OTTAWA – The fun bunch were awaiting their fate on baited breath. They had taken destiny out of their own hands by losing two games yesterday to finish the tournament 2-2. Now they had to wait and see how the rest of the teams finished up.

On the way to his car after the fourth game, Steve “field marshal” Saunders ran into league convener Colin “hands off my trophy” Bromfield who asked “field marshal” how his final game went. “We destroyed them. We beat them by 15 runs and scored 11 in the endless inning”, he replied matter-of-factly. Bromfield broke out in a cold sweat and started to tremble. “Good for you”, he replied – his voice now quivering. His mind was spinning. There was no way he wanted anything to do with the “red hot” fun bunch. No way in hell he was going to play them in the finals. You were going to have to pry that trophy out of his cold dead fingers. He left abruptly and started running through scenarios in his head.

Meanwhile math wizard and summa cum laude chemical engineer leah “the roadrunner” morrel was watching the final games play out with great interest. She was calculating in real-time the fun bunch chances to advance on the back of a left over pizza box from the team party the night before. The rest of the team arrived at the diamond – ready to advance should the dice roll in their favour.

In the last game of the round robin Bromfield’s “Athletics” were playing the “Aquabats”. Leah had finished her calculations based on all the team results. Athletics were going to advance (of course) and the fun bunch would advance if the Athletics won by three runs or less. It was a long shot for sure, but the door was open a crack. The game was tied and the Athletics came to bat in the bottom of the final inning. As if heaven looked down upon the fun bunch and smiled, the Athletics scored two runs to win and create a perfect run differential for the fun bunch to advance! The team was jubilant.

Suddenly the world came crashing down. Bromfield – who had inexplicably managed to break a league rule by “hitting” but not “fielding” in the last game—informed the fun bunch that his team “the athletics” would in fact be playing “the Aquabats” (a team they had already beaten convincingly) in the finals. The fun bunch would not be advancing.

“the roadrunner” had to be restrained by her teammates. She held up her pizza box displaying her flawless mathematical calculations. Spittle flew from her mouth. She was apoplectic. “That’s wrong. We advance not the Aquabats, you’ve made an error, look at my pizza box!” , she howled. “I wanted to ‘keep it simple’ so I used a simpler algorithm. Sorry but we play the Aquabats not the fun bunch”, Bromfield snickered as left and began engraving his teams name on the trophy.

The team was dejected. Foiled again by the Athletics. Despite the disappointment of missing the final they all agreed the tournament weekend was a big success. They had a break out game on Sunday clobbering Got the Runs and dishing out some much needed payback. They had batted around twice and scored 11 runs in the final inning-- all team records. That would be their small victory. They had a great turnout of fans and alumni and great team party Saturday night. They had a plethora of young players and were well positioned to be a powerhouse for many years to come.