Game 1: L 5-16

MVP: OF Stanley Wang

Urbana, IL -- The Champaign Supernovas didn't exactly catch a break by not having to face a Taiwanese National Team or a frat this week.

Right-hander Scott Winter befuddled them anew in Supernovas's home opener, pitching seven solid innings, allowing five earned runs and ten hits, in the Old Styles' 16-5 win Tuesday night.

"It was fun obviously with the run (support). You can't ask for anything more than that," Winter said. "I didn't feel that great today, but I threw the ball where I wanted to for the most part. I felt I had decent stuff. A wise old man told me that in order to be a good pitcher, just keep the ball away from your opponents' bats and that is what I did. "

Dan Obert went 4-for-5 with three RBIs, and scored three times. Frank Lacson added two RBIs for the Old Styles.

In the beginning, the ‘Novas had quite a bit of dust to knock off our cleats. A few fielding errors resulted in six Old Style runs in the first two innings. John Wentz started off the big inning with a leadoff double and scored on Neil Patel's double just over third baseman Greg Wallace's outstretched glove. Mike Sangid, Amit Patel, and Viet Vu each singled off Supernovas' Victor Wang, then Ben Johnson followed with a two-run single, and Dan Obert made it 6-0 with a sacrifice fly.

The ‘Novas came roaring back with five runs to get the game close. Ernst Lamothe reached on Wentz's fielding error, Stan Wang and Kyle Plunkett singled and then Jesse Kuiper followed with three RBI triple. Winter then walked Greg Wallace, and John Comninos made it 6-5 with a long sacrifice fly that scored Kuiper and moved Wallace to second.

With the Nova's surging, Old Style killed the momentum with timing hitting and abit of the umpire's help. The umpire made a very questionable call concerning a run-scoring tag up play from third base that allowed Old Style to get a run. “That guy was three steps off the base when I caught the ball! That play was so bad, I swear Big Ten officials were involved" explained Jesse Kuiper. "I hate playing this bullshit game when the umpires don't even know the freaking rules." Cannistrao agreed. "If that ump wasn't dreaming about becoming the Ebony Bachelor of the Month or trying to impress Sister Souljahz, he would have seen that the dude was off the base!"

This run proved to be extremely crucial. V. Wang got the next batter to pop to short, however, Wang was not able to get the next eleven batters out. He gave up seven singles, and four doubles before getting Patel to fly out to center.

Unfortunately, the Novas' were unable to answer. They were able to get people on base, however, they failed to drive those baserunners by either grounding out or flying out. "We had our chances to get runs in" exclaimed outfielder George Glekas. "I think it has been a long time since any of us have played softball...so we were abit rusty...we will get it together and make a run to the playoffs."

"That call was bullshit" Cannistraro stated. "However, the reason why we lost was because we could not drive in people who got on base. We have a good team, a team that can match up with anyone. We got speed at the top of the lineup and we got some good bats. We just to play more with each other and we will be fine. Maybe adjusting the lineup abit might do the trick. However, I can say this. There have been only two geniuses in the world: myself, I mean Albert Einstein and Dan Pan. I took Dan's suggestion by putting Ernst first. That guy is fast....I heard that he can outrun certain cars. ...With that inhuman speed, he can get on base if he makes contact with the ball and surely Kyle or Jesse can knock him in. Lastly, we are like yeast....We rise to the occassion!"

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