Raymar Fastpitch from SoCal heads to St. George, UT this weekend for their first tournament at the major level. Raymar finished 3rd in the nation among 70 teams at last year’s ASA “C” Nationals, and was bumped up to the “B” division. They compete in the So Cal ASA A/B league against a number of the teams that will be in Red Rock, getting a trial by fire playing at the upper ranks. They’ll have two of the best young throwers in So Cal, Anthony Martinez of the Amigos and Gerald Pyle of the Rounders, as well as Tommy Obregon, and the veteran of the staff, “Papa Joe” Salcido. Pyle played in last year’s Red Rock tournament with the So Cal Bombers, while the Shaw brothers, Doug and Ken played for Captain Dan’s, the only team to take eventual champion Broken Bow to a regulation 7 innings.
Archive for April, 2005
Raymar in First Major Tournament at Red Rock
Wednesday, April 27th, 2005
New Look Pitching Staff for Team Rainey at Red Rock
Wednesday, April 27th, 2005Bricklin Anderson, Sonny Perkins and Tony Hunhoff comprise a new look pitching staff for Team Rainey at Red Rock in 2005. Hunhoff is the veteran of the trio, Perkins a great all-around player in the mold of a Dean Holoien or Trevor Ethier, while hard throwing Bricklin Anderson from British Columbia is expected to anchor the rotation. Team Rainey comes into the Red Rock tournament as the second-highest ranked team in the ISC preseason rankings, at number 19. Rod Rainey‘s squad will return a number of players from last year’s team, including catcher Tony Acedo, Chris Hunt, Roy Guinaldo, Jesse Duncan, and of course, Rod himself. Rod underwent shoulder surgery in the off-season, and originally not expected to return to the lineup until midseason. His recovery has gone very well however, and he is already back playing, although not yet in at full tilt. Perennial All-Star Stan Grebeck is back with the team after a one-year retirement. Team Rainey’s roster for 2005 is a merger of sorts, with Rainey adding a talented nucleus from the Captain Dan’s team which shuttered its operation after a long successful run. Among those joining team Rainey is former Long Beach State baseballer Dwayne Fowler, Neil Sauerheber, manager Don Didion, and Chad Hardesty. Hardesty made a big impression and last year’s Red Rock tournament, hitting the longest home run of the weekend, off of eventual champion Broken Bow. Team Rainey hopes to improve on their Elite Eight showing in last year’s tournament.
Team Rainey’s Red Rock Roster.
California Painters Add Holoien, Budke and Wells for Red Rock
Wednesday, April 27th, 2005The California Painters appear ready to make a run at the 2005 Red Rock title, adding three ISC World Tournament stars, Dean Holoien, Todd Budke and Wayne Wells. Holoien and Budke are two of the best players in the world, teammates on the ISC #2 ranked team, The Farm Tavern of Madison, Wisconsin, while Wayne Wells will be pitching this year for the Eau Claire, WI Happy Hollow Barons, currently the #22 team in the ISC World pre-season rankings.
Holoien turned in some outstanding performances during the 2004 season, including a no-hitter in the finals of the Canadians for the Saskatoon Black Sox, and a no-hitter in the championship game of the ASA major tournament. Holoien also broke the ASA Majors record for strikeouts in a game with 21. A police officer in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Holoien is also a member of the silver-medal winning Canadian National Team in New Zealand at the 2004 ISFs, and regarded by many as the best all-around player in the game today, as one of the top five or six pitchers in the game as the top 10 best hitters. Click here to view his Softball Canada bio page. (Thanks to ISC II Commish Blair Setford for the info)
Todd Budke is a teammate of Dean Holoien’s on the Farm Tavern team, currently the number two ranking in preseason ISC world rankings, and one of the premier hitters and again today. Budke played for team USA, and was a member of the 2004 ASA major championship team, as well as playing for Team USA previously. Click here for his Team USA bio.
Wayne Wells has pitched in the last three ISC World Tournaments, most recently with the Peterboro Pros, going 1-1 on the mound with a 2.80 era. Wayne was NAFA AAA All World in 2003 with Durham Heat and NAFA AA MostValuable Pitcher with the Toronto Jaguars. Wayne is a veteran of the senior Canadians, still going strong at age 44.
The California Painters will also have pitchers Ron Mizener and Simon Brewer. Simon is a former teammate of this editor, on the 1984 Lowder Electric team that finished second in the ASA “A” Nationals in Fargo North Dakota. Simon did the heavy lifting that tournament, pitching Lowder into the championship game and making the All-American team.
Click here to see the complete roster of the California Painters team. The Painters are in the “C” pool and will play Saturday against the #21 ranked team in the world, the Pueblo Bandits, the #34 ranked ISC II River City Rockers, and the Larry Miller Chev Hogs from Salt Lake City, Utah.
We will be updating the Red Rock Tournament web pages during the week and throughout the tournament so be sure to check back often are further updates. we will also post notes on the various team rosters as we receive them.
Raymond Angulo Memorial Tournament, August 20-21, 2005 @ Corona, CA
Tuesday, April 26th, 2005Ernie Marez, of the So Cal Rebels has released the details for the annual “Raymond Angulo Memorial Tournament”, August 20-21, 2005 in Corona, CA. The tournament is open to men’s “C” teams, and serves as great way for ASA “C” teams headed to the Nationals to get sharp before Labor Day weekened. Details posted here.
Maddy’s Monday Night Photos from Palm Springs II
Monday, April 25th, 2005Here’s Maddy’s latest photos, taken at the So Cal ASA Alliance tournament at Palm Springs April 23-24, 2005.
ISC II 2005 Pre-Season Rankings
Monday, April 25th, 2005On the heels of last week’s ISC World Tournament team rankings, the ISC II has released its own set of rankings, for the ISC II Tournament of Champions. Like the ISC World rankings, the ISC II rankings are used for seeding teams for the August tournament.
ISC-II capital of the world? It has to be Ontario, Canada, fastball hotbed, and home of Al Doran’s Fastball List. Ontario has 4 in the top 10, 8 in the top 20 and 11 in the top 30. Readers may recall the Ontario area’s dominance of the NAFA “AA” division for a number of years. A number of those teams, or their progeny have moved over to the ISC II Tournament of Champions.
Last year, the championship game was an all-Ontario affair, with two-time defending champion Harriston Mercurys topping Smullys Tavistock Merchants for the ISC II crown. As a result of the loss of a few key players, Harriston does not hold the top spot in the 2005 pre-season rankings, an honor that belongs to last year’s runnerup, Tavistock.
Six of the top 10 teams are from Canada, with the other four from the United States. Last year’s third place team, The Bar of Appleton is the highest ranked U.S. team at #3, with the ASA “A” runnerup, Keatings Fitness, PA at #6, KMV Rise of PA #9, and Chub’s Pub of Fargo N.D. #10.
The highest ranked teams from the Western U.S. are the Colorado Rage at #23, JRW & Associates at #25, Bodle Chiropractic at #26, Rob Penticoff’s River City Rockers #34, and the NorCal Mavericks at #51. JRW & Associates was the higest finisher at last year’s ISC II Tournament, at #10. My guess is that the Mavs belong higher than #51, and will likely rise in the rankings as the season progresses. The Rage, Rockers and Mavericks will all be at Red Rock, as will #46 ranked Vannelli’s from Minnesota this coming weekened. Watch the Morning Brief for the live, streaming audio broadcast schedule on Ballparkradio.com in the next few days.
Official list at ISC II site, with judge’s ranking cards.
As we did with the ISC World rankings, some observations:
-Defending champion, and #2 ranked Harriston Mercurys received the most votes for the top spot, with seven votes, to five votes for #1 ranked Tavistock;
-All #1 votes went to either Tavistock or Harriston;
-All #2 votes went to Tavistock or Harriston, except for three, which went, one each to #3 ranked The Bar of Appelton, WI, #4 Norwich Razorbacks, and #7 Gladstone Whips of Manitoba;
-The greatest agreement among the voters was for the top two spots, with all 12 voters giving Harriston and Tavistock a #1, 2 or 3 ranking — with one exception, one voter who pegged Harriston at #7. If that voter had given Harriston a third place vote, Harriston would have owned the #1 ranking;
-Non-top-10 teams getting highest ranked votes: #18 Anderson Jaybirds of IN received a #4 ranking from one judge; #11 Wilber Lime, WI received a 3rd place vote; #14 Palermo A’s, ON, received a 3rd place vote and the #20 ranked Glencoe Astros, ON received a 4th place vote.
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.