Playoff Recap

It was time, the Phillies were in the playoffs, and that’s where they belonged. Before the first big game against NPC, I talked to some of the players before the first game. I asked Keith Abernethy what his feelings were about this season. “I’ve been playing here for 11 years, and this year is the best feeling season I have ever been a part of. It feels like we really have come together as a team.” I also asked Chris Cicatelli if playing early had any effect on him, and he responded by saying “Not at all. I could play at 3 A.M.”

It was a hot day on Saturday, but I don’t know if anyone started the day off hotter than the Allbritton Philibusters. They were up against the National Press Club, another team coming off two big wins to get into the playoffs. The mentality for the game was to get base hits. Through the first five innings the Phillies were taking advantage of NPC’s mistakes and mental errors. The score was 4-3, until the Phillies wore out NPC. Final score 9-5. From what I saw, the Phillies were not only outplaying them on the field, but on the bench. The energy level of Allbritton was great, they were cheering on their teammates through the whole game. When I looked to the other bench I saw drained, quiet players. I think that was one of the difference makers in the big win.

The next game was a tough one against CBS, a team that was ranked as the #3 seed in the playoffs. The Phillies started out strong with a 2 run homer by Keith Abernethy, but CBS was hitting so well. They seemed to always find that gap to hit in where we weren’t. The 5th inning was where Allbritton just ran out of gas. CBS scored 5 runs in the fifth to put them out, 15-8. The main reason the Phillies didn’t start out 2-0 was because in the CBS game, they left the bases loaded on multiple occasions without capitalizing. If they had brought some of those runs in they could have beaten CBS

Unfortunately, the next game was the Phillies last. They were playing AOL, a team that had many athletic hitters. They played AOL previously in the regular season, in a losing effort which the score was a ridiculous 25-16. Its too bad the Phillies couldn’t put up 16 in this one. Overall it was just a defensive game, in which we just could not get anyone on base consistently. Our defense held up but we just couldn’t score. Final : 6-3

But, the Philibusters 2008 season was anything but a losing one. They made the playoffs and won a playoff game! Things are looking up and it seems as that the team can only get better.

Hopefully the Phillies will have a season like this one next year and take it to the next level!

Eric Jensen