Today the runner-up in Restaurant League announced they were not playing in the TOC this Sunday. That means the Draft League semis losers will play a 3rd place game with the winner getting an entry to the Tournament of Champions. Of course all the teams left would rather just win this thing. After all, the $750 prize is only going to the winning team. I don’t have a lot to say about these games (I’ve been focused on the mind-numbing matrix that is the BoPo 2014 schedule) I just think the teams will let their bowling speak for them. I do have a favorite.
#2 SODA (8-3) -1 vs #3 Wet Bandits (8-3): Both of these teams only had to play one game to reach the semis, and they both took care of business, but in drastically different ways. SODA barely broke a sweat in cruising to a 9-1 victory. They did at least get to empty the bench. They haven’t been tested and come into the semis supremely confident. Diesel, the Yay Boys and Coco Lopez is a powerful lineup with a solid bench. The Bandits on the other hand had to claw back from 7-3 down and didn’t win til Herk doubled in the 9th and 10th to save something around 140, beating out Booth and E-Minor for last. Stevie Strikes continued his dominance but got absolutely no help. Luckily for them it was enough and his teammates have a golden opportunity at redemption. Valley Girl needs to play like the #2 on this team that she was for most of the season and then just hope somewhere amongst Herk, Squampch and Probie there’s a big game out there.
#5 In-N-Out Bowlers (8-4) -1 vs #1 Blurred Lanes (8-3): BIAS ALERT! BIAS ALERT! In-N-Out is the only team that won two games last week with three of the four seeded teams taking advantage of their byes to the quarters. They got there primarily on the right arm of Steve McQueen, the hottest bowler in the league not named Stevie Strikes. His low game of 5 was a 203, and as he said, nay yelled, “I don’t get BowlPortland this year, this is my BowlPortland!” He’s playing like a man possessed, but he is also very ably backed by a deep team. Slow Roll averaged over 170 on playoff night and a still scuffling Hungus is still good for a bunch of 180s. Space Farmer was off his game, but between him and the suddenly dangerous The Dude there have been plenty of big games to back up the big guns. Honey Bunny (2 BoPo titles) also rises to the occasion. Blurred Lanes is the #1 seed for a reason. They have as good a top three as anyone in the league. Natro and The Dentist can both take turns pacing the team and sometimes they both go off. Back that up with McStriker and you’ve got a great group. Those three are a wash right now against INO’s top three, but can Jewdy, Sylon and Two Koops keep pace with Farmer, The Dude and Honey Bunny? I think no, and I think INO wins, though I would pick either of these two in the Finals.
FINALS
If it’s In-N-Out vs SODA as predicted here it would be a rematch of an excellent regular season game won by In-N-Out. McQueen wants that money and I don’t see anyone stopping him (Stevie might out bowl him if they go head to head but not on the team level). Well, there it is, I’ll just see how big and bright a target I can paint on my own team. Good luck to everybody.