The Heartbreakers had an interesting weekend at the resent Outlaws Showcase and Tournament.  On Saturday, sloppy play lead to an 0-2-1 record as the team dropped games to the NJ Mystics Gold and Sudden Impact GOLD, and tied the NJ Rocks.  Expectations were not high going into Sunday's elimination tournament.  However, the young team seemed to flip a switch with convincing wins over the West Jersey Witches (7-0),  and the Jersey Inferno Red (7-1), before winning two nailbiter games over the East Coast Elite (7-5 ITB) and the Ewing Edge (3-2).  This set up a rematch with the Sudden Impact GOLD team for the bracket championship.

The HBs only had 9 players at the field.  The Impact game was their 5th of the day.  Shorthanded and after playing in intense heat, the exhausted team took the field in an effort to avenge the previous day's loss.  Unfortunately, there was nothing left in the tank, as the team fell 11-0 to take the silver medal.  The game was not as lopsided as it would seem.  But for a first inning error, the score would have been 0-0 going into the 5th inning.  As it stood, the score was only 3-0 at that point, when it became obvious that the team was just spent.  A valient effort that did not have the story book ending that one might have hoped for, but one that gave the team a new nickname, the "Nasty Nine". 

The run was as amazing as it was unexpected.  No one who saw the way the team played on Saturday would have given the team a chance of getting out of the early games on Sunday, let alone get to the championship game.  For those there, it was said to be inspiring to watch an exhausted team beat one talented team after another.  This Hearbreaker team has a tremendous legacy to live up to.  This past weekend was a first step toward the greatness that HBs teams are accustomed to.  There are tremendous things on the horizon for this team, both for this season for the forseeable future.

The Heartbreakers went 4-2 in the recently completed ASA State Pennslvania State Championship, failing to finish in the top 3 for the first time in 5 years.  The team started well by winning its first two games in pool play by identical 4-3 scores.  They then won their first game of bracket play before losing in extra innings to the Lehigh Valley Patriot Blaze to be put in the loser's bracket.

The HBs came from behind in the next came, overcoming a 2-0 defict late in the game to win 7-2.  The Chester County Stars them knocked them out of the tournament with a 7th inning, 3 run home run for a final score of 3-1.  The team is back in action next weeked at the Extreme Pony Qualifier.

The Heartbreakers finished Saturday's games with the number one seed after going 3-0 and outscoring their opponenets 23-0.  The team beat the Lake Shore Lightening 8-0.  The socre was 1-0 until the 5th inning when the team broke the game open with 4 runs.  The next game saw the team shutout the Lehigh Valley Wildecats 6-0.  The game was similar to the first with it being a 0-0 game until late in the game.  The last game had the HBs throwing their third shutout of the day over the Chester Counter Stars GOLD, 9-0.

On Sunday, the HBs jumped  out to a 4-0 lead in the first and never looked back agains the North Penn Eclipse.  In the the best game of the day, the HBs beat the Northwest Explosion  5-4.  The team battled back from a 2-0 deficit early in the game.  The score was tied 4-4 going bottom 7 when the winning run came in on a sacrifice fily.

The champship game saw the HBs pitted against the Warrington Blue Thunder.  The HBs won a back and forth game 10-9 in the first inning of the ITB to win the championship.

Forgive the lack of updates as the webmaster was not at all the tournaments this year.  The 2008 Spring/Summer Season will go down as memorable.  A much younger and much less experienced Heartbreaker team was asked to carry on the tradition of the great teams from the recent past.  At times, the team seemed to be up to the task and at other times the inexperience showed, sometimes even in the same tournament.  In the New Jersey Outlaws tournament, the team showed its youth on Saturday, but on Sunday, in blistering heat, with only 9 players, the went showed grit and determination, and talent, winning the first four games, including knocking off a team that would eventually qualify for the ASA Gold Nationals, before losing in the finals. But as is so often with a younger team, the play was inconsistent.  The Outlaws tournament was followed by a disappointing showing in the ASA State Tournament.  The play for the rest of the season was similarly inconsistent.  The team missed qualifying for the ASA National Championship for the first time in 3 years.  Although the team did qualify for PONY Nationals, it opted to go to the ASA Eastern Nationals, where the team found its groove.

At Eastern Nationals, the team put it all together and had its most consistent sustained play of the year.  The HBs went 9-0, against some very good competition from the northeast to win the ASA Eastern National Championship and to secure its bid to the 2009 National Championship tournament in Las Vegas.