Leff's Dojo wins first City Championship

Last season, Leff's Dojo walked off the field in the championship game after losing 8-5 to VIP in the team's first appearance in the Wauwatosa Championship game. The off-season was spent talking about and thinking about the game that got away and how if given the chance this year they were going to do everything possible to win their first city championship.

The Dojo managed to fulfill that mission with a 14-5 win over Capital Insurance, who were in their second City Championship game in the last three years.

Leff's Dojo entered the tournament as the No. 1 overall seed, going 12-4 in the regular season and leading the Thursday night "A" league from Week 1. The top eight seeds enjoy first-round byes in the tournament.

Leff's first opponent was City Fox, a second-place team from Friday night, and the Dojo won handily, 20-7.

In the second-round matchup they faced Colonel Hart's (Reid), who finished first in the Wednesday Night Blue League, with the Dojo winning, 11-1.

The final four of the tournament set up a rematch of last year, when Leff's Dojo faced Leff's Brand, who won the Wednesday Red League. Last season the Dojo struggled in that game, coming back to beat Leff's Brand in the last few innings.

This year was a completely different story.

The Dojo scored five runs in the first, two in the second and two in the third, going up 9-0 after three innings and winning the game 14-0. Thus Leff's Dojo was back in the championship game for a second straight year.

The bottom half of the bracket was set up as a rematch of last year's champion VIP against the Dojo, but Capital Insurance had other ideas.

The game was a back and forth battle as the score was 9-9 going into the top of the seventh inning. Capital Insurance scored five runs in the top of the inning and VIP was unable to answer back, and Capital Insurance was headed to the championship game for the second time in three years.

Leff's Dojo was the home team for the championship game and Capital Insurance struck first with a run in the first. Leff's Dojo answered back with three runs in the bottom of the inning, three runs in the third and four runs in the fourth inning to open up a 10-1 lead after four innings. They coasted from there, winning the game, 14-5, giving the Dojo its first city title.

Leff's Dojo Coach Mark Gresbach was very proud of his team for the entire season and the playoffs.

"We had a heartbreaker to end the year last year and we were focused to come back this year and try to get to this game," he said. "I'm just very happy we won it all."

Leff's Dojo pitcher Scott Daley pitched an amazing playoff series along with stellar defense as the Dojo outscored all four playoff opponents, 59-13.

-Tom "Sky" Skibosh