FOLEY, KERIAN PLAYED ON MULTIPLE TITLE TEAMS
Former softball stars enter hall
By Terry Hersom – thersom@siouxcityjournal.com
SIOUX CITY — Two metro Sioux City men will be honored Sunday in Ames, Iowa, when the Amateur Softball Association announces its new inductees to the Iowa Men’s Fast-Pitch Softball Hall of Fame.
New hall of famers this year include former pitcher Francis Foley, who retired from softball at age 40 in 1963, and infielder Steve Kerian, who played on five ASA national championship teams.
Foley pitched for various teams in the Sioux City area, including Solomon Foods, Burnett Motors, the Le Mars Eagles, Johnson Biscuit and Blue Bunny in a career spanning from 1942 through 1963.
Compiling over 300 wins, Foley struck out 2,849 batters and had a career 1.51 earned run average, pitching in seven ASA state tournaments (11-3 record) and helping teams win state titles in 1949 and 1952.
Foley threw 20 no-hitters, including six perfect games, and also had 33 one-hitters and 37 two-hitters. He logged 80 shutouts and pitched another 75 games in which opponents scored just one run.
A 2000 North Central Conference Honor Award recipient for his support of Morningside College athletics, Foley also pitched in four western regionals, winning a championship in 1952, and also appeared in the World ASA tournament that same year.
Kerian, a native of Waverly, Iowa, who played college baseball at Ellsworth Community College and Florida International University in Miami, played the brunt of his softball career from 1978 through 1999.
After four years with the Waverly Merchants, he played for Cedar Rapids Vigortone and Decatur (Ill.) ADM before playing on Sioux City Penn Corp and NHCD teams that won four ASA national titles and finished second twice. He also helped Penn Corp win two ISC World Tournaments and finish second twice while playing on an ISC winner for Decatur and an ASA champ with Green Bay (Wis.) All-Star.
Kerian helped Team USA win its most recent gold medal in the quadrennial International Softball Federation Championships in 1988 and he also represented his country on two silver medalists in Pan-American Games competition. In addition, he was on ASA Olympic Sports Festival champions four times and played for the U.S. four times in New Zealand’s Winfield Challenge.
Kerian and his wife Tina, who make their home in McCook Lake, have three sons, Jeff, 20; David, 16; and Matthew, 10. The owner of a home building and development company, JDM Homes LLC, he continues to play baseball in a local league and still plays in an occasional fast-pitch tournament.