Long Beach Black Sox win inaugural California Cup tournament

Tribe eliminates third place Valley Lyons, then forces Black Sox to "if" game before Sox capture title, in wild, 9-8 finale.

More details soon, but briefly for now:

The Black Sox beat the Tribe, 9-5 Saturday to send them to the loser's bracket.  On Sunday morning, the Black Sox knocked off a very strong Valley Lyons team, 6-2 in the winner's bracket final.

The Tribe won their Sunday morning game over the Native American team that played so well on Saturday, setting up a loser's bracket final between the Tribe and Valley Lyons.  Lyons took a three run lead into the seventh, but the Tribe offense once again exploded as they rallied for five and another chance at the Black Sox in the Cal Cup championship game.

After falling behind 5-0, the Tribe rallied for a 9-6 win, forcing the "if" game.   The Black Sox jumped out to an early lead in the "if" contest, building on a five run first to build what appeared to be a commanding 7-0 lead early.  But as they had done all weekend, the Tribe's bats came alive, and they rallied from 7 run deficit, to cut lead to 9-5 going into the seventh inning.  The Black Sox needed but three outs, but were stunned when the Tribe cut the lead to 9-8  with a double and back to back home runs. The next batter hit a double over centerfielder Steve Tollington's head, putting the tying run in scoring position. An infield out advanced the runner from third.  Player-manager Fred Hanker came in from right field to talk with starting pitcher Mitch Mendenhall.  Mendenhall told Hanker he could finish, and Hanker said "that was good enough for me", returning to his position in right field.  Mendenhall then reached back and closed things out for the win.  The finale of the first ever California Cup proved to be a wild and memorable one.  The Black Sox, whose roster was riddled with injuries all season long made it through the weekend with just 9 players and 2 pitchers. 

We'll have a picture soon of the perennial California Cup trophy, after the engraving of the name of the first year's winner, "Long Beach Black Sox".

A special thank you to Eddie "Dude" Ybarra and his staff at the City of Fresno for all of their hard work in putting this first year tournament together, and doing so for a remarkably inexpensive entry fee of $150.00.  "Dude" took care of all of the pre-tournament preparations, arranging for scorekeepers for all games, getting teams onboard, coming up with the logo for the T-shirts, ordering the awards for first, second and third place, as well as MVP's and All Tourney awards.   While the rest of us were sleeping Friday night, "Dude" was at the complex 'til 1:30 in the morning, making sure the fields were ready to go for the first set of 8am games Saturday.

The new complex at Fresno is a good one, and provided four quality fields for the tournament, which were prepped and watered before each and every game by the grounds crew.  The crew remained at the ready throughout the tournament to keep things ship-shape, such as when outfielders ran through the portable home-run fencing.  Picnic tables with large overheads provided shades close to the fields. The fields offered a good tournament venue, ample parking, clean restrooms and what have to be the most spacious dugouts I have ever seen -- so big, in fact, that teams were using them as bullpens for their pitchers to warm up in the comfort of the shade. 

For more details on the Black Sox games, visit Fred Hanker's Long Beach Black Sox website.

SATURDAY'S REPORT

The Native Americans are the talk of the tournament Saturday with two 11-10 come from behind wins today.  They trailed Energy Link 9-5 and won 11-10.  Tonight, they trailed Raymar 8-3 and 10-5 before coming back to win.  Jerome Arteberry homered in both of those games, while Jamon Heard and Darrin Garcia homered against Raymar. 

The Black Sox rolled a pair of nines, winning 9-0 and 9-5.  They trailed the Tribe 3-0 in the first inning, but came back on a 3 run homer by Fred Hanker and two run shot by Gerald Pyle in the first inning.  Mark Villalobos hit a homer in the 7th inning, but it was ruled a ground rule double.  Damian Guerrero hit the top lip of the portable fencing, just missing a homer.

Jeff Coleman hit a pair of homers in one of the Valley Lyons wins.

Scores, by game number:

1. The Tribe 11-6 over Gaines
2. Valley Lyons 8-3 over the Amigos
3. Native Americans 7-3 over KHT Pumpers
4. Black Sox 9-0 over the Knights (Marcel Bernal and Mark Villalobos with 3 RBI @)
5. The Tribe 5-2 over Raymar
6. Valley Lyons 6-4 over Fresno Shockers
7. Native Americans 11-10 over Energy Link
8. Amigos over Knights
9. Raymar over Pumpers
10. Energy Link over Gaines Liquor
11. Black Sox 9-5 over The Tribe
12. Valley Lyons 7-6 over Native Americans
13. Raymar over Amigos
14. Shockers over Energy Link
15. Native Americans 11-10 over Raymar
16. The Tribe 12-3 over Fresno Shockers

Got Game?  Bring It On.   For bragging rights, plain and simple.

There has been some discussion in the Fastpitchwest Forum about the rankings of the ASA "C" level teams in California -- who the best teams are and which of the leagues - North, Central or South has the strongest field of teams.  Well,  here's a chance to have those questions settled where they should be ---- on the field.  Any ASA "C" team in California can enter.

The winner will take home the coveted "California Cup" and will keep it for a year - - a la Stanley Cup -- or longer if they can defend it. 

In order to accomodate all parts of the State of California, this one will likely hit the road in future years.  For 2004, it's centrally located in Fresno, at their new complex.

How much of an excuse do you need to get into this tournament? When's the last time you played in a tournament where the entry fee was $150?

Got an excuse NOT to play in this one?