Team’s seasons are coming to an abrupt and frustrating end. Surviving teams are now only one win away from qualifying for the day-long mega tournament to determine the Turbo Bocce champion. I randomly wake up in the middle of the night to find myself chewing glass and shooting black tar heroine directly into my eyeball . . . it must be playoff time!
Public Service Announcement: Real life will be canceled until further notice due to the Turbo Bocce Playoffs.
Lets break down the games one-by-one. I’ll be giving what the Vegas odds of each game were. The Vegas odds are a formula taken from vegasinsider.com to predict baseball game betting lines. It basically shows you who Vegas casinos would favor (and by how much) if there was betting on Turbo Bocce. This is a real Vegas formula used to set baseball lines that I imputed our bocce stats into.
Twinning vs. Some Innuendo
Vegas Odds: Twinning 56% chance of victory
This relatively even match up on paper, played out that way on the field. Twinning won the first game 11-8 behind a really strong nine point performance by Siobhan Christou. Some Innuendo won the second game by a the similar score of 11-7 to force a decisive game three. I was lucky enough to score this game and I can tell you that all four players stepped it up and played very well. Some Innuendo continued their winning momentum and scored the first point. They were also in for the second point before being bocced out by Jess Blake. Keith Currerri in turn made a just about perfect shot to bocce them back in, but when his ball knocked the pallino away from Twinning’s ball and toward his own teams ball it bounced just a little too hard off his own team’s ball and rolled back into two Twinning balls. Great shot, just bad luck. Amazingly the same thing happened in the very next round. Twinning had a 4-1 lead that they would not give up. Tough loss for Some Innunedo because they played good enough to win and all the rolls went against them. Great win for Twinning because they beat a team that was making a lot of shots. Exciting game all around.
Amerika’z Most Wanted vs. S & M
Vegas Odds: Amerika’z Most Wanted 77% chance of victory
Amerika’z Most Wanted was the highest ranked team playing on this day so the odds were just about as long as they could be for S & M, but S & M did not seem intimidated, and played very well. The first game was closer than the 11-3 score looked as S & M made Amerika’z Most Wanted fight for every point they scored. In the second game, Amerika’z Most Wanted completed the sweep in similar fashion, winning 11-5 but having to fight for every one of their points.
Mission Imbocceball II vs. Little Big Leagues
Vegas Odds: Mission Imbocceball II 78% chance of victory
Vegas loves Mission Imbocceball, and their formula does not even take into account the fact that Mission Imbocceball was one of the stand out teams of last year’s playoffs or that Little Big Leagues are Turbo Bocce rookies. Maybe those Vegas guys are pretty smart after all? What Vegas doesn’t know is that bocce playoffs are a free for all where anything can happen. Little Big Leagues proved that in the first game by beating the favorites 11-2. Mission Imbocceball proved last year that they are very hard to eliminate (I still think they might have won the whole tournament if they had not run into Los Moppines at their very best) and would not lose another blow out. The second game was a close one, decided by the minimum two point requirement but in the end Little Big Leagues emerged victorious scoring the win of the tournament so far.
Ball & Chain vs. Knight’s of the Round Ball
Vegas Odds: Knights of the Round Ball 60% chance of victory
Another three game marathon. Ball & Chain won the first game by a fairly comfortable 12-4 margin, but Allan LaVenture was not going to let that happen in the second game. He had eight points, and six bocces . . . three of which were bases (that’s a bocce and an ace in the same shot) to lead his team to an 11-8 win and force a game three. In the third game Ball & Chain played really well and scored 11 points, but Knights of the Round Ball emerge and advance with a 13-11 final score.
Knickerbocces vs. Red Rockets
Vegas Odds: Red Rockets 56% chance of victory
In a surprising coincidence Knickerbocces and Red Rockets faced off just last week with the Knickerbocces winning all three games. Despite this fact, Vegas determined that the Red Rockets were the favorites, and Vegas was proven right. Both games of the series were decided with 11-4 scores. Unfortunately for the Knickerbocces those three regular season wins from just last week did not help them in the playoffs where only two loses can end your season.
Kentucky Bourbon vs. Deboccery
Vegas Odds: Kentucky Bourbon 60% chance of victory
Kentucky Bourbon is the Vegas favorite, and Vegas doesn’t even know about their history of playoff success. To make things more difficult for Deboccery Tina Paetow was playing with a first-timer because her partner could not make it. Tina fought really hard, scoring seven points herself in the first game, but it wasn’t enough and Kentucky Bourbon won 11-9. In the second game Kentucky Bourbon was on a roll that would not be denied, they won 11-0 to move on.
Bocce Against the Machine vs. Salty Bocce Balls
Vegas Odds: Bocce Against the Machine 67% chance of victory
Bocce Against the Machine got their playoffs started right with an 11-0 win. That’s hard to come back from, but Salty Bocce Balls has already won one bocce tournament this year, and they gave it a valiant effort. The second game was close and came down to the end. It was nothing like the first, except in one way, the winner. Bocce Against the Machine won the game and the series to move onto the next round.
DaVinci vs. Blonde Bocce Bitches
Vegas Odds: 50/50 coin flip game
Its not often you get Vegas failing to predict a favorite. But in this game Vegas said each team had an equally good chance of winning, and this turned out to be a spot on prediction. Three of our leagues biggest bocce-ers got together in this rematch from the regular season. DaVinci won the first game 11-6, and Blonde Bocce Bitches came back strong with a big 11-2 win to force a decisive game three. Game three was as close and as exciting as you’d want it to be with DaVinci winning and moving on by the smallest margin allowed, 11-9. The real crime is, I don’t know how many bocces were scored because this is the playoffs and we don’t keep individual stats because its all about the team winning and advancing.
Dripping Stallions vs. Hattricks
Vegas Odds: Dripping Stallions 60% chance of victory
Two rookie teams matched up in this game. Maddie Stockwell of team Hattricks has done a great job winning this year with multiple partners, which is one of the toughest things to do. For this game she had Teena Stockwell, one of her most consistent partners on her side. John Napolitano and J.T. Sattler started this season late but were on a mission to play all their games anyway, which they did, and deserve a lot of credit for! Team Hattrick came out strong winning the first game 12-9. All the practice the Dripping Stallions have been getting paid off in game two. With their season on the line they put up a great performance winning 11-3 and forcing a decisive game 3. The third game was as close as it gets, going into overtime. Eventually the Dripping Stallion’s won 12-10 despite Maddie scoring seven big points in a valiant effort to get the win.
Sneaky Boccino vs. Mean Girls
Vegas Odds: Sneaky Boccino 67% chance of victory
Do matching uniforms help you win at bocce? My guess is yes, yes they do. Although we should have a few more opportunities to put this theory to the test during the playoffs. The Mean Girls came out strong in this match up, winning the first game 11-3. But The Sneaky Boccino’s are too good to go out easy, and they won the second game 11-4. In the final game The Mean Girls (and their matching uniforms) were just too much, with Heather Cleveland scoring a big 8 points to get the win, and end a great first year for The Sneaky Boccino’s 11-5.
So how did Vegas do on their predictions? I’d say pretty well, predicting 6 correctly and 2 incorrectly with one push. Funny enough, one of the two Vegas got wrong was the one it was most sure about. We will see how these predictions translate into the next round.
Congratulations to all the teams that won. You will be playing this Tuesday, the 25th at 6:00 pm. If you lost, unfortunately your chance at the title is over, but your season is not quite over yet. We are still having our end of the season celebration/award ceremony Saturday August 29th at 7pm at Sharkeys. There will be free food and drinks as we celebrate a fun season, and you’re invited!
