Sun City West Softball Club
10th Annual Spring Fling Tournament
March 5, 2010
Bob Williams Reporting
 

FINAL RESULTS FOR NATIONAL LEAGUE SPRING FLING, MARCH 5, 2010

Hawks soar to win the Spring Fling with amazing come from behind last inning rally over the Mavericks.  See game six.

HAWKS  23 – BOMBERS  13

 In the opening game of Day 2, the Hawks pound out 30 hits in sending the Bombers to the Consolation Bracket.  Kim Peterson continues to amaze at shortstop and has four hits with three doubles.  Leadoff man Arnie Rehmann clouts four hits with two doubles and friendly Bob Fellenz has four hits with one double.  Larry “Legs” Chapman collected three hits with two doubles and Mike Kennedy and Carl Marchetti both collected three hits with one double each.  Ed Arp and Howard Murray also enjoyed three hit days in the win.  Interestingly, the Hawks smacked four consecutive doubles in the four run fifth inning and three doubles out of nine hits in the seven run seventh.  The Bombers rallied for four in the fifth and five in the seventh, but had gotten too far behind.  Larry Ott doubled and scored the first run in the opening frame while Gus Grell and Fred Trautman both went 3 for 4 with a double and Paul Struglinski legged out three hits.  Credit pitcher Dick Downs with a seventh inning double. This win advanced the Hawks to the Championship game.

 MAVERICKS  14 – BEN’Z BOYS  3

 The Mavericks advanced to the Championship game on the sterling pitching performance by Jay Stahl, who also doubled in the four run fourth.  Gene Sutter laced a big two run triple in that same fourth inning.  Bruce Stannard tripled and scored in the third (3 hits) and Paul Haney also picked up three hits in the win.  Hal Dubois cleared the bases with a three run double in the Mavericks four run fifth.  Ben’z Boys opened by scoring three times in the first inning, highlighted by a Scott McLearie triple followed by a Tony Sevier double.  Little did the Boys know they would not score again the rest of the game.  Ed Carino did leg out a double in the sixth and Joe Emmons went 3 for 3.  Credit the Mavericks Bruce Stannard and Paul Haney with some terrific defense.

 T-BIRDS 16 – BOMBERS  5

 In our first consolation game of the day the T-Birds advanced to the Consolation Championship by eliminating the Bombers.  Al Schifini twirled a gem on the mound and also picked up three hits.  Don Anderson, Dick Schoenheide and Herschel Spears also went 3 for 3 with Anderson blasting a two run triple in the T-Birds four run third.  The T-Birds scored four times in the first, third, fourth and fifth innings and never looked back.   The Bombers rallied for four runs in the sixth, sending seven to the plate but the story had been told.

 MIGHTY BOBCATS 17 – BEN’Z BOYS  16

 In our second Consolation game the Mighty Bobcats, trailing 13-11 going into the seventh inning sent 10 hitters to the plate scoring six times featuring a Myrl Wagenknecht double to go up  17-13.  Ben’z Boys, facing elimination, fought back with scoring three times in the bottom of the seventh to pull within one  on a huge Walt Worley three run double.  Worley made it to third base, but was stranded there with what would have been the tying run.  The Bobcats Ron Eppley went 4 for 4, Wagenknecht went 3 for 4 with a triple and a double, Ed Ritzman had three hits with a double while Bob Freeland and Don Swanson both enjoyed three hit days.  Welcome back to Don Swanson!  Ken Klomhaus bashed a two run homer in the Bobcats four run fourth.  Ben’z Boys Ed Carino and big Bob Morgan both went 4 for 4 with doubles.  Ben Zeppa, Rich Moschel, Tony Sevier, Rudy Morocco and the venerable Steve Griswold all collected three hits with Sevier and Griswold legging out doubles in this tough loss.  The Bobcats advanced to the Consolation finals.

 MIGHTY BOBCATS  21 – T-BIRDS  6

 In the Consolation Championship Game the Mighty Bobcats roared to an impressive win over the T-Birds to take third place in the Tournament.  Pitcher Len Wickets was nearly unhittable on the mound and picked up three hits.  Jack Sikes led the way going 5 for 5.  Ron Eppley tripled and doubled (4 hits) while Arlan Seefeldt and Ed Ritzman went 4 for 5 with Ritzman cranking a three run double in the Bobcats seven run seventh.  Myrl Wagenknecht picked up three hits with a double and speedy Lew McLaughlin also went 3 for 4.  The T-Birds finish in fourth place in the tournament.  Dick Schoenheide had three hits, while Dennis Hertzog and Herschel Spears both legged out doubles in the loss.

 HAWKS  11 – MAVERICKS  10

As it should have been, this Championship Game was the best played and ended up being the most thrilling game of the tournament.  The Hawks trailed 3-1 until the bottom of the fifth inning when they sent 9 hitters to the plate, scoring four times to go up 5-3.  It appeared that the Mavericks were going to wear the Spring Fling Championship T-shirts when they sent 11 batters to the plate and scored five times in the top of the seventh to go up 10-6.  This is where things got interesting.  The Hawks got the first two men on base in the seventh but the next two batters made outs.  However, with two outs, Kim Peterson (3 hits) and Bob Fellenz both singled making the score 10-7 and loading the bases, but with still two outs.  Carl Marchetti confidently strode to the plate and blasted a game winning walk off grand slam home run that is still ricocheting around the walls of Liberty Field.  The Hawks went berserk.  What a storybook finish to a storybook tournament.  Arnie Rehmann, Ed Arp, Kim Peterson and Scott Reeves all collected three hits with Rehmann tripling and scoring the first run of the game in the opening frame.  Bob Williams doubled in a run in the sixth.  Mike Kennedy needs to be singled out for terrific defensive play at third base.  A rally killing double play in the fifth inning seemed to turn momentum in the Hawks way when shortstop Kim Peterson snagged a line drive and flipped the ball to Williams at second for the twin killing.  The Mavericks Hall Dubois led their team going 4 for 4 and Bruce Stannard went 3 for 4.  The Mavericks outhit the Hawks 22 to 21, but the Mavericks hits were all singles, a credit to the Hawks defense and to winning pitcher Joe Difiore.

P.S.  Thank you to Ken Skinner and his professional umpires, Ron Blackwell, George Karras, Art Nelson, Mike Hester and Jim Montgomery for officiating the tournament.  A special thanks to Jim Tramel and Duane Newkirk who spent two days scorekeeping and running the scoreboard.  Thanks also to Dennis Farrar for all of his work in the booth and on the field.  Special thanks to Don and Linda Swanson and John and Pauline Dewey who stuck with us for two days helping with set up, cooking and clean up.  Cooking duties were also provided by Walt Worley and Tony DiBiasio.  Our apologies to anyone we may have missed, but we are extremely grateful.  This was a fabulous tournament and we could not have done it without you!  Thanks to all the players and the managers who stepped up to make this such a success.   

Bob and Kay

MESSAGE FROM BOB PECK, PRESIDENT, SUN CITY WEST SOFTBALL CLUB

At the March 1, 2010 Board meeting of the SCW Softball Club, the following was approved by a motion of the governing board:

Beginning with the Spring Fling this week and continuing on a trial basis until the end of the winter session on April 1, pitchers at SCW Liberty Field will be required to wear a protective mask during games. This action applies only to the American and National League games played on Tuesday & Thursday. No other leagues or days are affected. The SCW Club will purchase two masks to be available for use by pitchers who do not have one.

I would expect that there may be individual pitchers who may refuse to use the mask. If a pitcher on a particular team chooses not to wear a mask and a team is without a legitimate pitcher, it is my recommendation that that team manager be allowed to find a substitute pitcher from another team or the sub pool who would comply with the board's action.

The Board has acted in good faith to address a safety concern which we thought could not be overlooked. Please direct any questions or concerns to me.

After this trial period, the Board will reconsider the issue and may act on appropriate alternative solutions that are available.

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