I was at the Sonora Tournament over the weekend so I thought it would be appropriate for me to give the East Bay Bashers a pat on the back for a great 7-0 five-inning win over a very talented Santa Rosa Fastpitch team in Sunday’s championship game.
Santa Rosa, which has been playing most of the season with a partial lineup, was at full strength at Sonora as it gears up for the NAFA Tournament next month in Topeka, Kansas, so the 7-0 loss was a shocker (and a wakeup call) to the team. Santa Rosa managed only one hit, an infield single by Nick Green off the glove of the second baseman, that led off the game. As I understand it, the winning pitcher is a converted catcher who has been pitching for a only a couple of seasons, but he was in control throughout. The losing pitcher was Leland Grigsby, who gave up five runs in the first inning, all after two were out.
Except for a 9-8 win over a hard-hitting Merced team in its opening game Saturday in which they had 11 hits including three home runs (by Nick Green, Brian Macler and Matt Carpenter) and four doubles, Santa Rosa breezed to five straight wins before being completely shut down by the Bashers in the title game.
In Saturday’s second game, Santa Rosa defeated the Bashers 17-5 in a four-inning game ended by the 12-run rule. Santa Rosa had 19 hits including home runs by Casey Hillman and Brian Macler, a triple, and three doubles. Obviously, it was a different Bashers team that showed up for the championship game.
In Saturday’s third game, Santa Rosa defeated the Black Sox 13-6 in a five-inning game called by the seven-run rule. Nick Green homered again and an up-and-coming player, Jake Williams, homered to lead off the fifth inning.
In Sunday’s first game, Santa Rosa defeated the Santa Rosa Red team, a group of “new” players gathered together to get some tournament experience), 14-3 in five innings. The Blue team had 18 hits, led by Brian Macler, who was 4-for-4 with a double and a home run and five RBI, and Mark Young, who also went 4-for-4 with a home run and four RBI. The Red team went 2-3 over the weekend.
Santa Rosa then had a rematch with Merced and won 14-6 in a five-inning game called on the 7-run rule. Santa Rosa collected 13 hits including three by Nick Green and two each by Brian Macler, Danny Macler and Tom Dower.Danny Miller and Nick Greem picked up the pitching wins for Santa Rosa on Saturday.
Not sure why so much talk about santa rosa in this artical, didn’t even mention any of the bashers names and they won the whole thing not very good artical, , sorry if I offen anyone with this comment, but come on bashers deservre atleast a few names to be thrown in there
East Bay Bashers, champions at Sonora, CA, July 15, 2012; Left To Right: Bottom Row: Chris Wright, Dave Cavalier, Thomas Gaide, Johnny Rodriguez, Joe Berberena, Fabian Pantoja; Top Row: Matthew Roeber, Dave Anderson, Dave Carlton, Fred Williams, Wil Wright, Mike Woods, Monty Wells; Matthew Christiansen, Jenner Christiansen,
You do offend me. I am an 80-year-old man who sat in the hot sun through six games to keep stats for the Santa Rosa team. I did not have the lineup for East Bay but took it upon myself to let Jim Flanagan know about the Sonora Tournament and gave what credit I could to the Bashers. Jim took it upon himself to get the photo and the names. Hey, guys, if you want softball coverage, don’t knock what you do get because even if it may be lacking, it’s better than nothing.
Herb Dower
Cornel “Manny” Wells, nagged by a quad ailment, was the Basher pitcher that kept offenses down on this particular weekend as skipper Johnny Rodriguez had to use him sparingly over the 6-game span. Veteran Dave Anderson and young Matt Christiansen ate up the rest of the innings. Even Matt Roeber, a hard-hitting infielder, was tasked to come in and save the semi-final on the hill. Mr. Wells navigated the powerful Santa Rosa lineup carefully and got a little defense to help him as well. Good news was that nobody got hurt throughout the weekend (or at least hurt themselves any worse than they already were). Veteran Chris Wright produced the game winning hit to finish the weekend. Fun event with some good weather and good friends.
Thanks Dave for squaring up a bit of that lopsided article. Maybe I’m a bit overzealous in my criticism since I spent 40 years covering the NFL for the Oakland Tribune, et al, but it seems to me to be grossly negligent to heap mention on every team and its players except the team that won the tournament. There WAS a scorebook kept during this tournament, wasn’t there? Wouldn’t take that much of an effort, it seems to me. Let’s hear it for the Hayward Area’s teams. Another plug: anyone in the area who is interested, Hayward/South County will be hosting the men’s 50 and over nationals Sept. 7-9. Come on down.
Bill,
Our staff is a bit smaller than the Oakland Tribune 🙂
We’ve love to post recaps of all the tournaments, and teams, but we don’t receive many. Mr. Dower has been gracious in sharing reports from time to time on the Santa Rosa team on which his son plays, and in the process, a bit about the tournaments they’re at. I invited the Bashers to provide some additional information, which they were kind enough to send.(added to comments section here) As for the scorebook, we’d be happy to post them if you can send along.
-Jim/FPW
p.s. if you send me the info on the 50+ tournament in Hayward/South County, I’ll be happy to post it up.
Ok who won the tournament? Cause i thought the Bashers did.thanks to Dave Carlton for some what info on our team
I’d like to Thank Mr. Herb Dower who posted the original article.
This East Bay Bashers Team Est. in 2008 as Hayward, CA league team, have only began playing tournament ball in 2011. Great teams like Santa Rosa Fastpitch have always provided the challenge our players seek to step their games up and play with an intensity that carry our momentum from inning to inning. We never take anything for granted and look to display the utmost respect for the game of Men’s FastPitch Softball. Though we came away with the win on Sunday July 15, 2012, I guarantee that the next time we face an Santa Rosa FastPitch it will be a game to watch… they will be sure to bring their A game.
Thank you to Santa Rosa Fastpitch, The Buddies, Santa Rosa FastPitch and Savala Painters for great games this weekend.
Awesome Tourney. We had a blast!!!