009 Guns & Hoses TOC Champs”!    

Guns and Hoses would once again like to extend the most sincere thank you to all the teams and players who participated in the 2009 G & H season. This past year was the biggest G & H season to date with “68” different teams participating at some point during the 9 tournaments that made up this year’s season series.

We look forward to seeing all the familiar faces as well as welcoming all new teams for the upcoming 2010 Season Series, starting in March with the always packed to capacity “March Madness / St. Patty’s Party” tournament!  Full 2010 season schedule coming soon!
– G & H