Animals looking to clobber the Aces; Screamin' Kixxx to Stomp WMPA

Tune in tonight for Lone Star Kickball's Season Finale. Although our coverage on LSK has been hit or miss, we would be doing Kickball Nation an injustice if we didn't at least cover the road to the championship.

In it's inaugural season, LSK was able to feature some strong competition as more than half the league was loaded with talent and experience. Most of these teams are no stranger to the grit and grind of an often dismissed sport. Not to mention, that the three rookie teams showed a fair amount of potential and will hopefully join the ranks of competitive kickball. It made for a successful inaugural season.

As expected, this season's Final Four will be featuring four deserving teams. All with experience and all ready to compete at a high level.

If anything, the one surprise was the returning Billy Bad Asses getting eliminated before making it to the Final Four. After a brief kickball hiatus, the Bad Asses reformed to try their hand at grass kickball. Their only experience up into this point was on a traditional baseball diamond, which showed in their 4-4 record and even more evident in their negative point differential consisting of 41 Runs Scored and 53 Runs Allowed. However, they contend, they were just looking for a fun time and a decent season. Mission accomplished I suppose.

Tonight's first semi-final match up features #2 Animals vs #3 Smoking Aces. Two big names for a giant match-up.

The #2 Animals are looking to add another grass league championship title. They took the Epk 2013 Sprummer Championship just a couple of months ago. Talented, experienced, and anchored by clutch pitching, this formula has helped them get to a 5-2-2 record with 51 Runs Scored and 31 Runs Allowed. They are filled with team pride and have all the team chemistry you could ask for. We will see if that can turn into another championship title.

  However an interesting side note, a strong resemblance of #1 Screamin' Kixxx was also competing for the Sprummer 2013 Epk title, but were eliminated by disqualification on a bogus trump charge at the hands of the Kickball Nazi of Epk. So the Animals have yet to face Screamin' Kixxx on the post-season stage.

The Animals are slated to play #3 Smoking Aces, who have recently come to life. On both grass and dirt, the Aces were an under-achieving team. They arguably have one of the more talented rosters within LSK (grass) and SCK (dirt). However their team chemistry was being held ransom. Luckily they have made some internal changes and have finally unleashed their true potential. With a 5-3 record and 49 Runs Scored and 30 Runs Allowed, they are statistically evenly matched with the Animals. However they are far from mirrored images of each other. The Animals are more like the Care Bears, fun and lovable, but you don't want to piss them off because they'll Care Bear Stare your ass. While the Smoking Aces are more gritty and cut throat, kinda like Black Water, mercenaries for hire.

The 2nd match-up of the night will feature #1 Screamin Kixxx and #5 Where's My Pitches At.

Don't have any concrete analysis on Where's My Pitches At. Although they do have my sympathies for having to endure a season of Epk. But in LSK we do know that they finished with a 3-3-2 season 25 Runs Scored and 35 Runs Allowed, which translates into a negative deferential power rating. Needless to say that's not good. Especially when you're facing an X-number of championships by Screamin Kixxx. WMPA can be commended for making into the Final Four, but unfortunately they are running into an absolute monster.

There's no doubting Screamin' Kixxx's marque status. This LSK season they have 88 Runs Scored, which has to be a grass league record. Their defense is a brick wall allowing only 18 runs, on grass! You have to remember a grass league gives more opportunities for kickers, because of the 2 bounce rule and the grass tends to slow down the ball. Kickball Nation tends to think IJK gives these guys way too much credit, but the stats speak for themselves. No one within the LSK league comes close to them offensively or defensively. They are 38 runs ahead of the next best offense, which is the Animals and have allowed about half of what the next best defense has allowed, which is the Smoking Aces. It's safe to assume this is their championship to lose, because its going to take a strong effort by the rest of the Final Four to take them down.

But then again, you know how the saying goes, "Any Given Wednesday"

Good luck teams and Happy Kicking!