The Broken Bow Gremlins (NY) won the 2007 Portland DeMarini Rose Cup with outstanding pitching, solid defense and timely hitting. Sound familiar? Lanky lefty Andrew Kirkpatrick and Jeremy Manley were almost unhittable all weekend. Jared Martin, Patrick Shannon, Nathan Nukunuku & Rhys Casley, among others on the Bow roster, added the offensive firepower.
The Gremlins had the toughest schedule both days and outscored their opponents 29-3. Considering they played three games against top ten teams and one against the 13th ranked ISC squad, it was a very impressive first outing of the year for this New York bunch. They certainly lived up to their #3 ranking and then some. Oh yea, did I mention Doc and Koos are class acts, too? Thanks for putting on a great show in Portland this weekend. It made all the rain on Sunday more tolerable.
The host Portland DeMarini squad had a pretty good weekend, too, finishing second to the Gremlins 4-0 in the final. Mike “Peaches” Piechnik had a gritty 8 inning win in the semi’s over the Grey Sox of Vancouver, B.C.. The game could have went either way until Todd Garcia hit a sharp single to win it for Portland by a score of 2-1. Bricklen Anderson (P) and Brian Ree (SS) had real solid games for the DeMarini team this weekend.
Nick Underhill, the Grey Sox fireballer, had an outstanding game against Broken Bow, losing 1-0 and also against Portland giving up just one run in a no decision. Undy was impressive. Rick Smith had a 20 strikeout outing. Once the Grey Sox bats come to life, watch out for this young squad. Thanks too, for all the Vancouver folks who traveled to Portland for the weekend tournament. The Vancouver Challenge is July 27 – 29th and is an excellent tournament. Those Canadians are gracious hosts and have strong tourney this year.
Sean Whitten, Evan Potskin, Jason Porto, Landy Rodriguez, Darren Box and the rest of the SoCal Bombers put on good show at the tournament. The Bombers are loaded top to bottom in their batting order and showed why they are ranked #7 by the ISC. With Whitten, Peeples & Tilley sharing time in the circle, they are a dangerous team to face. The Bombers and Grey Sox took 3rd place at the Rose Cup.
Congrats to CR/Adidas of Portland for winning the consolation championship. Mike Warren (P), Mark Bennett (P) and some solid hitting led the way on Sunday for this team.
Thanks to all fourteen teams for attending this years event.
Special thanks to Jim Flanagan of Fastpitchwest.com for posting all the scores in such a timely fashion.
Tom Ree
Portland, Oregon
