The So Cal ASA league will open play at DeMuth Park in Palm Springs this weekend, March 24-25, 2006, after the first weekend slated for March 4-5 was rained out.
Two teams from Sledgehammer’s California Top Ten will be in action, the #6 ranked Savala Rounders and the #9 ranked Rude Pac. The Rounders finished 7th last year in a very competitive 70 team ASA “C” Nationals, while Rude Pac went out just a game earlier, finishing 13th. (The tournament’s MVP was a member of the ISC World Tournament Super Pool Riversharks, with lots of A and B players competing in the tournament.). Four members of the Top Ten are teams that were bumped up from Class “C”, and who have bolstered their 2006 rosters to compete at the next level, #3 Taylor Farms, #4 A-1 Tank (both from Northern California) and the #6 Savala Rounders and #9 Rude Pac (both from Southern California). In all, eighteen (18) Class “C” teams were bumped up to the “B” division in what marks a wholesale change in the landscape for California teams.
Schedule for Ranked teams this weekend:
# 6 Savala Rounders, 12:30p, 4p, 5:45p, and 9:15p against Primetime, Panteras, LB Black Sox, and Amigos;
# 9 Rude Pac, 10a, 2:15p, 4, and 7:30 against Amigos, Primetime, Young Bucks and Panteras.
Saturday’s round robin schedule will give three teams, Primetime, Panteras and the Amigos two shots to knock off a ranked team, and perhaps make their way into the Top 10.
Sunday’s play will be a single elimination bracket. Click here for more details on this weekend’s schedule.
#10 ranked Raymar, a Class “B team in 2005 after finishing 3rd amongst 70 teams in the 2004 ASA “C” National in Hastings, Nebraska, returns to play in the “C” division, after petitioning to return for the 2006 season.
Player notes: Michael “Spanky” Thomas, veteran shortstop for the Savala Rounders is expected to return to play Saturday, after being sidelined with a strained oblique muscle during the Norwalk tournament.