Yes, the Demons now have groupies ... 4 Life!!!

This kid will one day pitch like his old man, Jazzy Jeff. Gotta love the Demons in training. He can already handle his liquor better than Marky Mark.

Game 11 report: H-W Demons 11, Paulie's Customs 9

After one of the darkest days in H-W Demons history last week, your heroes rebounded like champions Thursday night at Moorman Main.

Last week, the Demons had to take what was believed to be the first forfeit in team history after we didn't have enough people show up to face Paulie's. That gave Paulie's a free win.

You can't blame the Demons for not wanting to play out the string. After the stinging losses to JJ's Customs, it looked like the Demons' chances of winning a second straight title in the rough and tumble Quincy Park District Division V ranks were finished. Just six people showed to play a scheduled 6 p.m. game last week against Paulie's.

On Thursday, we gave Paulie's a custom beating and are (get this) now tied for first place in Division V with JJ's and Paulie's. Alas, even if we are able to beat Jenny Craig and Co. in our 7 p.m. season finale next Thursday (weather permitting), we don't have the tiebreaker on our side. We have a 1-3 record against those teams, which will likely put us in third place should we win next week.

There were times on Thursday where we looked like we hadn't played for two weeks. After taking charge with a five-run fourth inning to go up 5-1, we gave it all back and more in the bottom of the inning. We had two outs and one of Paulie's lefty's hit a fly ball in foul territory to Rob Base in right field. Unfortunately, he dropped the ball. The guy went one to single home a run. No big deal.

Then another Custom Paulie hit a fly ball to Rob Base in right. And he dropped it again.

Then another Custom Paulie hit a fly ball to Rob Base in right. And he dropped it again. (Really, he dropped three fly balls in the same inning. One of the saddest sights in Demons history.)

By the time we finally got out of the inning, we trailed 7-5. But the Demons weren't going to go down without a fight. We eventually came back to take an 11-9 lead in the top of the sixth. Jazzy Jeff induced them into a 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the sixth.

After we came up empty in the top half of the seventh, Jazzy got Paulie's out as a guy with more tats than anyone in the league (who had whiffed earlier) hit a lazy fly ball to Bad Brad to end the game.

Nothing great on the hitting front (at least that I can remember).

Maybe the biggest news of the night is that the Demons now have a groupies (as you saw from above). Members of Jazzy Jeff's family and others have made Demons fan jerseys and wore them to the game. They were much better backers than the Merry Beavers, who stuck around to drunkenly root for Paulie's so that they could finish above your heroes in the standings.

The groupies (and the Demons) will be in full effect next Thursday at 7 p.m. when we play Jenny Craig and Co. at Moorman Main. It's the last game of the season. Maybe we can even get Shawny and Cooley-O to show up.