LI Kick’s Monday night playoffs decide East Meadow spring season titles

Backyard Kickball ’97 turned East Meadow’s playoff night into a clean run at the spring title, beating The Mandylorians 12-8 in the A bracket semifinals and then edging Saved By The Ball 11-8 in the final. The result gave the bracket its most telling swing point: Saved By The Ball had already survived Ball Busters 16-13, but could not finish the job when the title was on the line.

That mattered because LI Kick sent every team into the postseason and seeded the bracket by regular-season performance, which meant the final Monday carried weight well beyond one night’s scoreboard. The spring league ran from April 27 through June 15 at Eisenhower Park, with games from 7 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. and each weekly league described as a seven-week commitment. In other words, there was no margin for a slow start, and no hiding from the bracket once the regular season ended.

The A bracket was the center of the pressure, but the other finals delivered their own clean verdicts. Kickin Daisies beat Rat Chefs 10-8 in the B bracket final, while Never Generic topped Urban Legends 9-7 in the C bracket final. Those scores fit the shape of the night: close enough to feel fragile, but decisive enough to reward the teams that handled the late possessions best.

Saved By The Ball’s 16-13 semifinal against Ball Busters showed how thin the margin was in the upper bracket, especially with the matchup projected as a 13-15 ELO game. Backyard Kickball ’97 took the more direct route, getting past The Mandylorians 12-8 before closing the championship with an 11-8 win that left no doubt about the top of the spring field.

The setting carried its own East Meadow weight. Eisenhower Park sits at 1899 Park Blvd., and Nassau County says it was officially dedicated in October 1949, rededicated on October 13, 1969, as Dwight D. Eisenhower Memorial Park, and later marked by a statue of Dwight D. Eisenhower in 2013. LI Kick’s model blends competition with post-game bar meetups and bar-point races for Bar Champs, and the spring playoff night fed directly into a Summer 2026 East Meadow Monday Nights league that was set to begin June 29 at the same park.