CLAWSON, MICHIGAN – Week 12 represented a last minute tune-up, and opportunity to jockey for seeding position heading into the 2020 Singles Tournament.

Several seeds were up for grabs, including the battle for the #1 seed between Dibble and Nick. Coming into this week Dibble held down the #1 spot with a 15.9 KPM, while Nick was nipping at his heels with a 15.8.

Nick played out of his mind, again, with a 17.9 KPM this week to drive his season KPM to 16.0! He finished 4-1 on the night with 71% accuracy. He drained two 10-point rounds and a 12-point round (more on that later), and outscored every head-to-head opponent, including besting KP in their three head-to-head match-ups, 112-86.

Add all of it up and the output is a #1 seed for Nick in the Singles Tournament.

Dibble had a great week as well, scoring a 15.1 KPM and going 3-3 overall despite starting his night with two close losses (21-19 and 21-16). But, it wasn’t enough to hold off Nick in the race for #1. Dibble slipped to a 15.8 KPM and will hold the #2 seed for the Singles Tournament.

The other seeding battles of interest were in the middle of the Power Rankings where #8 – #12 were separated by fractions of points. Coming into this week the Power Rankings for that group were as follows:
• #8 Turley – 10.7
• #9 Erik – 10.6
• #10 Bushie – 10.6
• #11 Paul – 10.6
• #12 Coach Mike – 10.2

Bushie benefited by staying home this week, and held on to his #10 seed.

Paul had been playing very well, but struggled this week with just an 8.6 KPM. He hit rock bottom in the last game of the night (Game 12) when he scored just one gross point in three rounds, easily becoming the worst single-game performance of the season (KP previously held that honor). Barker outscored him that game, 17-1, and Paul’s saving grace was the fact that Galz was his partner and outscored Dibble, 25-19, to prevent any chance of a bun run.

In fairness to Paul, he had a lot on his mind and was extremely stressed with his home buying process. Despite the bad week, Paul held his #11 seed because of the cushion he had on Coach Mike and the fact that Coach managed to post a 10.0 KPM. He likely needed something near 12.0 to overthrow Paul in the seeding.

The real battle was with Turley and Erik, with both players making a strong push for the #8 spot. Turley registered an 11.7 KPM and outscored Barker and JV in head-to-head matches on his way to a 2-1 record.

Turley’s lone head-to-head loss of the night was in Game 5 when he went against Erik. Turley’s team won the game, 21-17, but Turley couldn’t keep pace with Erik, losing 38-29 (including 10-7 in cornholes).

That one game was a critical piece to the #8 vs. #9 puzzle and fueled Erik’s run to a 13.2 KPM, which was good enough to leapfrog Turley for the #8 spot. Erik finishes at #8 with a 10.8 KPM and Turley finishes just fractions behind at #9 with a 10.8 KPM.

RAISING THE BAR

The league is always competitive, but this week had a different aura about it with the Singles Tournament on the horizon.

Twelve total games were played this week, and six of those were decided by five points or fewer.
• Game 1 – 21-19
• Game 2 – 21-16
• Game 3 – 21-17
• Game 5 – 21-17
• Game 9 – 21-17
• Game 11 – 21-16

Add on three more games of 21-14, 21-12, and 21-12, and that leaves only three games decided by 10 or more points this week.

The other aspect that stood out in week 12 can be summed up in one word – resiliency.

Of course we just outlined the theme of close games, but many of those games involved big runs when a team was down by a large deficit. The amount of grit and fight everyone showed was impressive, refusing to throw in the towel when faced with adversity.

Some of the highlights include:
• Game 1 – Erik and Galz jumped out to a 9-0 lead over Dibble and Coach Mike. In one inning Dibble and Coach totally erased the deficit and took a 10-9 lead, ultimately building a 15-10 lead. I won’t give away anymore on this game because we dive into the details of it in the “Game of the Night” section.
• Game 2 – A back-and-forth affair through five innings when the game was tied at 10-10. Then in the sixth inning KP gave his team (partnered with Coach Mike) an 18-10 lead, only to have Dibble (partnered with Galz) rally in the bottom of the sixth to close it to 18-16. KP and Coach were able to win 21-16, but Dibble and Galz got off the mat to avoid a 10-count.
• Game 3 – Coach Mike and Galz built an early 10-1 lead over Bob and Nick. But Bob and Nick chiseled away at the deficit and took a 17-15 lead after the eighth inning. Coach and Galz rallied to win, 21-17, scoring six net points in the ninth inning.
• Game 5 – Turley and Barker raced to an 11-5 lead over Erik and Paul, then Erik dropped a 7-0 fourth inning on Turley that triggered a 10-0 run for his team. Once Erik and Paul took a 15-11 lead, Barker and Turley responded with a 10-2 run to end the game, spearheaded by nine points from Barker and capped by Turley’s 5-4 win over Erik in the seventh inning.
• Game 7 – Nick and Dibble dominated this game early, taking a 12-3 advantage thanks to Nick kicking KP’s ass. JV and KP climbed back to within 12-11, but ultimately Nick and Dibble had too much firepower and pulled away to win 21-12.
• Game 11 – A common theme played out again in this game – Nick kicking KP’s ass. Nick started the game with a 7-0 first inning win and JV piled on with five more points against Turley in the first inning to make it 12-0. Turley and KP got off the ropes and produced a 16-5 run to get back in the game, trailing just 17-16 after six innings. But in the seventh inning JV and Nick put the game away, winning 21-16.
• Game 12 – Galz jumped on Dibble in the top of the first inning, 10-0, to give his team a commanding lead. In the bottom of the first, Barker outscored Paul, 8-0, to close he and Dibble’s deficit to 10-8. Those eight points from Barker sparked a 21-4 run and his squad won the game, 21-14. Technically this was a choke by Galz and Paul because they had a 10-0 lead and failed to win. But our formula and the statistics don’t recognize it that way because the 10 point lead happened after half an inning (the formula and stats only recognize it when it occurs after a full inning). Choke or not, it showed some serious intestinal fortitude from Barker and Dibble to rebound from a 10-0 deficit out of the gates.

GAME OF THE NIGHT

This week’s Game of the Night was Game 1, which pitted Erik and Galz against Dibble and Coach Mike. As we mentioned earlier, Erik and Galz jumped out to an early 9-0 lead thanks to Erik scoring four points against Dibble and Galz scoring five points against Coach.

Fortunes changed in the fourth inning when Dibble kicked off the inning with an 8-0 win against Erik, followed by Coach Mike sinking a cornhole to win the bottom of the fourth inning, 5-3. The 10-point burst gave them a 10-9 lead, but it didn’t end there. In the fifth inning Dibble drained three cornholes (missing his fourth bag for a 12-point round) against Erik and scored five more points to up the lead to 15-9.

After such a strong beginning, Erik and Galz were reeling. Galz gave his team one point in the bottom of the fifth to make it 15-10, but Dibble had just scored 13 points against Erik in the last two innings so the odds didn’t look good that Galz would see the bags again.

Erik calmed his nerves a bit when he sank a cornhole on his first toss of the sixth inning. He breathed a sigh of relief when Dibble missed the board on his first toss. Erik drilled another cornhole on his next toss, followed by a bag on the board from Dibble.

Erik’s confidently fired his third bag on the board to take a 7-1 lead, but Dibble made a much-needed cornhole on his third toss to cut the inning deficit to 7-4. Erik launched his final bag, hoping for a 10-point statement round. He missed long, but the bigger takeaway was his focus had returned.

Dibble’s final bag also missed (his was short of the board), which gave Erik three points in the inning (7-4). The score was now 15-13, advantage to Dibble and Coach.

Galz was excited to have the bags back in his hands and added four more points to his team’s total to take a 17-15 lead.

In the top of the seventh inning Dibble was perfect, hitting a cornhole and three bags on the board, on his way to a 6-4 inning win and tied the game at 17-17.

In the bottom of the seventh, Galz hit a late airmail to win the inning, 5-3, giving his team a 19-17 lead.

In the top of the eighth inning Erik appeared to feel the pressure of closing a game against Dibble. He scored only two of his four bags, and both were on the board. Luckily for Erik, Dibble also only scored two of his four bags, though one was a cornhole. Dibble’s 4-2 inning win tied the game, again, at 19-19.

Galz and Coach exchanged first-bag cornholes in the bottom of the eighth inning, and then the pile-up began. Galz started the traffic jam in front of the hole, layering his final three bags at the edge of the hole so that Coach Mike had no clear shot. Coach continued to play aggressively, trying to draw his bags around the wall and into the hole. He missed twice and his final bag rammed into the wall. He managed four points, but Galz had six perfectly executed points, good for two net points and a victory.

Each team had big runs, then traded blows in a knife fight before Galz and Erik prevailed, 21-19.

Dibble led all scorers with 44 points and 12 cornholes, besting Erik’s 34 points and nine cornholes in their head-to-head match-up. At the other end of the court Galz scored 37 points on 10 cornholes and Coach Mike had 25 points and four cornholes.

MUSHROOM STAMP MOMENT

The week 12 Mushroom Stamp Moment came in Game 4 when Nick blew open a relatively close game. After four innings Nick and Turley held a slight edge over JV and Barker, 11-9. In the top of the fifth inning Turley drained two cornholes and outscored Barker, 8-4, to give his team a 15-9 lead.

Turley then phoned to the bullpen and asked for the closer to take the mound. Enter Nick.

First bag – cornhole!

Second bag – cornhole!

Third bag – perfectly placed in the center just short of the hole, half the bag hanging in the hole.

JV threw his third bag and it somehow sneaked in the side door, avoiding taking Nick’s hanging bag with it. He gave himself hope after Nick’s early barrage of cornholes.

Nick had to throw an airmail on his final bag if he had any hope of dragging his dingleberry bag in for a 12-point round because JV placed a few nice blockers preventing an easy push shot.

As you can likely predict, Nick threw a dart that clipped the hanging bag and dragged it into the hole while his fourth bag airmailed into the hole for 12 points! His four-bagger was beautiful, and the 12-5 inning win was enough to clinch the game, 21-9.

Nick scored 32 points and made nine cornholes in just six innings. His airmail to score 12 points is easily this week’s MSM. Congrats Nick!

NEWS AND NOTES
• Galz sank his fifth 12-point round of the season (second to only KP, who has eight) and added three more 10-point rounds on his way to a 17.8 KPM and 4-2 record. He narrowly missed out on a week-high KPM thanks to Nick posting a 17.9. Given both players were like mirror images of each other this week, it’s fitting that Nick and Galz tied their week 12 head-to-head match-up, 46-46. Galz shot 67% and knocked in 1.43 cornholes per round, which was the best cornhole rate of the week. Galz will enter the Singles Tournament as the #4 seed.
• Barker went 3-2 with a 12.6 KPM while shooting 56%. His 0.88 cornholes per round this week continues to represent progress for Barker, but his usual accuracy was down this week. There is nothing wrong with shooting 56%, but that’s about 10-15% lower than what we’d expect from Barker. Once he puts the high cornhole rate together with 70% accuracy (and trust me, he will), he’s going to be extremely difficult to beat. Barker won’t play in the Singles Tournament, but he’d have been the #5 seed had he played.
• Bob was 0-3 with a 7.9 KPM, while shooting 42%. He had excellent opportunities for wins in games 3 and 9 this week, but fell just short in each (lost 21-17 in both). Bob will also miss the Singles Tournament because of his late start to his rookie season.
• JV had a bit of an off week with his 9.8 KPM, though he did have a 2-2 record. JV’s season KPM is still very good (11.9), but he’s battling through a bit of slump at the moment. He hasn’t found much success in the Singles Tournament because he thrives more in a partner environment. Nonetheless, he will be the #5 seed and is always dangerous if he can break through this slump.
• Finally, KP stumbled to a 1-4 record despite a 16.5 KPM on 65% shooting, 1.28 cornholes per round, and three 10-point rounds. KP will be the #3 seed in the Singles Tournament.