ORANGEMEN WIN STATE CLASS A

In the midst of a woeful 2006 campaign, Brecka’s Orangemen stayed in the winner’s bracket for the duration, reeling off five consecutive wins to capture the class A championship of the 16-team Wisconsin NAFA men’s fastpitch state tournament held this past weekend at Middleton.

The championship encounter with Schneid’s Sports Bar and Grill of Madison turned into a 13-3 Brecka’s route, as the Orangemen began the game with six straight hits, highlighted by a 3-run home run by Andy Mathews and followed by a long triple off the bat of Tatum Candler. Mathews had five total runs batted in for the contest. Jake Nelson along with Mathews turned in two for three performances, Greg Nelson and Tim Hall were two for four with a triple and double respectively, and Jeff Bader had two singles in four trips as Larry Cushman went the route for the pitching victory.

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[Grants Pass, Oregon]

25,000 people annually converge on Grants Pass, Oregon from all over the U.S. and Canada for the Boatnik Memorial Day Weekend Festivities. The Boatnik Men’s Fastpitch Softball Tournament sponsored by David Wise State Farm Insurance was held Memorial Day Weekend in Grants Pass, Oregon serving as a NAFA World Series Qualifier. Beginning with two exhibition games on Friday night and ending at 2:30 pm Monday with the nationally ranked Portland, Oregon Adidas team taking the title and the $500 team travel money. The runnerup was the A-Major Addidas team also from Portland who were awarded $250. Third place was Mock Ford from Grants Pass, Oregon, Fourth Place was last years ASA C National Runner-Up Brotherton Pipe(formerly Global) of Southern Oregon. Finishing 5th was the Portland Gamblers and taking 6th place was Blacksmith of Grants Pass and taking 7th place was Tule Lake-Beeber, California. Players from as far away as Argentina participated. Portland went 5-0 in winning the championship with an average run differential of 10-2 per game. The Tournament format was a four game guarantee with 2 round robin games that seeded all teams in to a full double elimination tournament. No team was eliminated until 6 pm on Sunday. The tournament saw two brief rain delays but finished each day on time. The key elements of this event that make it so special are the spectators that watch every game with no less than 100 people present and with a high of 500 during some games. Riverside Park has one of the best settings to play men’s fastpitch anywhere in the U.S. With a permanent 250 foot fence, electronic scoreboard, announcers for every game and scorekeepers for every game make it truly a fastpitch players dream. By team votes, next year’s event will feature both an upper and a lower bracket and will continue with a four game guarantee. The host committee also hopes to increase the travel money to $1,750 in 2006 as well. The Upper bracket will be for NAFA AA(ASA Good B) and higher teams and the lower bracket for NAFA A and A-Major teams(ASA C and low B). (more…)

The dates for the 2006 North American Fastpitch World Series to be held in Appleton-Kimberly, Wisconsin are listed below by class in addition to the 2006 Masters World Series in Carson City, Nevada:

2006 NAFA World Series in Appleton-Kimberly, Wisconsin

A-Major Division – Thursday, August 17th to Sunday August 20th, NAFA 3GG Bracket
AA-Division – Friday, August 18th to Monday, August 21st, NAFA 3GG Bracket
AAA-Division– Tuesday, August 22nd to Wednesday August 23rd, New 4GG Format
Open Division– Wednesday, August 23rd to Thursday, August 24th,New 4GG Format
A-Division– Thursday, August 24th to Sunday, August 27th, NAFA 3GG Bracket
23-Under Division, Friday evening August 25th to Sun Aug 27th, 2RR then Double Elimination

The coaches at the 2005 World Series set the dates and formats for each division except the AAA and Open Division Dates were set by the local host after conferring with teams in this division.

2006 NAFA Masters World Series in Carson City, Nevada

Friday Evening, Saturday and Sunday, September 22-23-24 4GG, 2 RR then single elimination, then consolation 50+, 45+, 40+, 35+

Four Divisions All Divisions will play one game Friday night, two Saturday, one or more on Sunday The teams attending the event voted to move the date of the Masters event to weekend that includes the 4th Saturday in September to be assured of excellent weather. They also chose to have the event be a 4 game guarantee as opposed to a 3 game guarantee and to have one game Friday night for each team. To receive a color brochure for each event or for more information, email us at Nafafastpitch@aol.com or call 503-864-4487 ext 211. Please drop in daily as our new and improved website will be installed November 7th at www.nafafastpitch.com

Yours in better Men’s Fastpitch,
Benjie Hedgecock
NAFA Executive Director
PO Box 566
Dayton, Oregon 97114

Have you posted your flag at the Frappr Fastball Map? Click here for details

By Jim Williamson, Manager of JRW and Associates
jrwilliamson@foodfacility.com

Wednesday October 12, 2005

Carson City, NV … JRW & Associates of Yakima, WA took third in the 40-OVER NAFA Masters World Series this past weekend. This Sat-Sun event also included classes of play for 35-OVER, 45-OVER and 50-OVER.

This Masters World Series was a huge success – team quantity was quadrupled over last year. It seems like each team had players from 3 other teams as the age grouping split this summer’s teams. It was like old home week as everybody greeted former teammates.

A four-plex in Centennial Park at the far eastern edge of Carson City was a great place to play. Joel and his grounds keeping crew kept the fields in immaculate shape. Beer was sold at the concession stand and could be consumed anywhere in the complex except in the dugouts.

The 8 AM starts weren’t very popular, but everybody was in the Casinos by early evening.

This was the first tournament for members of the JRW club that were age eligible for 40 & Over competition. With the exception of one Carson City pick-up, all players were already on the JRW team.

JRW pitcher Matt Barnes was a member of the EZ Promotions team, Champions of the 35-OVER class while JRW pitcher Dave Drotzmann threw for the runner-up C/R DeMarini team of Portland, OR.

The JRW team lost To Dave Drotzmann in a Sunday AM class cross-over game. JRW didn’t get to face Matt Barnes as EZ Promotions used MVP Doug Sleep in a Sat fill-in game. Doug pitched a 5 inning no-hitter, but lost his perfect game on a “bet”. JRW catcher Troy Grow bet JRW SS Jim Stone that he couldn’t get the bat on Sleep’s pitches. (Jim played mostly SP this past summer). Jim laid down a bunt that Sleep fielded and threw away.

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[North Mankato, Minnesota]-Waseda University of Tokyo, Japan won the 2005 NAFA Class AA World Series title this afternoon at Caswell Park in North Mankato. Waseda defeated the Lancaster County Merchants (Pa) 7-0 in the title.

Waseda did not allow a run the entire tournament, with Yukinori Nakashima throwing every inning.

Brett Bresnahan
NAFA webmaster
http://www.2005ws.nafafastpitch.com
mailto:mnfastpitch@hotmail.com

Championship Game 64-Waseda University 7 Lancaster County Merchants 0, Lancaster eliminated

Waseda …..110 030 2-7 11 0
Lancaster 000 000 0-0 3 2

WP-Yukinori Nakashima (6-0)
LP – Earl Rutledge (2-2)
HR-Tatsunori Takahara (1)