{"id":1909,"date":"2007-07-24T07:49:20","date_gmt":"2007-07-24T15:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=1909"},"modified":"2007-07-24T07:55:49","modified_gmt":"2007-07-24T15:55:49","slug":"thomson-area-merchants-il-website","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/?p=1909","title":{"rendered":"Thomson Area Merchants, IL Website"},"content":{"rendered":"

Click here to view the Thomson Area Merchants, Thomson Illinois team website.<\/strong> <\/a> The site includes a few photos from last year’s ISC II Tournament of Champions, including this beautiful blue sky shot of the Merchants playing at Budd Park<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The team played in its first ISC II Tournament of Champions last year, and are headed to the ISC World Tournament this year as the # 25 ranked team. In last year’s ISC II Tournament of Champions, pitcher Jonas Mach from the Czech Republic broke the tournament strikeout record, only to be eclipsed later in the tournament by Micksburg’s Cory Costello, after the Merchants were eliminated from the tournament. Costello will be back at the ISC II tournament this year with the # 1 ranked Niagara Snappers.<\/p>\n

The Thomson Area Merchants had their best tournament of the year at the AFSA Classic in Illinois recently, where they knocked off # 8 ranked Circle Tap. <\/p>\n

Thomson at AFSA Classic <\/strong><\/p>\n

Thomson, Illinois<\/p>\n

The Thomson Merchants had their best weekend to date in the 2007
\nseason at the recently completed AFSA Classic in Aurora. A lot
\nof hard work and perseverance over recent weeks appears to be
\nfinally showing through in the teams improved defense and hitting
\nperformances. Against 4 fellow Kitchener bound ISC teams the
\nMerchants completed a 2-2 record, included a victory over Circle
\nTap, a major milestone for our team.<\/p>\n

Game 1
\nDolan and Murphy vs Thomson Merchants<\/p>\n

DM 0 1 0 3 0 0 2 6 7 0
\nTM 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 5 1<\/p>\n

Thomson
\nSteve Manson – 7ip, 6er, 3bb, 6k – LP
\nScott Glazier – 1 for 3
\nCasey Eden – 1 for 3
\nMike House – 1 for 3
\nRory Miller – 1 for 3
\nQ Cody – 1 for 3<\/p>\n

Dolan & Murphy
\nJuan Potoluccio – 7ip, 0er, 0bb, 11k – WP<\/p>\n

After a positive start to the game where we had our chances with
\nrunners on base the Merchants could simply not capitalize on
\nany opportunities to score our base runners. Some Dolan power
\nhitting at crucial times took the game away from the Merchants
\nand Dolan’s Potoluccio effectively shut down our hitters when
\nany oppurtunities threatened.<\/p>\n

Game 2
\nPlanngers vs Thomson Merchants<\/p>\n

PL 2 0 2 0 2 2 8 12 2
\nTM 4 4 2 0 0 5 15 11 1<\/p>\n

Thomson
\nRoberto Bahler – 5ip, 6er, 0bb, 7k – WP
\nSteve Manson – 1ip, 1er, 0bb, 0k
\nTony Cody – 1 for 2, 2rbi, HR
\nScott Glazier – 1 for 2
\nSteve Manson – 1 for 3, 1rbi, HR
\nCasey Eden – 1 for 4, 1rbi
\nBruce Bielema – 2 for 4, 4rbi
\nMike House – 1 for 2, 1rbi
\nRory Miller – 2 for 4, 1rbi
\nKevin Anderson – 1 for 4, 2rbi
\nQ Cody – 1 for 3<\/p>\n

Planngers
\nRick Plannger – 5.33ip, 11er, 7bb, 3 k – LP<\/p>\n

Excellent team hitting and some timely long balls allowed Thomson
\nto fight off a persistent Planngers challenge in our first game
\non Saturday. Whilst never giving up the lead Planngers did continue
\nto peg back runs after we would score them and so the game never
\nfelt 100% safe to the very end. 8 Thomson hitters registered
\nhits, and Bruce Bielema collected 4 rbi, a hint of the power
\nexplosion he was going to have later in the day. Roberto Bahler
\nwas strong on the mound for Thomson before being replaced by
\nSteve Manson for the save.<\/p>\n

Game 3
\nThomson Merchants vs Circle Tap<\/p>\n

TM 2 0 0 1 2 0 0 5 6 5
\nCT 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 3 6 1<\/p>\n

Thomson
\nSteve Manson – 4ip, 1er, 4b, 3k – WP
\nRoberto Bahler – 3ip, 0er, 0bb, 3k
\nScott Glazier – 1 for 3
\nSteve Manson – 2 for 3, 2rbi, HR
\nBruce Bielema – 2 for 3, 2rbi, HR
\nRory Miller – 1 for 2<\/p>\n

Circle Tap
\nMatt Bramwell – 4.66ip, 2er, 1bb, 5k
\nColin McKenzier – 2.33ip, 1er, 1bb, 5k<\/p>\n

The Merchants finally managed to put together a 7 innings display
\nof team softball to knock off a ” Top 10 ” ranked team for the
\nfirst time this season. Steve Manson got the ball rolling for
\nTHomson with a single in the 1st and was moved over to 3 on a
\nerrored hit by Casey Eden. Manson and Eden them both scampered
\nhome on a double to Bruce Bielema. Not content with only 2 RBI
\nBielema added a timely Home Run in the 4th to extend the Merchants
\nlead to 3-1. Then our all too famous fielding errors threatened
\nto break the Thomson charge in the 4th when 3 straight fielding
\nerrors on routine plays helped contribute to 2 runs driven in
\noff the bat of Circle Taps Tom Crouch. However the Merchants
\nshowed some character by immediately striking back in the 5th
\nwith a hugh two run home run from Steve Manson off the first
\npitch thrown by Circle Tap reliever Colin McKenzie. Roberto Bahler
\nthen shut down Circle Tap for the remaining 3 innings to secure
\nthe win for Thomson. Thomson center fielder Q Cody also managed
\nto make an amazing home run saving grab on a well hit ball in
\nthe 3rd innings, which helped to shut down any Circle Tap charge.<\/p>\n

After finishing in a 3 way tie for first in our pool with a 2-1
\nrecord we ended up with the 3rd seed due to run differential.
\nThis meant we ended up playing close neighbors Quad City Sox
\nin the evenings quarter final battle.<\/p>\n

Game 4
\nThomson Merchants vs Quad City Sox<\/p>\n

TM 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 3 7 2
\nQC 0 0 4 0 0 0 – 4 5 0 <\/p>\n

Thomson
\nRoberto Bahler – 2.33ip, 2er, 1bb, 0k – LP
\nSteve Manson – 3.67ip, 1er, 1bb, 3k
\nTony Cody – 1 for 2
\nCasey Eden – 1 for 3
\nBruce Bielema – 1 for 2, 1rbi, HR
\nRory Miller – 2 for 3
\nQ Cody – 2 for 3, 2rbi<\/p>\n

Quad City
\nJeff Farion – 7ip, 3er, 2bb, 10k<\/p>\n

After taking the lead in the 2nd on another Bruce Bielema HR
\nThomson was unable to maintain our composure from earlier in
\nthe day as we eventually ran out losers to the Sox 4-3. Despite
\nout hitting the Sox the elusive game tying run proved out of
\nour reach in the 7th after loading up the bases, but a lot of
\nheart was shown to stay in the game to the very last pitch.<\/p>\n

The next action for the Merchants is in the Thomson round robin
\nnext week vs Dolan and Murphy, Blackhawk and Hustle Hogs. All
\nThomson action can be viewed at www. thomsonfastpitch.com<\/p>\n

Scott Glazier
\ns.glazier(at)mchsi.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Click here to view the Thomson Area Merchants, Thomson Illinois team website. The site includes a few photos from last year’s ISC II Tournament of Champions, including this beautiful blue sky shot of the Merchants playing at Budd Park. The team played in its first ISC II Tournament of Champions last year, and are headed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3,4,11,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.fastpitchwest.com\/morningbrief\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}