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Archive for May, 2005

Bracket Released for ASA “C” National Qualifier at Stockton, CA

Wednesday, May 25th, 2005

Twenty-four teams will vie for two ASA “C” National Tournament berths in a double-elimination qualifier this weekend, May 28-29, 2005, at Louis Park in Stockton, CA. Stockton will also host the National Tournament over the Labor Day weekend in September.

Ron Kirby’s Rounders are the lone entrant from the Southern California region. The Rounders will face A-1 Tank of Hayward, California in their first round game at 2:00 p.m. at Louis Park in Stockton. (Their original first round opponent, Team Taylor has withdrawn from the tournament). A-1 Tank finished 7th in the ASA “B” Nationals in 2000, 13th in the ASA “B” Nationals in 2002, and were approved to return to the “C” division in January 2005. The Rounders finished 13th among 70 teams at last year’s ASA “C” National Tournament in Hastings, with a 4-2 record.

The highest finishing team playing in the qualifier at Stockton this weekend, are the Nielsen Realty Gamblers, who finished 9th in the ASA “C” Nationals at Hastings, NE last year, with a 3-2 record. Nielsen will take on Gaines Liquor at 8:30am Saturday morning.

The winner of the Rounders/A-1 Tank game will play the winner Oroville/Savala Painters vs. McLaughlin Air at 8:30 p.m. The Savala Painters are currently in first place in the Central California travel league, with a 9-1 record. With the addition of ISC stars, Dean Holoien, Todd Budke and Wayne Wells, the Painters recently won the Red Rock Tournament at St. George Utah.

Also in the Rounders/Painters end of the bracket is the always tough West Coast Financial, which finished 3rd in the ASA “C” Nationals in 2003 at College Station, TX.

Winner’s bracket games are scheduled for 8am, 10am, 12:00, 12:30pm, 2:30pm, 8:30pm, and 10pm Saturday, and 10am, 2pm, with the championship game at 6pm Sunday. The “if” game is slated for 8pm Sunday.

Loser’s bracket games are scheduled for 4pm, 6pm, 6:30pm, 10pm and 10:30pm Saturday, and 8am, 8:30am, 10:30am, 12:30pm, 2pm and 4pm Sunday.

The bracket is posted online as a PDF file (Adobe Reader Required). Click the link or PDF icon.
http://www.fastpitchwest.com/stockton.pdf

For those readers without Adobe Reader or PDF capability, we have also posted the brackets as a .jpg (photo) file, viewable directly in your browser:

Winner’s Bracket
Loser’s Bracket

Satellite Photo/Map of Louis Park, Stockton, CA

Our readers are invited to post comments here to tell us more about other teams in the bracket. Click Comment link at lower right. It will take you to a second page with the story at the top and a box to post your comments below. A simple one-time registration required to post comments.

Posted in ASA, Teams, Tournaments | 1 Comment »

Who is Roman Lara?

Tuesday, May 24th, 2005

“Who is Roman Lara?” was a question heard ’round the diamonds over the weekend in Lancaster, California.

The short answer to the question is: “The new 28 year old shortstop for Santana Concrete of the So Cal ASA Alliance league, who did a great Alex Rodriguez impersonation, clubbing seven (count ’em, 7) home runs over the weekend.” (click to enlarge his photo below)

The seven homers broke the old Alliance record of five (5), held by the Rick McCarthy and Keith Barker of the Edge and Tom Morton of the Rounders. Five of the home runs came in six consecutive at bats. He had to leave his last game with a disclocated knee, but injury or not, it was a phenomenal performance by the young shortstop. More likely for fans, next time around, it will be “Where is Roman Lara?”, curious to see what he’ll do for an encore.

Posted in ASA, Players, So Cal | No Comments »

Maddy’s Monday Night Photos from Lancaster, CA

Monday, May 23rd, 2005

Click here to view Maddy’s Monday Night Photos taken at the So Cal ASA Alliance tournament weekend in Lancaster, CA, won by the Long Beach Black Sox. Click here for tournament recap.

Editor’s Choice: Click here to see an amazing gravity defying feat by the Black Sox’s Dan Fleming.

Posted in ASA, Leagues, Photos, So Cal | No Comments »

So Cal Bombers and Mexican National Team, Jugando a Media Noche

Monday, May 23rd, 2005

(Jugando a media noche = Playing at Midnight)

[Ensenada, Baja California. Mexico – 5/23/05]- The #19 ranked So Cal Bombers went south of the border this past weekend and played in Ensenada, Mexico. The 2 day tourney was condensed in to a one day tourney because only 5 teams ended up entering the tourney, with the championship game starting at midnight on Saturday night. What a great place to play and great fans for the Mexican teams that rooted on their teams all day. Definitely one of the most hostile environments the Bombers have ever played a tournament! But it made for a great challenge and day of softball! The fields were all dirt with its share of rocks in the field which made it interesting. Also, the bases were rubber squares that the umpires just through on the field when the game started…including home plate!!

On to the games…
Game 1

So Cal Bombers……1
23-under Ensenada…0

Panfilo Valdez took the mound for the Bombers and threw a gem. He needed to because the Bombers could only muster 1 run in the game on a solo home run by Robert Renteria in the top of the 3rd. Valdez struck out 14 in the game and allowed 2 hits.

Renteria 1 X 3 HR, RBI

Game 2

So Cal Bombers……..8
Ensenada All-stars….2

The best hitting output for the Bombers on the day. The Bombers scored 5 in the first inning and 3 in the 2nd to put the game out of reach early. Arturo Solano and Jason Porto hit HR’s for the Bombers and Tony Peeples pitched a complete game striking out 13 and allowing 3 hits and 2 earned runs.

Arturo Solana 2X3 HR, 2 RBI’s
Jason Porto 3X4 HR, Triple 4 RBI’s
Todd Garcia 2X3

Game 3

So Cal Bombers 1
Mexican National Team 3

Both the Bombers and the Mexican National Team had advanced to the championship game and this was the last game in the round robin. The National team took the early lead off of starter Travis Price in the first inning and held a 1-0 lead into the 4th. Todd Garcia hit a solo shot to right center to tie the game in the fourth, but the lead vanished in the bottom of the inning when the National Team struck for 2 runs. The National team held off the Bombers to take a 3-1 victory. Travis Price was the tough luck loser going the distance and giving up only 3 hits and striking out 12. It was his first loss of the season.

Todd Garcia 1X 3 HR, RBI
Dan Winnick 2 X 3
Nate Devine 2 X 3 2B

Game 4

Championship game

So Cal Bombers…………1
Mexican National Team…..2 (8 innings)

The best game of the day hands down and the fans loved it. After 16 hours of drinking cold beer they were definitely animated going into the championship. The Bombers got a run in the top of the first on back to back 2 out doubles by Porto and Garcia to take an early 1-0 lead. The National Team bounced back to tie the game in the bottom of the inning at 1-1.

The game went scoreless into the top of the 7th when the Bombers opened the inning with runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out and could not score and the game eventually went to the international tie-breaker in the 8th. The Bombers got the bases loaded with nobody out after a walk to Raymundo Parra and a bunt single by Arturo Solano but could not capitalize. A 1-2-3 double play got the first 2 outs in the inning and then a strikeout ended the top half of the 8th. The National Team only needed 2 pitches to win the game in the bottom of the 8th with a wild pitch moving the runner to 3rd and a single between short and 3rd ended the game. Ponfilo Valdez pitched outstanding in the championship giving up 4 hits and striking out 10
to take the loss.

It was an absolutely outstanding tournament put on by the city of Ensenada and the weather cooperated perfectly with the temperature in the high 80’s. We want to thank the city and hope to be back there next year. The Bombers record on the year is now 23-5.

Team Owner and sponsor Ralph Trejo spoke with the Mexican National team on Sunday about coming to California to play a best of three series with the winner to take home $1000.00. We wait to hear from the team Director and will post any info as soon as possible. Teams to play ISF rules that will be enforced by a adequate umpiring staff.

Information provided courtesy of
Jason Porto and Ralph Trejo Jr.
So Cal Bombers
http://www.bombersfastball.com
maito:info@bombersfastball.com

Posted in General, So Cal, Tournaments | No Comments »

Boys of Summer Tournament, Denmark WI, July 8-10, 2005

Monday, May 23rd, 2005

#5 ranked Circle Tap will host the 5th Annual “Boys of Summer” Tournament, July 8-10, 2005 at Denmark, Wisconsin.

Click Here for Schedule of Games for Boys of Summer Tournament

The atmosphere of the games at the tournament is very “fan friendly”, to say the least. The Circle Tap bar has a deck attached that you can watch the games from as well as some bleachers and you can even watch from inside the bar through the windows.

So Cal’s Team Rainey, currently #20 in the ISC preseason rankings will be among the teams competing. Team Rainey’s schedule on Saturday July 9 will be:

9:00 IS Knights vs Team Rainey
1:00 Team Rainey vs Dolan & Murphy
3:00 Team Rainey vs Circle Tap

The tournament boasts a strong field of teams, with 4 of the 12 in the current Top 10, and ten teams in the Top 25. Here are the teams entered, and their current spot in the ISC preseason rankings:

ISC Preseason Ranking/Team

1) County Materials, WI
2) The Farm Tavern, WI
5) Circle Tap, WI
6) IS Knights, ND
11) Heflin, MO
14) The Bar Avenue, WI
15) Patsy’s, NY
17) Townline/Shoots, WI
20) Team Rainey, CA
24) Blooomington Stix, IL
28) Aurora Dolan & Murphys, IL
ISC-II 3) The Bar Appelton, WI

Posted in ISC, ISC-II, Tournaments | No Comments »

ISC #18 Albaugh, Inc. sweeps opening weekend of ISC Qualifier, Omaha Nebraska

Monday, May 23rd, 2005

Albaugh, Inc. sweeps opening weekend of ISC Qualifier, Omaha Nebraska (eScribe: Al’s Fastball List)

On the weekend, #18 Albaugh defeated #27 ranked Team Iowa, the squad that Sonny Perkins plays for, behind the pitching of Terry Luster. So Cal readers will recall that Luster pitched for Houston H.I.S. at the 2003 ISC World Tournament and was the only pitcher able to beat Team Rainey. Both Houston and Team Rainey finished pool play with 3-1 records, and Luster beat them again in a playoff game for the final “Sweet Sixteen” spot in the playoff bracket.

Posted in ISC, Tournaments | No Comments »

ASA “A” National Champ – ISC II #12 Oswego, NY McKie Sports Wins Three of Four

Monday, May 23rd, 2005

ISC II #12 Oswego, NY McKie Sports Wins Three of Four Over the weekend.

McKie Sports, from Oswego, New York is the reigning ASA Class “A” Champions, and currently ranked #12 in the 2005 preseason rankings for the ISC II. Scores from the weekend:
Mckie 13 NYC Fastpitch 0
McKie 7 Lackawanna 2
McKie 7 NY Bombers 4

Posted in ISC-II | No Comments »

ISC #9 Midland Michigan Explorers Run Their Record to 7-0

Monday, May 23rd, 2005

Explorers Weekend Results (Al’s Fastball) Two of the wins over the weekend were against Communiquest, Michigan, which finished third in the 2003 NAFA “A” World Series. For SoCal trivia buffs, Communiquest was the team that outsted 4th place finisher Anderson Homes of Wisconsin, the team that the Rounders’ Andy Lawry used to play on.

Posted in ISC, So Cal | No Comments »

ISC #28 Aurora Dolan and Murphy take two from Rockford

Monday, May 23rd, 2005

Aurora Dolan and Murphy take two from Rockford (Al’s Fastball) Pitcher Jason Iuli, who previously played in SoCal, picked up the win in the first of the two games, striking out 6 and going the distance.

Posted in ISC, So Cal | No Comments »