2019 South Salt Lake summer softball tournament sees new champion emerge
Oct 03, 2019 02:44PM ● By Brian Shaw
By Brian Shaw | [email protected]
For years, the SSL Old Timers have set the standard at the South Salt Lake Summer Softball League.
Often imitated but never duplicated, the back-to-back champions had a rough start to their 2019 season, winning only the full three points in their second game and ended up finishing in third place in the Championship Pool league standings.
For starters, there's such a unique 5v5v5 format in play here—one that's stood the test of time as three teams play at the same time and one bats, one mans the infield and one stands in the outfield.
With a whopping nine teams out of 12 making the playoffs this year, including all six from the Championship Pool and three from the Consolation Pool, that made for some interesting battles once the postseason hit.
Ball First won the regular season league title and found itself against Green Team Go and the Grizzlies, the Nos. 6 and 9 seeded teams in the first round of the playoffs on Aug. 19.
Ball First advanced by defeating both teams soundly. Perhaps the biggest surprise in the playoffs came though when Lynsey's Losers, the No. 5 team, came in and knocked off No. 2 Nuke Town along with No. 8 Team Trash Talk, to advance to the championship game.
Also making it to the winner-take-all final was another unlikely seeded team in No. 7 Leo's Lions who upset the reigning back-to-back champs in SSL Old Timers as well as the No. 4 Out Of Shape Elites.
That set the table for a showdown between heavily favored No. 1 seed and regular season league champion Ball First and two shock entrants in Lynsey's Losers and Leo's Lions.
But, as sports can often do, surprises can come at any time and that's what happened with Lynsey's Losers.
Despite finishing a distant fifth place in the league standings, Lynsey's Losers ended up taking the trophy home and were the ultimate winners in 2019, wowing many with great hitting and clutch fielding when it counted and ending the SSL Old Timers' reign at the top.
