The 70th annual Lutheran Dartball League Tournament was held Monday at the St. John’s Sauers Lutheran School gymnasium.
At 6:30 p.m., Pastor Jimmy Rodriguez of Immanuel Lutheran Church offered up a prayer for the league. League President Jeff Hubbard, thanked everyone for a great year. He handed out the trophies for the regular season with third place going to Immanuel 1, second place to Sauers E and league champion to Wegan W.
The league then observed a few minutes of silence for Jack Hercamp of Zion 2. He was an avid dartball player and a good friend to all. He had just passed away a few days earlier.
The serving line was opened for players to get pulled pork sandwiches prepared by Wegan W. Teams were called to their boards to start round one of the tourney.
Round one had the following results: Wegan W beat Wegan B 7-3, Sauers E beat Wegan C 7-2, Hayden Methodist beat Brownstown 4 5-4 and Borchers beat White Creek N 6-5.
In round two, Lutheran Lake beat Jonesville 3-1, Immanuel Darty beat Dudleytown Mets 4-1, Immanuel 1 beat Sauers B 3-2 and The Pastors beat Redeemer S 5-2.
The win by Lutheran Lake was its first in the tourney as it had joined the league just last year and was defeated in the first game. New teams Hayden Methodist and Immanuel Darty both won their first game in the tourney.
In round three, Dudleytown N beat Wegan W 5-1, Sauers E beat Redeemer N 2-1, Hayden Methodist beat Dudleytown D 1-0 and Borchers beat Zion 2 5-4.
Redeemer N held a 1-0 lead going into the bottom of the ninth when Sauers E came up with two runs to advance to the fourth round.
In round four, Dudleytown D beat Lutheran Lake 2-0, Sauers E beat Immanuel Darty 5-0, Immanuel 1 beat Hayden Methodist 3-2 and Borchers beat The Pastors 5-0.
Hayden Methodist had a 2-1 lead going into the bottom of the ninth inning when Immanuel 1 scored 2 runs to advance.
In round five, Dudleytown N beat Sauers E 8-6 and Borchers beat Immanuel 1 5-2.
In the semifinal round, league second place Sauers E held a 5-0 lead when Dudleytown N started to find the range. The game was tied at 6 and went to the 10th inning. In the extra inning, Dudleytown N scored two runs to advance to the championship game.
But Dudleytown came up just short in the title game, as Borchers was able to win the championship 4-1.
Dudleytown teams had advanced to the championship game 11 times in the past and had won 10 tourney titles. Dudleytown N was making its sixth trip to the championship, having won the tourney the five previous times.
For Borchers, it was their second tourney title with the other one coming in 2004.