CLAWSON, MICHIGAN – For the second consecutive week we’re in birthday celebration mode…this time it’s double the pleasure, double the fun! Unfortunately the Double Mint Twins weren’t making an appearance, so we had to settle for Jack and Erik.

Last week’s celebration of Coach Mike overwhelmed the cornhole effectiveness, with most players throwing poorly. Maybe it was the hardened livers, maybe we were all still drunk and found our groove from seven days ago. No matter the cause, the effect was more entertaining cornhole this week, compared to last.

Normal nights kick-off with a friendly pillow fight, with both sides softly batting each other around until someone concedes the “match”. Not this week. This week’s opener was like the new porn star thoroughbred who couldn’t wait to bust a nut. Bob and JV challenged Paul and Rich, and it got out of hand quickly – Bob and JV jumped out to a 12 – 1 lead thanks to eight points from JV across two innings, and a 10-point round from Bob that contributed an additional four points.

The score through two innings was 12 – 1, which is impressive but also in the choke/comeback territory. SPOILER ALERT!

Somehow after two innings Bob outscored Rich head-to-head, 13 – 10. Well, that didn’t last. Bob’s 10-point second inning slipped through his fingers like sand in an hourglass. He followed that up with rounds of 1, 0, 3 against the most talented player to ever participate in LEG (Rich).

Bob woke the sleeping giant with his 10-point second inning, and was then swallowed by the giant. His team’s 12 – 1 lead quickly evaporated. JV did everything he could to score points against Paul. It didn’t matter. Rich produced scoring round of 7 (8 – 1), 7 (7 – 0), and 6 (9 – 3) to complete the comeback and hand JV and Bob a choke, 21 – 14.

It was a phenomenal comeback by Rich (Paul essentially did nothing, with all due respect). But can I ask a frank question? How the hell does someone throw a 10-point round and follow it up with rounds of 1, 0, and 3? Credit to Rich. He would’ve continued grinding until the “W” was in the left side of his column. Still, one can’t help but wonder about the result of this opener had Bob maintained even a shred of composure.

GAME OF THE NIGHT

Choosing this week’s Game of the Night was incredibly difficult because five of the 15 games played were decided by four points or fewer. Ultimately, the choice was Game 5, which pitted JV and KP against Erik and Rich.

Points were difficult to score early in this game, with Rich and Erik leading 6 – 5 after three innings. In the top of the fourth inning, KP created a little separation by throwing a 4-bagger to win the round 12 – 7 over Rich, giving his team a 10 – 6 lead. JV added another point in the bottom of the fourth inning to make it 11 – 6.

Rich and Erik scraped together three points in the fifth inning, cutting their deficit to 11 – 9, but JV and KP tacked on four more points in the sixth inning thanks to an 8 – 5 round for JV over Erik. The scoreboard was 15 – 9 after sixth innings.

In the top of the seventh inning Rich repaid the 12 – 7 favor to KP, throwing a 4-bagger of his own to rally his team within a point, 15 – 14. Erik hopped on the momentum train and outscored JV 5 – 2 in the bottom of the seventh inning, giving his team a 17 – 15 advantage.

Rich pushed the scoring run to 10 – 0 and upped the lead to 19 – 15 with a 9 – 7 advantage over KP in the top of the eighth.

A 15 – 9 lead for JV and KP was gone in the blink of an eye (1.5 innings), and they no longer had room for error. JV calmed the storm a bit with two points in the bottom of the eighth inning, 19 – 17.

KP delivered two enormous points in the top of the ninth to tie the game, 19 – 19. He won the round 7 – 5, and had an opportunity to win the game by making a cornhole with his final throw. His final bag was on target, but couldn’t push through two of Rich’s blockers to find the hole.

The bags were back in the hands of the league’s best closer, JV. Erik is a strong player, but his history of coming up big in end of game moments is not as decorated as JV’s. Add in the fact that Erik had only outscored JV in two of the eight innings leading up to this moment, what happened next was almost too predictable. JV recorded five points after his first three bags, while Erik missed the board with all three of his throws. The game was over, so JV tried a ridiculous airmail drag on his fourth bag. He missed it, but it didn’t matter because even if Erik went in the hole on his final bag, the round was still 5 – 3 for JV, which was good enough for a 21 – 19 victory. Erik’s final bag stopped short of the hole, giving JV a 5 – 1 final round to win the game.

Erik finished the game with 25 points and two cornholes, averaging just 2.8 points per round, which was significantly below his season average of 4.6 points per round. JV scored 35 points and 6 cornholes while averaging 3.9 points per round. Most importantly to JV, though, was the stat of closing out yet another game. The only stat he truly cares about is winning, and when it’s winning time he rises to the occasion. Unfortunately we don’t track games closed, but I’d be willing to bet a lot of money that JV would sit atop that list if we did track that stat.

The other end of the boards was lights out – KP scored 67 points and 19 cornholes while averaging 7.5 points per round, and Rich scored 73 points and 22 cornholes while averaging 8.1 points per round.

MUSHROOM STAMP MOMENT (“MSM”)

This week’s Mushroom Stamp Moment is a bit unique. Normally we give this award for a specific

moment in a game, but this week’s award goes to someone who had an outstanding overall performance.

This week’s MSM is Rich’s total numbers. He was exceptional, shooting a 25.8 KPM, scoring 7.9 points per round, 2.27 cornholes per round, and 83% accuracy. He threw 12 total 10-point rounds and seven 4-baggers (i.e., 12-point rounds). It’s the most impressive week in the history of LEG, and for that reason deserves the week 6 Mushroom Stamp Moment.

NEWS AND NOTES

• Turley defied logic this week. He posted a 20.6 KPM while scoring 6.4 points per round and 1.56 cornholes per round on 83% shooting. Yet, he didn’t win a single game, going 0 – 3 with a -4.3 scoring differential. How does that happen? At least he can feel good about his performance, which included three 10-point rounds and one 4-bagger.
• Brent also had a great week, going 2 – 1 with a 20.8 KPM and averaged 6.4 points per round and 1.69 cornholes per round on 77% shooting.
• KP went 6 – 3 with a 20.3 KPM, averaging 6.3 points per round and 1.60 cornholes per round on 78% shooting. He finished the night with six 10-point rounds and one 4-bagger.
• JV had another strong week with a 5 – 3 record and 14.9 KPM. He averaged 4.7 points per round and 1.09 cornholes per round on 63% shooting. His most impressive stat was that he closed out three tight games with the winning points, which included the Game of the Night and games 12 and 14.
• Galz began his path to getting back on track this week, shooting a 14.1 KPM and averaging 4.4 points per round and 1.06 cornholes per round on 58% shooting. Galz hit two 4-baggers and another 10-point round tonight, good signs for his recovery. He still finds himself at #9 in the Power Rankings, which is hard to fathom given he’s never finished lower than fourth in the Power Rankings since joining the league in 2018.
• Erik had a less than stellar birthday week, posting just an 11.4 KPM. As outlined in the Game of the Night, Erik struggled. He scored 3.8 points per round and 0.62 cornholes per round on 63% shooting – all well-below his season averages. It should be no surprise he finished the night winless, 0 – 4.
• After a fantastic week 5, Jack dropped from #6 to #14 in the Power Rankings this week because of his 11.9 KPM. He did throw one 10-point round, but was much less consistent this week – scoring 3.9 points per round, 0.74 cornholes per round and 59% accuracy, while posting a 2 – 4 record.
• Paul finds himself at the bottom of the Power Rankings, dropping from #14 to #16 after shooting a 10.7 KPM on 3.4 points per round, 0.71 cornholes per round and just 50% accuracy.
• Bob had flashes of exceptional performance, as outlined earlier in this recap. Unfortunately for Bob, there were more moments of struggle this week, evidenced by his 11.9 KPM, 3.8 points per round, 0.84 cornholes per round and 52% accuracy. He did salvage the night with a 4 – 2 record, but most of that was due to having strong partners, as Bob only won one of his six head-to-head match-ups this week (29 – 28 against Erik in Game 6).