Things looked bleak for the Scorpions going into the Houston weekend as three of the men (Dayne Gingrich, Johan Svensson, and Joe Frasca) were absent with injuries. Brian Martin was added to the roster and Pierre Turmel filled in as a local sub.  To be expected, the Scorpions got off to a slow start being down 1-3 in morning battle. They fought back and ended tieing the battle with Kansas City (6-6), forcing the “team-breaker “.  But it was not to be as the Scorpions, despite an early lead, lost the first of three “breakers” they would force over the weekend of play.

After driving back to the primary site of competition at the Pickleball Country Club, the battle against the Columbus Hotshots was another loss to end up 0-2 for the day.

Feeling a bit dejected Sunday morning, more bad news was added with the determination that Kim Jagd was too weakened from the flu during the previous week to continue playing and David Smith had already been declared out late Saturday night due to his lingering hamstring strain.  An 0-for weekend was not a pleasant thought.

Picking up another local sub, Scott Spielberger, brought the scorpions roster to full strength, but with no subs.  Both Sunday matches ended in 6-6 ties forcing more “team breakers”.  In the morning match against the Indy Drivers, the Scorpions built an early lead and held on to it to keep the Drivers winless in “Breakers”. 

The afternoon battle against the Princeton Bruisers ended up in a tie and another playoff.  A masterful lineup submitted by team manager Ryan Wills saw an early lead turn into a run-away win with the final point delivered by Julene James with a rocket drive between the Bruisers two line 1  men.

With clutch performances from Maggie, Brenda & Julene, our 2-2 weekend felt a lot better than the record looks and put us in line for a sixth place seed (point differential kept us out of fifth) for the Championships in Cincinnati October 18-20.

It was a reason to celebrate (as if this team needs one) and we did at Whiskey Cake restaurant until they kicked us out at closing.

Brian Martin went 7-1 in his debut with the Scorp Squad and if you want to see the brilliance of Pierre Turmel, watch how he and Piet Aldrich (Piet is also brilliant) came back from down 2-8 to win 11-10 TWICE to defeat Heddings and Hedberg from the Columbus Hotshots.