Gallo's 3.5 Upsets Undefeated Peak Performance

Last night started with stress and some heartburn worrying about forfeiting a court. The unnamed partner of Mark Shepard was finally tracked down feeding "Alpo" to man's best friend at home. "Oh, I thought we started at 6:30 pm" was the rhetorical response when asked by the nervous and overheated team captain if he were planning to play. The start time misunderstanding was straightened out and Mark's partner was on court within 10 minutes averting our first forfeit ever. Our opposing team's captain was informed that Mark's Alpo feeding partner had been stuck in rush hour traffic and was just minutes away. Therefore, he honored us with an additional 15 minutes of grace time. With this behind us Egon went to work at 1st Singles and proceeded to daydream of his fantastic trout fishing trip with son Brett north of the Georgian Bay last week. I did have a chance to taste the trout after being smoked and grilled last week end and it was wonderful. Oh, we came out on the short end of the stick on his court, 6-4, 6-2. I must say that Norm at 2nd Doubles was still thinking of the recent weekend when his newest grandchild visited. I'm sure he was probably also thinking of the Halloween Party he and Michelle must be planning for their two new grandchildren... hay ride on the trailer behind the tractor, dunking for apples, costumes, and the rum and cider he would be making for his two sons who are now proud papa's.... oh no, we lost this court, too, 6-1, 6-2. Well, now we are two courts down to the only undefeated team, Peak Performance (PP), in our flight. The evening started off bad and seemed to be getting worse after dropping the two singles courts. But wait, Mark Shepard and his partner "Mr Alpo" (aka Ron Farnham) decided to make a statement and "whacked" their opponents from both sides of the court and walked away with a resounding win at 6-4, 6-1 at 1st Doubles. Not to be outdone, the "Katzenjammer" twins decided to put racquets to ball and bounced that little, yeller' motha' back and forth, hard enough and long enough to take a second win on the 2nd Doubles court. That's right, the twins team of Mike Cash and Mike Bornhorst blasted through with a 6-3, 6-3 win. Hey, now we are tied with 2 courts lost and 2 courts won. We really need that third court! Playing on the 3rd Doubles court fresh off the DL was Mark Flash, still limping from his sprained ankle but with his ever present and joyous smile. Partnered with "Mr. Weak Ankle" was Pete Gallo, having to play because he was the last one available on the team roster. Now tell me, what chance did we have in beating PP's undefeated 3rd Doubles team in order to win the match. With Marks's solid serving and Pete's play at the net the first set went our way 6-3. PP's team got their second breath and won the second set 6-4, thus causing a match tie breaker. The tie breaker didn't get off to a great start with us losing the first 2 points. In fact, it got so bad that the score got to a devastating 2-8 in favor of PP. And then, Mark and Pete found themselves down in a deeper hole with the score going to 4-9. It was really looking bleak. Some tennis guru once said "that you can win by winning each point one point at a time". Well, I guess I now believe it. Both Mark and Pete pulled their white shorts up as high as they could get and pulled themselves back to an 8-9 score. Their opponents then took the ball and the Five Seasons "rag- a-muffins" broke their next two serves with the score now in our favor 10-9. It was Pete's serve. He served to his opponent's back hand and who immediately returned cross court hitting the edge of the side line marker. Pete went after the ball, with his back to the net and totally out stretched, backhand lobed the ball back in a desperate attempt to save the point. So surprised was his opponent at the "get", that he hit his return into the net giving Mark and Pete the 11th and winning point in the come from behind tie breaker of 11-9, to win the court and the match 3-2 for Five Seasons #1. A great win for Five Seasons #1! Congratulations!