LRS overcomes long odds to capture bronze league championship

Published Sept. 9, 2010
By Walt Johnson
CSMNG staff

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- The 21st Logistics Readiness Squadron overcame tremendous odds to defeat Team Colorado 19-7 and capture the 2010 Peterson Bronze league softball championship Aug. 31 at the Peterson softball complex.

Not only did the team make an improbable appearance in the title game, it finished the season as the sixth best team in the league. The team also prevailed over the loser's bracket to defeat a solid Team Colorado squad.

Coming into the tournament, the 21st LRS team knew it would have to battle to win the championship. But that was no problem for this team that has overcome one battle after another all year according to Kevin Kleffner, 21st LRS coach. Kleffner attributed the teams winning streak to some tough breaks early in the season along with military commitments, rather than the fact the team wasn't championship material.

"We started the season 5-0 and then we lost three players to injuries and a few players to TDY commitments. We got everyone back at the end of the season and we just played softball again," Kleffner said.

The 21st LRS had to play like a champion because it had to fight its way out of the loser's bracket to reach the championship round. Learning this the hard way, they had to win three games Aug. 24 just to make it to the championship round. One of those games was against the top seeded 561st Network Operations Squadron team that was the beast of the league all season according to Leann Babcock, a 21st LRS player who was injured and could not play for the team in the championship round. Babcock said the game against the 561st NOS was a key to the team winning the championship.

"We gained some confidence when we played the 561st Network Operation Squadron when we came within a run (16-15) of beating them (early in the tournament) and we had never come that close to beating them and no other team this year had come that close to beating them. We got to that point where we were thinking that we have our guys back; we came so close to beating the best team in the league, why not think we can't win this," Babcock said.

To win the title the 21st LRS would have to win two games against a leading Team Colorado squad, which came into the tournament as the second seeded team. After surviving the loser's bracket ordeal Kleffner said the entire squadron was excited about the chance to play for a title and it proved correct when they showed up for the title games.

"Everyone on the team was fired up all week to have this chance to win the championship. That was also evident with members of the squadron that came out to cheer us on," Kleffner said. "It was a thing where everyone was talking about it all week and tonight we just came out and got a lot of key hits. We had some very good defense tonight also. We switched around our outfielders a little bit and that gave us a chance to get our best outfield on the field. We had some injuries this year but we got healthy and we were able to come back from being a sixth seed to winning the championship."

Kleffner said now that the unit has a softball title, it will focus its attention on some unfinished business in the intramural football league.

"This is awesome to be able to win this for the unit and now we have to take this momentum on to our flag football team starting Sept. 7. This is going to be a good way to begin our season. We finished second last year and fourth the year before and we want to win it all this year," he said.

Championship