The Minge O'Toole's participated in the 3rd annual Tyler Crooks/Justin Chiavetti Memorial Tournament on July 28-29th, 2012. It was the first co-ed tournament the Minge O'Toole's have entered in 4 years. The Minge O'Toole's fielded a team of 7 men and 5 women, expecting to play with 6 males and 4 females but were forced to play 5 and 5 for the first 3 games because there were 5 females readily available after much deliberation by the convener and umpire. We lost 2 players to injury and played with 6 males and 4 females after all for the last 5 games. The tournament had a rough start as the first 2 games were officiated by a bitter umpire with very distinct teeth compensating for 'something'. The Minge O'Toole's surrendered 8 runs in the bottom of the 6th inning of the first game to lose by one run. After that, the Minge O'Toole's played incredible defense for games 2 and 3 assisted by spot on pitching by #28 Darryl Palmer, brought out of retirement for this tournament. Game 4 was a wash as after a 2 game break, the Minge O'Toole's were in no condition to play baseball effectively but still had fun being mercied by the eventual tournament winning team.

     After the first day of round robin competition, the Minge O'Toole's were seeded 4th place with a 2-2 record by a run differential worse then that of the other teams with 2-2 records. 3rd place got a by to round two.  1st and 2nd played each other for a bye to the finals. 4th and 5th played the only elimination game of round one. After winning the '4th/5th' game, the Minge O'Toole's beat the 3rd place team in the quarter finals (who they should have beaten in the round robin). The Minge O'Toole's then beat the loser of the '1st/2nd' game in the semi-finals. These 3 games were by far the best 3 games the Minge O'Toole's have played to date and put them in the finals to face the team that mercied them in the round robin. The Minge O'Toole's had just play 3 out of the last 4 time slots and were playing again without a break in the finals. It was a great game for the Minge O'Toole's, but they couldn't quite pull off the victory and received purple 'stay-dry' shirts as a prize for their 2nd place finish.

     The Minge O'Toole's  had definitely been missing out on pitching this season. #28 Darryl Palmer put on a show only walking 5 batters in 8 games (3 in the first game) and aided himself posting batting stats that were perfect going into game 7. #19 Michael McKenney, #39 Brandon MacKay and #58 Dave Chandler were flexing muscle early on (each with a home run in the first game) fighting for the lead in home runs in a tournament that only allowed one per game. #25 Candice McKenney fared well in her first extended playing time. She hit well or struck out trying with 10 K's on the weekend. #7 Kelly Easton was on fire until a slid into 3rd base rendered her useless for the rest of the tournament. She was safe. #15 Michael Lavender took a courtesy runner almost every time he got on base and this paid off as 10 of his hits came around to score. #2 Melanie Perreault lead the females in most batting statistics including RBIs, a new statistic the Minge O'Toole's trialed for just this tournament to see the viability of tracking them accurately.

     While the Minge O'Toole's may not enter anymore tournaments this season, they will certainly look to next year to better their 2nd place finish.