Home
Up

  Raymar's March Madness

  March 22-23, 2003 - Santa Fe Springs, CA

ROUNDERS RALLY, CAPTURE MARCH MADNESS CROWN  AT SANTA FE SPRINGS, CA

 

Raymar's "March Madness" Tournament Champions, the El Segundo Rounders.  Back row, L to R: Manager Ron Kirby, Eric Geierman, Billy Zylstra, Donald Younger, Mark Villalobos, Mitch Mendenhall, Danny Roberts, Mike Hemperly.  Front row kneeling: Jim Flanagan, Tom Morton, Shawn Lee, Jimmy Crotzer (with plaque), John Wilson, Paul Castillo, and Donald Jewett.  (Click to enlarge)
 

Click Camera for Maddy's Photo Gallery

bulletThe El Segundo Rounders overcame a 6-1 deficit, with 6 runs in the 5th inning, topping the Panteras 8-6 in the championship game Sunday afternoon at Little Lake Park in Santa Fe Springs, CA. The Rounder sent 10 men to the plate in their big comeback inning, coming on the heels of a 3 run outburst by the Panteras in the bottom of the fourth inning.
bullet Eric Geierman had a pair of line drive doubles to left, driving in two and scoring the tying run, while Don Younger and Paul Castillo also scored two runs in the game, each reaching on a double and a walk.
bulletThe game was highlighted by no less than 4 plays at home plate, with Rounder's centerfielder Tom Morton cutting down two runners to aid in the victory.  Both the Panteras and Rounders scored key runs on the other plays at the plate.
bulletBilly Zylstra picked up the save with three strong innings of relief work.

El Segundo Rounder's Billy Zylstra, in relief, pitched three strong innings of relief to pick up save in championship game against Panteras on Sunday at Little Lake Park in Santa Fe Springs. 
bulletThe Rounders were 6-0 on the weekend, winning three in a row in Sunday's single elimination bracket, to capture their first tournament of the season.  Tom Morton, left fielder Eric Geierman and catcher Donald Younger won all tourney honors for the Rounders.
bullet The Rounders entered the weekend tied for first place in the So Cal ASA Alliance, with Genesis, and emerged in sole possession of first place.  Fernie Ramirez' Panteras had quite a day Sunday, with three wins of their own, over the Gamecocks, Genesis, and the Palm Springs champion San Diego Fastpitch.  The win over San Diego came in extra innings, to put the Panteras into the title game against the Rounders.
bulletGilbert Joiner played "Marathon Man", pitching all of the Panteras games, including the championship game.  He held the Rounders to one run through the first four innings, before the 6 run outburst by the Rounders in the 5th inning.
 

Panteras pitcher Gilbert Joiner shows his form enroute to one of 4 wins on the weekend. (Click to enlarge)

Runner up Panteras won three games on Sunday, to reach the championship game at Raymar's "March Madness" tournament, including an extra inning win over San Diego Fastpitch in the semi-finals. (Click to enlarge)

Rounders Mark Villalobos leap frogs a grounder to the left side in Sunday morning game against Santana Concrete (Click to enlarge)
 

Sunday's Results:

FIRST ROUND GAMES

6pm Saturday:
Game #1:
B5 Santana Concrete defeated C4 Las Vegas Gamblers

9am Sunday:
Game #2
B2 Amigos defeated C3 Palm Springs

Game #3
C1 L.A. Kanakas defeated A4 Raymar

Game #4
B3 Panteras defeatedd A2 Gamecocks

Game #5
C2 Genesis defeated A3 L.A. Heat

Game #6
B4 So Cal Rebels over A5 Soboba (forfeit)

SECOND ROUND GAMES

Game #7
A1 El Segundo Rounders defeated winner game #1 (Santana Concrete), 4-2

Game #8
Winner game 3, Kanakas defeated winner game 2, Amigos

Game #9
Winner game 4, Panteras, defeated winner game 5, Genesis

Game #10
B1 San Diego Fastpitch defeated B4, So Cal Rebels
 

         THIRD ROUND GAMES (SEMI-FINALS)

        Game #11
        A1 El Segundo Rounders/winner game 7 defeated C1/winner game 8, Kanakas, 4-0

        Game #12
        B3 Panteras/winner game 9 defeated B1/winner game 10, San Diego Fastpitch, 4-3, extra innings.

      CHAMPIONSHIP GAME

      A1 El Segundo Rounders 8, B3 Panteras 6


[SATURDAY NIGHT, MARCH 22, 2003 REPORT]

[SANTA FE SPRINGS, CA]-The So Cal ASA Alliance "C" division is holding its 3rd league weekend tournament of the year at Little Lake Park at Santa Fe Springs.  Raymar is the host team for the weekend, appropriately dubbed "March Madness".   The weekend started with Genesis and the El Segundo Rounders tied for first place with 26 points, with San Diego Fastpitch a close third with 24 points.  The Rounders finished the Palm Springs weekend 6-1, with a final game victory over Genesis to pull into a tie for the league lead.

Fourteen teams competed in round robin play Saturday, with all 14 entered in the 14 team single elimination bracket on Sunday, seeded according to Saturday's results.

Three teams emerged as #1 seeds from their respective pools:

A:    El Segundo Rounders (3-0)
B:    San Diego Fastpitch (2-1)
C:    L.A. Kanakas

Three teams emerged from Saturday's round robin games unbeaten, the L.A. Kanakas, the El Segundo Rounders and the Gamecocks from Ridgecrest.  The Kanakas were 3-0 on the day, while the Rounders and Gamecocks won 2 games each, and each picked up a forfeit win from Soboba.  The Rounders and the Gamecocks were in the same pool (Pool A), however, and the Rounders edged out the Gamecocks for the #1 seed, by virtue of run differential, since the teams did not face each other. San Diego Fastpitch grabbed the third #1 seed, emerging from Pool B with a 2-1 record.

Summary by Pool


POOL A:

Order of Finish:
 

  1. El Segundo Rounders (3-0)
  2. Gamecocks (3-0)
  3. L.A. Heat (1-2)
  4. Raymar (0-3)


In a quirk of scheduling, the Rounders and Gamecocks finished with 3-0 records, but did not face each other.  Therefore, the tie breaker formulas were applied to determine the #1 and #2 seed, an edge that went to the Rounders.  The two teams finished with remarkably similar results, run-ruling a couple of teams each. The first tie breaker was also a dead-heat, with each team surrendering a total of 6 runs.  The Gamecocks looked on as the Rounders faced the L.A. Heat.  The Heat tallied 3 runs in the first few innings, so one more run would have given the edge to the Gamecocks.  The Rounders exploded for 11 runs, including 4 in the bottom of the 5th, picking up their second run rule win of the day, and earning the #1 seed. The big blow of the game was a monster home run over the right center field fence by Rounder's centerfielder Tom Morton.  Catcher Donald Younger had a couple of hits on the day, including the rally starter in the Rounders 5th.

The Rounders started their day with an 11-3 win over Raymar, with the forfeit win over Soboba sandwiched in betweeen.   The Rounders #1 seed earns them a bye in the first round, and a second round game against the winner of the B5 and C4 teams, Santana Concrete and the Las Vegas Gamblers, a game that was underway at 6pm Saturday night.   The game will be anything but an easy one for the Rounders, facing either a Billy Montana, who shut them out in Las Vegas last week, or Santana Concrete, whom they squeaked out a 2-1 win.

The Gamecocks opened their day with a 10-2 win over the L.A. Heat, followed by a 9-4 win over Raymar, earning the #2 seed.

The L.A. Heat faced Raymar in a 3:00 p.m. game to decide the #3 and #4 seeds for Pool A.  Raymar jumped out a big lead early, and appeared to have the game in hand, but the Heat rallied, and came away with an 8-7 win and the #3 seed.  Raymar rallied in their final frame, but couldn't bring home the tying run.   Host Raymar played well at times throughout the day, but could seem to find the winning combination, in a rare 0-3 day, falling into the #4 seed and a tough 9:00 a.m. matchup with the #1 seed from Pool A, the L.A. Kanakas.  Yogi legged a pair of triples today for Raymar, among their individual highlights.


POOL B:

Order of Finish:
 

  1. San Diego Fastpitch (2-1)

  2. Amigos (2-1)

  3. Panteras (2-1)

  4. So Cal Rebels (2-1)

  5. Santana Concrete (0-3)


San Diego Fastpitch earned the right to sleep in on Sunday, winning the #1 seed in the most hotly contested, and evenly balanced pool, with 4 of the 5 teams finishing with 2-1 records.  Santana Concrete surprisingly struggled, after finishing 4th in the Las Vegas tournament last weekend, including two run rule wins, in which they scored a total of 27 runs.  At press time Saturday night, Santana was waiting to play the first game of the single elimination bracket, a game they must win to be around on Sunday.

POOL C:

Order of Finish:  

  1. L.A. Kanakas (3-0)

  2. Genesis (2-1)

  3. Palm Springs

  4. Las Vegas Gamblers

The Kanakas, the second place finisher at Palm Springs, picked up where they left off, with 3 wins, over Genesis, Palm Springs, and the Las Vegas Gamblers.  Gary Schwenn took over the lead pitching duties from Joe Edwards, who left the team in the middle of the championship game in Palm Springs.

League leading Genesis bounced back after a 9am loss to the Kanakas and notched a couple of wins for the #2 seed.
 


Sunday's Schedule
(*unofficial, so check with your managers for games and game times)

6pm Saturday:
Game #1:
B5 Santana Concrete v. C4 Las Vegas Gamblers

9am Sunday:
Game #2
B2 Amigos v. C3 Palm Springs

Game #3
C1 L.A. Kanakas v. A4 Raymar

Game #4
A2 Gamecocks v. B3 Panteras

Game #5
C2 Genesis v. A3 L.A. Heat

Game #6
B4 So Cal Rebels v. A5 Soboba (forfeit)

SECOND ROUND GAMES

Game #7
A1 El Segundo Rounders v. winner game #1 Santana/Gamblers

Game #8
Winner game 2 v. winner game 3

Game #9
winner game 4 v. winner game 5

Game #10
So Cal Rebels v. B1 San Diego Fastpitch

 

©1998-2008 | Contact Us | Search | Mailing List | Sponsors | Forum | ASA | NAFA | ISC | ISCforum | ISC-II | The Deuce | Morning Brief | BPR | Al's Fastball |