From our friend John Limon, details on Fastpitch, “Texas Style”:
Al’s Fastball List: Texas Tournaments for 2005
Archive for the ‘Tournaments’ Category
Texas Tournaments for 2005
Monday, April 25th, 2005ISC-II Canada West Qualifier
Monday, April 25th, 2005Al’s Fastball List: ISC-II Canada West Qualifier Set for June 4-5, 2005 in Manitoba, Canada Last year, the Gladstone Whips from Manitoba, Canada qualified from the region, and was a Final Four finisher, falling to Smully’s Tavistock Merchants in the semi-finals. Smully’s Tavistock is currently ranked #1 in the world in the just-released ISC-II Rankings.
Primetime Wins Alliance Tournament at Palm Springs
Sunday, April 24th, 2005Primetime fastpitch rallied from down 4-1 and overcame several defensive miscues to top the Amigos 6-4 in the championship game of the third Alliance weekend of the 2005 season.
Primetime’s Joe Fernandez and Keith Barker had three hits each in the win. Dan Zupp was the winning pitcher for Primetime, with Julian Martinez taking the loss.
Primetime defeated Rude Pac in one semifinal while the Amigos bested the Rounders 5-3 in extra innings after regulation play ended in a 2-2 tie.
Primetime and the Amigos went into the weekend as the top two teams in the standings, and separated themselves from the rest of the pack, at 48 and 43 points, respectively, while the next team, the Rounders rose to third at 36 points. The complete standings are posted at at the SoCal ASA website.
Alliance Tournament underway in Palm Springs
Saturday, April 23rd, 2005The Rounders won an exciting 5-3 extra inning game against the Panteras in a 9am game this morning at Palm Springs. Donald Younger keyed the win with a two run triple in the top of the 9th inning. The Rounders struck first for three in the first, but Panterars pitcher Jesse Duncan struck out 10 to give his team a chance to tie the game at 3 in the bottom of the 7th. Rounders reliever Gerald Pyle slammed the door shut, pitching out of a bases loaded, no out jam in the bottom of the 7th. The game was reminscent of the Panteras title win in Santa Fe Springs where they rallied from 4 down in the first against Prime Time for their first alliance Tournament title. Games continue through Sunday afternoon.
A Note from Al Doran on ISC Team Rankings
Friday, April 22nd, 2005A note from Al Doran about ISC World Team Rankings. Of particular note is the following reminder:
All Tournaments Directors are reminded that in order to provide full service to your entered teams, tournament results should be sent out immediately upon the conclusion of each tournament.
Ontario ISC II Top 10 Rankings
Friday, April 22nd, 2005My friend and broadcast partner at ISC II has released his Top 10 rankings for ISC II teams in Ontario, Canada. As most of you know, Ontario is a hotbed for men’s fastball and turns out some of the best teams in the game. Last year, both teams in the ISC II Championship game were from Ontario. (2-time defending champion Harriston Mercurys and Smully’s Tavistock Merchants.).
The full ISC II rankings for all teams — Canadian, U.S. and other are due out shortly, and it’s a good bet you’ll find many of the teams listed in the Ontario Top 10 near the top of the heap.
For the uninitiated, the ISC II is the “intermediate” level classification, just below the ISC World Tournament open teams, still in its infancy. In only it’s fourth year, it’s already drawing a solid 40 teams, roughly comparable to ASA “A” and NAFA “AA”. By way of comparison, last year’s ASA “A” runnerup, Keatings Fitness from Pennsylvania finished 12th in the ISC II. It’s a great place for teams not quite at the open level required for the ISC World Tournament. Last year, new ISC II Commissioner Blair Setford initiated an ambitious broadcast program for ISC II games, carrying 18 games live on the internet. (We were fortunate enough to be a part of that, and will be back at the ISC II this summer, in Chippewa Falls, WI.
Click here for Maddy’s extensive photo galleries from the ISC II taken last year in Fargo, N.D. As you can see from the shots, she was right down on the field to capture all the action.
It was just a few years ago that Team Rainey was going head to head with the Toronto Jaguars and the Sebringville Sting in the NAFA “AA” division before they moved up to open level ball. This year, a California team will be bidding for a berth to the ISC II Tournament of Champions in Chippewa Falls, WI, the NorCal Mavericks, with former Rainey player Chris Wright, joining forces with Troy Parker’s Leaf team. They’ll have Spud Barker and 2002 NAFA “A” MVPitcher Ed Gaspar on the mound. Keep an eye on the Mavs, and I don’t mean Dallas.
Our Red Rock Pages are Growing…
Thursday, April 21st, 2005The list of teams, schedule of games, tournament rules, maps & directions are up. Keep an eye out, as we’ll be adding team rosters, a “Predict the Elite 8” poll, and the live audio broadcast schedule for Ballparkradio.com in the days leading up to the tournament.
ISC 2005 Preseason Rankings
Thursday, April 21st, 2005The ISC has posted its first set of rankings for the 2005:
These rankings are important to the teams involved, as they govern the seeding for the ISC World Tournament. Some observations:
The “Big Three”, County, Farm and Broken Bow held the top three spots, though defending ISC World champion Broken Bow fell to #3, no doubt as a result of the departure of some top players to the other two teams. County, the runner-up at last year’s ISC world, added 6’6″ Australian national team pitcher Andrew Kirkpatrick from Calgary, to go with two other world class pitchers, the legendary Darren Zack, and the flame throwing Lucas Mata, while the Farm signed two-time ISC World Tournament MVP Jody Eidt from Broken Bow. (Ironically, it was Eidt’s home run that propelled Bow past the Farm into the finals against County) The roster of #1 ranked County Materials’ bears a strong resemblance to that of International (ISF) Champion New Zealand Black Sox, while the Farm boasts a number of players from the Canadian National team, runnerup at the 2004 ISF.
– #1 County Materials WI, was either a 1 or 2 pick on all 12 voters’ cards;
-#2 The Farm, WI actually had more first place votes than County (5-4), and was a #1 or #2 on 8 of 12 cards. (how about that 5th place vote?)
-#3 Broken Bow picked up three first place votes, meaning no one below them garnered any.
-#4 Calgary, which surprised some with their third place finish in last year’s World Tournament in Fargo, was a clear choice for the #4 spot, despite losing ace Andrew Kirkpatrick;
-#5 Circle Tap – voters seemed in agreement on this pick, with CT getting either #4 or #5 votes on all 12 cards. In 2005, they’ve already beat Broken Bow’s all world pitching tandem of Gerald Muizelaar and Mike Piechnik at the AAU.
-Wisconsin is easily the winner among states, placing three teams in the top 5 (County, the Farm and Circle Tap)
-It’s at this point (after the top 5) that the Elites start to separate from the pack, with no other teams garnering any votes for the 1-5 spots.
-The IS Knights from Fargo, ND grabbed the #6 spot, but votes varied greatly for them, from sixth to eleventh;
-The Aspen/Saskakatoon Black Sox were the highest ranked newcomer, showing up as 6th or 7th on five of the 12 voters’ cards. But for a “25th” place vote and couple of “13’s”, 6th place would have belonged to Aspen. (suggesting they were left off of one ballot entirely) They are clearly a team to watch as the season progresses. Pitching/hitting star Trevor Ethier has already garnered plenty of attention starring for the Circle Tap/Bar team that won the AAU, including the fastpitch cover photo in Softball Magazine’s April 2005 issue.
-In addition to the IS Knights, four other teams garnered 6th place votes: Hallman Twins from Ontario Canada, Quaker Riversharks, PA, Midland Michigan, and Heflin/St. Louis.
-Midland had two 6th place votes, but was hurt by a 12th and 13th place vote.
-Canada has three teams in the top 10: Calgary, Hallman Twins and Aspen;
-The West clearly lags behind the East and Northeast, but when is the last time that Southern California had two teams in the Top 20? The So Cal Bombers were pegged at 19, and arch-rival Team Rainey right behind them at #20.
Team Rainey climbed to #12 in last year’s rankings, knocking off some top ranked opponents and have been the California area representative to the ISC World tournament for the past two years in a row. Ralph Trejo’s So Cal Bombers have not played in a World Tournament, but loaded up for 2005, and are playing an equally ambitious schedule, hoping to unseat Team Rainey from the top spot. The Bombers signings of Team Rainey’s pitching staff of Travis Price and Tony Peeples and three top players, Mike Butler, Nate Devine and Jason Porto has been the big story in fastball in Southern California. Team Rainey countered by signing British Columbian ace pitcher Bricklen Anderson and Sonny Perkins, and most recently adding Team USA shortstop Joe Morales, as well as the nucleus from a solid Captain Dan’s team when that squad shuttered it operation after a long run, bringing over Captain Dan’s skipper Don Didion for his veteran leadership. Thus far in 2005 though, the Bombers have two tournament title to their credit and a 4-0 record against Team Rainey, strong support for their higher pre-season ranking. Their only loss came at the hands of Castlewood UT, unranked, but a Final Four finisher at Red Rock last year.
The upcoming Red Rock tournament (April 30-May 1) will have teams ranked #19, 20, 21 and 30 in the world (Bombers, Rainey, Pueblo and Page Brake, respectively). The teams are in separate pools, except for #20 Team Rainey and #30 Page Brake, who will face each other in pool play at 7pm Saturday night. (Keep an eye out for the broadcast schedule for Red Rock, which might well include that game) Expect the other ISC World Ranked teams to find their way to the Elite Eight Sunday and perhaps beyond.
Feel free to use the “comments” link at the bottom of this post to give us your opinions. How did your favorite team(s) fare? Did the ISC ranking committee get it right?
With the ISC rankings now fodder for the proverbial water cooler, can the ISC-II rankings be far behind?
Alliance Schedule Released – Palm Springs II, April 2005
Wednesday, April 20th, 2005The Price of Gas
Wednesday, April 20th, 2005With gas prices going through the roof and roads trips getting more expensive, I thought this link might be of some help in finding the lowest gas prices around: