{"id":13323,"date":"2011-07-28T00:04:30","date_gmt":"2011-07-28T07:04:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=13323"},"modified":"2011-07-28T00:28:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-28T07:28:00","slug":"panteras-top-those-guys-for-artesia-city-crown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/?p=13323","title":{"rendered":"Panteras top Those Guys for Artesia City crown"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Weeknight city leagues are popular places for players to get their swings or innings in. They are a great place for young players looking to gain experience, and yes, for those of us on the other side of the incline, like the editor. <\/p>\n

“City leagues are not what they used to be.<\/em>..” That statement might be true, but not for the reason one might think. You don’t expect to see ISC caliber pitching mid-week at the local park. But the Wednesday night league in the City of Artesia (near Long Beach CA) draws a good number of very talented players, including ISC level talent and pitching.<\/p>\n

In tonight’s championship game, the Panteras beat Those Guys, a team of mostly 20-somethings (ok, and the editor who is not), 3-0. The Panteras pitching staff for the evening? Three top flite pitchers who will see duty next month in the granddaddy of them all, the ISC World Tournament:<\/p>\n

Travis Price, of the #2 ranked California A’s;
\nJuan Potliccio, of the #8 ranked Minnesota Angels; and
\nMax Montero, of the Italian Athletic Club.<\/p>\n

Montero and Price combined for the shutout win for the Panteras. Lamar Goss, a young up-and-comer went the distance for Those Guys, keeping his team in the game, surrendering only 1 run through the first five innings. “Those Guys” are coached by Paul Castillo (father of Kevin Castillo, of Team USA and the California A’s). Paul has done a great deal for the young fastpitch players in So Cal, having also coached Clyde Bennett’s 23-and-under team for a number of years.<\/p>\n

To their credit, the kids did not complain about facing top caliber pitching, but were anxious to test their skills. One young player not playing defensively had his helmet on and was swinging his bat throughout the entire half inning prior to his at bat against Travis Price. <\/p>\n

These–err-Those — Guys don’t shy from competition. Earlier this year, they added a couple of pitchers and traveled to Santa Barbara to compete in this year’s Best of the West tournament, coming away with an upset win on Sunday over a higher seeded team. Their enthusiasm for the game is contagious. They (we) finished the season with just two losses, and are looking forward to the next outing, the Corona tournament in August. <\/p>\n

When the youngsters tune in to watch or listen to this year’s ISC World Tournament, they will no doubt follow the exploits of Max Montero, Travis Price and Juan Potliccio, with special interest, telling family and friends…”I faced that guy…..”, thinking back to this evening in Artesia. <\/p>\n

City league. The place it all begins.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Weeknight city leagues are popular places for players to get their swings or innings in. They are a great place for young players looking to gain experience, and yes, for those of us on the other side of the incline, like the editor. “City leagues are not what they used to be…” That statement might […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13324,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-13323","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-leagues","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13323","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13323"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13323\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13328,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13323\/revisions\/13328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13323"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13323"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13323"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}