ISC Championship Game Video
8/21:
Pending on-site tech issues, the ISC will be webcasting the Championship game. You can view it by cutting and pasting the address below in your internet explorer browser address window.
http://cc.desktoplive.com/asx/iscvideo.asx
(Please do not click on the link, or you will get an error message.)
Viewers will require a 200k or better Internet connection, Windows 2000 or better and Windows Media Player 9 in order to view.
For those of you who might have missed it, Rod Petersen’s Farm Tavern team of Madison, Wisconsin won its second consecutive ASA Men’s Major title over the weekend, with a 6-0 win over the Broken Bow Spirit of New York. Petersen waited 37 years to get his first ever title last year, but had a much shorter wait for the second. Thirty-five year old pitcher Dean Holoien of Surrey, British Columbia earned Most Valuable Pitcher honors, pitching a no-hitter in the championship game. It marked the first time in the ASA Major tournament that foreign born players were allowed (2 per team).
Playing key roles in the Farm’s National Championship victory were a couple of California natives, “the two Todds”, Todd Budke and Todd Garcia.
Budke was a member of last year’s championship team, while Garcia joined the squad this year after Team Lyons folded. (Lyons had finished third in last year’s tournament, the highest finish by a California team in recent memory). Garcia anchored the NAFA AAA World Series champion Team Lyon squad last year in Wisconsin, earning MVP honors for his contributions, which included a dramatic 12th inning home run against RWP, MN, which is depicted in the photo link above. Todd Garcia later travelled to Christchurch as the starting catcher for Team USA in the ISF World Championships. (Budke is a former Team USA player himself) Neither Budke nor Garcia are strangers to championship caliber play, and will be back on the field when the ISC World Tournament gets underway next week.
The Farm opened the season as the number 3 team in the ISC rankings, and finished up at number 2. Along with #1 County Materials and #3 Broken Bow, the Farm will be among the favorites to add an ISC World title to their resume in this year’s tournament at Fargo-Moorehead, North Dakota.
With most of the major tournaments taking place east of the Rockies, we don’t get a chance to see “the two Todds” play in person too much during the season, but California’s favorite sons continue to compete at the highest levels of the sport. Garcia doubled in the championship game, while Budke homered. Both earned First team All American honors (see below) We wish them well in Fargo. (Click title of this article above for more details on the game).
We hope to get a chance to see them in person in the upcoming ISC World Tournament next week.
Championship Final
The Farm Tavern 200 202 0 – 6 11 0
Broken Bow Spirit 000 000 0 – 0 0 3
Dean Holoien and Todd Garcia. Doug Middleton, Frank Cox (5) and Gerald Muizelaar (7th) and John Wodtke. W-Holoien. L-Middleton. 2B: The Farm Tavern – Todd Garcia 3B: The Farm Tavern: Boomer Brush. HR: The Farm Tavern: Todd Budke.
First Team All-Americans 1B – Tim Hatten, Blackhawk Athletic Club. 2B – Bill McDonald, Heflin Builders. 3B – Todd Budke, The Farm Tavern. SS – David Boys, The Farm Tavern. Outfield – Tony Gabriel, Heflin Builders; Rob Gray, The Farm Tavern; Chad Maxon, Blackhawk Athletic Club and Steve Schott, Broken Bow Spirit.Utility – Chris Delarwelle, Circle Tap; Chris Delorit, The Bull/Townline; Steve Price, Heflin Builders. Catcher – Todd Garcia, The Farm Tavern. Pitchers – Dean Holoien, The Farm Tavern; Gerald Muizelaar, Broken Bow Spirit and Rob O’Brien, Circle Tap.
How’d you like to work your way up to being the #12 team in the country, head to a tournament and find yourselves the lowest ranked team in the tournament? Well, that’s exactly what Team Rainey will experience this weekend competing in the prestigious Bob Walsh Memorial tournament this weekend, July 24-25, 2004. The tournament is an invitation-only affair, limited to eight teams. This year, the field of teams has the #1,2,3,4,6,8, 11 and 12 ranked teams in the world. The eight teams are: County Materials WI (1), The Farm Tavern WI (2), Broken Bow Spirit NY (3), Circle Tap WI (4), Fedlock DC (6), Heflin Gremlins NY (8), Imaging Systems Knights ND (11) and Team Rainey CA (12)
The tournament committee sparked a bit of controversy earlier in the year by leaving out two local teams that wanted to play in the tournament. One team was particularly vocal about the committee’s decision to leave them out, the Quaker Riversharks. The Riversharks were last year’s NAFA “AA” runner-up and finished at #26 in the ISC World rankings. The Sharks stepped up this year to open level competition, adding a number of the defunct Can-Am Windmillers, who were regulars (and even won) the Bob Walsh tournament in a prior year. But that controversy is in the books, and this year’s field of teams could well be the toughest ever.
Team Rainey flew out to Allentown yesterday and are getting ready today for the start of play on Saturday. They decided to add a travel day, to avoid a repeat of their 5:30am arrival on game day in Wisconsin earlier this month for the “Boys of Summer” tournament. For a west coast team like Rainey, the rigors of travelling to face the best competition in the world can be extremely demanding.
Team Rainey will be without ace Travis Price for the weekend, but are picking up Bricklin Anderson, from Vancouver, British Columbia. Anderson pitches for Morgan Transfer of Olympia, Washington, and shut out Team Rainey in a 1-0 pitchers duel against Tony Peeples at this year’s Portland Rose Cup. The two (Anderson and Peeples) will now be teammates for the weekend. Anderson came into the spotlight in the 2002 NAFA World Series at Salem, Oregon, when he tossed a perfect game. Peeples was recently named to the All Tourney team for this year’s Portland DeMarini Rose Cup tournament, posting a 0.70 ERA in 20 innings pitched, with a Gagnesque 37 strikeouts and only 2 walks. “Peeps” took a hard line drive off his arm at “Boys of Summer” a couple weeks ago, but appears to be OK. Team Rainey also had two other players make the Rose Cup All Tourney team, Mike Butler and Jason Porto. Butler had three home runs, including two in the upset win over Victoria Travellers Inn in the quarterfinals, while Jason Porto was a one-man wrecking crew with 9 hits, a .476 batting avergage, including a homer, double, and 5 RBI.
Their pool play schedule on Saturday, July 24 pits them against the (new) #1 ranked team in the world, County Materials, WI, #2 The Farm Tavern, WI, and #9 Houston H.I.S. Construction. Team Rainey faced County Materials at the Boys of Summer tournament, facing the legendary Darren Zack. County topped former #1 Broken Bow recently in the Casino Ramo tournament in Ontario Canada. Houston was the team that knocked Team Rainey out of the World Tournament last year, though Team Rainey has already beaten them in 2004, as well as notching wins against other higher ranked teams including Victoria Travellers Inn and Midland Michigan. Click the title of this story above to visit the Team Rainey website for game times and results of their games, or just click here: www.teamraineyfastpitch.com
Be sure to catch all the coverage from this past weekend’s California Area ISC Tournament. Congratulations to the champions, Team Rainey, who are now headed to the ISC World Tournament as the California area representative, August 13-21, 2004. It is the second time in two years that Team Rainey will compete in the World Tournament.
