The Dallas Woody’s X-Plosion Softball Team won the “C” division at the North American Gay Amateur Athletic Association (NAGAAA) World Series to become only the second team from Dallas to capture the “C” Division World Series and the first since 1994. Dallas Woody’s X-Plosion emerged from a field of 47 teams from across the country to become only the third team from Dallas since 1977 to win a World Series title.
Members of the Dallas Woody’s X-Plosion Championship Team are J.R. Albiar, Jesse Baker, Gerard Burgess, Charlie Burrow, Ron Butler, Matt DuBose, Scott Dye, R.J. Guyer, Chris Lawson, Brian McCall, Jason Ramsey, Billy Stover, Charles Urich, John Valdez. They were coached by Tony Brown.
Dallas J.R.’s won the “C” division World Series in 1994 in Nashville, Tenn., and the Dallas Sting won the “B” division World Series in 1998 in Atlanta, Ga.
During pool play, the X-Plosion established itself as a contender for the title by going 3-0 and outscoring its opponents 50-8. It opened pool play on Tuesday with a 24-1 win over the Houston Professionals and followed it up on Wednesday with a 15-0 win over Seattle Poco and an 11-7 win over Philadelphia Triple Play.
The X-Plosion entered the double-elimination portion of the tournament as the No. 7 seed overall and rolled into the winner’s bracket finals with six consecutive wins. In its first game of bracket play, the X-Plosion won 12-10 over the Chicago Spin. Its next three games were decided by just one run and included wins over the Ft. Lauderdale Blue Ice (9-8), Los Angeles Bandits (8-7) and the Philadelphia Triple Play (6-5). In the winner’s bracket final the X-Plosion defeated the Minneapolis Edge 14-7 to move in to the championship game.
Philadelphia Triple Play emerged from the loser’s bracket to earn a spot in the championship game where it needed to beat the X-Plosion twice for the title. In the first championship game Triple Play battled back from a 5-2 deficit to score 13 unanswered runs to force the “if” game to decide the champion.
In the “if” game the X-Plosion jumped out to a 4-3 lead after the first inning but lost the lead in the second when Triple Play scored four runs to take a 7-4 lead. After being held scoreless in the third inning, the X-Plosion picked up a run in the fourth to cut the lead to 7-5.
Trailing 7-5 and down to its last six outs the X-Plosion battled back in the sixth inning. With the stands packed with friends, family and Dallas supporters cheering and urging on their team, the X-Plosion erupted for six runs to take an 11-7 lead. Triple Threat answered with three runs in the bottom of the six to cut the lead to 11-10.
In the final inning the X-Plosion added two insurance runs to take a 13-10 lead going into the bottom of the seventh inning. Triple Play managed to push across one run but the X-Plosion defense stepped up to stop the rally and earn the 13-11 win.
X-Plosion pitcher Charlie Burrow was named as the Most Valuable Player for the “C” Division at the NAGAAA World Series.
The X-Plosion offense outscored its opponents 117-71 over 11 games and batted .453 as a team. The team had six players who batted over .500 for the tournament and they were Ron Butler (.667), Matt DuBose (.583), Billy Stover (.556), Scott Dye (.536), Charles Urich (.520) and R.J. Guyer (.516).
Other Dallas Teams at the World Series
Dallas sent a total of six teams to compete in various divisions at the 2008 NAGAAA World Series in Seattle and four of the six finished in the top 10. In the “B” Division Uptown Vision TKO finished tied for fifth and Alexandre’s Woofpack finished tied for ninth. In the “C” Division the Dallas Voice Drillers finished tied for seventh.
