Anyone who read last week’s intramural sports article in the Maroon-News may have been a bit confused when the softball playoff brackets came out on Friday. Despite the original plan of having three playoff brackets, a lack of available officials and various weather concerns left the Recreational Sports Office with a two-division playoff system as the only viable option.

Heading into yesterday’s semifinal match-ups, both Division I and Division II were sprinkled with upsets.

The upstart team in the Division I Tournament has been Donkey Ranch. Entering the playoffs as a 12th seed with a 1-3 record in the League A regular season, Donkey Ranch has decimated League B in the playoffs. After a very close 13-12 victory on Tuesday over the fifth-seeded Shooter McGavin & Company, Donkey Ranch turned around and knocked off the fourth-seeded Delta Upsilon (DU) B team, 9-6 on Wednesday.

With the two upset victories, Donkey Ranch put itself in the semifinals against Phi Kappa Tau (Phi Tau) A, the undefeated top seed who defeated the Blazers, 8-4, and Phi Tau B, 13-3, earlier this week.

Perhaps just as surprising as Donkey Ranch’s performance has been the playoff performance of the Yo Mets, the League C Champion. As a sixth seed, the Yo Mets annihilated the 11th-seeded Theta Chi B squad, 20-3 on Tuesday. On Wednesday, in the most exciting intramural softball game of the year, the Yo Mets took advantage of the Dream Team’s fielding errors late in the game to force extra innings and win, 16-11, over the third seed.

Thursday’s semifinal games in Division I featured Phi Tau A versus the upstart Donkey Ranch club and the Yo Mets versus a very solid, second-seeded Cobra Chi A team.

In the Division II Tournament this week, the upsets were less surprising but just as important to the breakdown of the bracket. Two early-round surprises in this bracket were Phi Tau J and the Pig Slammers.

Phi Tau J, which finished winless in League E in the regular season, shook up the Division II bracket late Monday, as the 13th seed knocked off a fourth-seeded, power-hitting Stillman squad, 18-5.

Meanwhile, in the lower half of the bracket, the seventh-seeded Pig Slammers pulled off a huge upset over a second-seeded West team, 8-5, in the second round.This win followed up a 12-10 Pig Slammers win over Mike Seiver’s Best Friend in the first round.

These two victories propelled the seventh seed to a semifinal round, where they were set to meet 151 High Octane on Thursday after 151’s 12-2 win against the Deadweight Loss on Wednesday.In the other semifinal on Thursday, the top-seeded Diabeatings, who advanced by forfeit and a 13-3 thrashing of the Crazy Flamingos, were matched up against the fifth-seeded Warrior Poets, a quiet team out of League F that defeated Phi Tau J, 21-12 on Wednesday.

The winners of Thursday’s semifinal games will meet Monday on Whitnall Field.The Division II Championship is slated for a 4:30 p.m. start, while the Division I Championship will complete the championship doubleheader at 5:30 p.m.