Once again the annual Autumn Classic softball tournament took San Diego by storm, packing bars over the Columbus Day weekend and bringing excitement to softball complexes all over North County. With play in the tournament’s Open Division separated into five levels of play, San Diego proved to be a force to reckon with in the lower divisions while success continued to elude the teams of the America’s Finest City Softball League (AFCSL) in the upper divisions.

When the dust settled on the fields at Kit Carson Park in Escondido, San Diego’s Hamburger Mary’s took first place in the Division 3 tournament, Interactive Male finished in second place in Division 4 and the Bourbon Street Cocks and Alano Club/GLT took second and third place respectively in Division 5. Following the games, teams gathered a Club Montage for a night of eating, drinking, dancing and celebration.

“This year’s Autumn Classic was an overwhelming success,” said Martin Cherrier, the Open Division’s tournament director. “We had some of the best competition that we have seen in many years. The weekend ended with Club Montage hosting a very well organized closing party.”

In Division 3, Hamburger Mary’s went undefeated in round-robin play to earn themselves the number-one seed in their pool. In tournament play, Mary’s continued their win streak, trampling the competition on their way to the championship game, where they faced Nu-Towne Desert Heat of Phoenix.

“Last year we lost our first two in playoffs,” said David Lewis, Hamburger Mary’s team manager. “We just came back this year and we don’t take things too serious, so we were really surprised, especially after the first game where we beat the team pretty easily. That helped us out a lot.”

Lewis pointed to their 11:00 a.m. game on Sunday morning against local rival Moby Dick’s Trojans as a turning point in the tournament. Moby’s had Mary’s on the ropes, forcing them into extra innings where Lewis’ team pulled off the win.

“We’ve been playing together, the same group of people, for three years,” Lewis went on to say. “I don’t know what happened. We kind of got a momentum and kept the energy going and we just played well.”

In Division 4, Interactive Male bounced back from losing both games in round-robin play and their first game in the double-elimination tournament to battle their way into the championship game against the number-one seed, Fault Line Fireballs of San Francisco. However, eight back-to-back games proved to be too much for Interactive Male, who ran out of steam in the championship game.

Last, but certainly not least, in Division 5 the Bourbon Street Cocks took down Alano Club/GLT to advance to the championship against The Enervators of Long Beach. The Cocks had to settle for a second place finish, but team manager Steven Spoaggins was proud of the success the team had in their first tournament together.

“We had high expectations,” Spoaggins said at the closing party at Club Montage. “We had a good team put together and I thought we would do really well. Beating the GLT the second time was probably the highlight. We lost to them the first time around, but we got them the second time.”

With the Autumn Classic complete, the AFCSL returns to their regular Fall Ball season this week with games taking place at the Poway Sportsplex starting at 8:30 a.m. on Sunday morning.