Details released for the ASA “C” National Qualifier in Stockton, California: 2005 National Qualifier
Archive for April, 2005
2005 National Qualifier (ASA “C”)
Monday, April 18th, 2005Best of the West, 2005
Monday, April 18th, 2005The details for this year’s “Best of the West” tournament, from David Blackburn:
Reserve your Team’s spot now in the longest running consecutive Men’s Fastball Tournament in California.
The 15th Annual Best of The West
Men’s Open Fastball Tournament
July 30 – 31, 2005Entry deadline: May 16, 2005
Click here for complete details, and a look back at the 2004 Best of the West tournament.
Hawks Prairie Inn Invite in Lacey, WA rescheduled to July 23-24, 2005
Monday, April 18th, 2005The Hawks Prairie Inn Invite tournament at Bucknell Park in Lacey, Washington has been rescheduled from June 11-12 to July 23-24, 2005. It’s a NAFA qualifier, for “AA” and “A Major” teams, with a $350 entry fee, and a three-game guarantee. See full webpage for further details — including PRIZE MONEY info. Deadline for entries is July 18, 2005.
Bombs Away at Santa Fe Springs
Sunday, April 17th, 2005Ralph Trejo’s So Cal Bombers awed the fans at Santa Fe Springs with a prodigious display of power this weekend in SoCal ASA A/B league play, enroute to a perfect 5-0 record in SoCal ASA A/B league play. The Bombers defeated arch rival Team Rainey 4-2 Saturday afternoon, then pounded out 7 home runs Sunday morning against the NorCal Mavericks — including 3 in a row and 6 in one inning, and finished up the day with an 8-1 win over the “Young Bucks”, Clyde Bennett’s 23 and under team. Young Anthony Martinez (Amigos) looked strong in his season debut for the 23 and under “Young Bucks”, against upper division competition, shutting out the Bombers for 5 solid innings before the Bombers went to work in the final two frames.
Mike Butler homered for the Bombers on Saturday and Sunday, while Arturo Solano had two home runs in the 9am game against the Mavericks. Dan Winnick, Nate Devine and Jason Porto also got into the act, with homers for the Bombers on Sunday. Butler came up big Saturday against his former team (Team Rainey), hitting a solo home run to straight away center and making a spectacular diving foul line catch against Rainey to end an inning. In the “feature” game between the Southland’s top two teams, TeamRainey took a 2-0 lead, but the Bombers scored a pair to tie it, and two more for the win, as Tony Peeples pitched well down the stretch for the win, outdueling Rainey’s Bricklen Anderson.
The Bombers have dropped only one game all year, to Castlewood Utah, in the Las Vegas Spring Swing tournament, which they avenged with two wins in the championship of that tournament, and have two tourney titles to their credit already, in Norwalk, and Las Vegas, and look loaded for bear as they head to Red Rock in two weeks.
Team Rainey bounced back after Saturday’s loss to the Bombers, with wins over the River City Rockers and NorCal Mavericks Sunday, to finish 4-1 on the weekend. Team Rainey’s new ace, Bricklen Anderson tossed a 3 hit, 3-0 shutout over the Mavericks, with Ed Gaspar throwing well for the Mavs, yielding only two earned runs, and nothing after the third inning. The Mavs threatened in the 5th with runners at second and third before Anderson struck out the side.
Both the Bombers and Rainey will travel to St. George Utah in two weeks (April 30-May 1) for the Red Rock tournament. So Cal pitcher Mark Bennett, who pitched for his dad’s 23 and under team in Santa Fe Springs will join Portland CR/Adidas for Red Rock.
The River City Rockers and Raymar also competed in the weekend event at Little Lake Park,with Raymar picking up a win against the Young Bucks, while River City topped Raymar in their final game of the weekend Sunday morning. The Rockers have been a contender for the ASA “B” National crown the past several years, while Raymar finished 3rd amongst 70 teams at last year’s ASA “C” National, and were bumped up to the “B” division under ASA rules, and competing at the A/B level for the first time.
Watch the Morning Brief for a link to Maddy’s “Monday Night Photos” taken at Santa Fe Springs, and be sure to check the SoCal ASA website for more.
Mark Bennett on National TV
Thursday, April 14th, 2005Speaking of (longtime So Cal Bucks pitcher) Mark Bennett, we hear that he’ll be on National TV tomorrow morning, April 15. No, he won’t be pitching in a fastpitch game. More like shoveling horse something-or-other. Mark and his wife were selected from among hundreds who write in to enlist the help of the morning news show.
Friday April 15, Mark Bennett and his wife Tami will be on the feature series “Anchor to the Rescue”. Dave Price the CBS morning weatherman comes to their ranch to help fix up/clean up their barn. It will be aired between 8:00 am and 9:00 am PST.
4/15/05 Update: The show ran this morning, but for those of you who missed it and want to view the segment, click this link (then click the “free video” link at the upper left”). Happy Trails! Rumor has it that the Bennetts are accepting applications for those who want to do this work on a regular basis.
SoCal ASA A/B League to Play This Weekend in Santa Fe Springs
Wednesday, April 13th, 2005League play for the So Cal ASA A/B league will begin this weekend at Little Lake Park in Santa Fe Springs, CA. Team Rainey and the So Cal Bombers will be among the teams competing, as well as Raymar, which gets its first test playing at the A/B level. British Columbia pitcher Bricklen Anderson, signed for the 2005 season by Team Rainey will be with the club for the first time. Pure speculation on my part, but I’m guessing we’ll see him on the mound against the So Cal Bombers in the 3pm game Saturday in this rematch of arch rivals. The Bombers took the first meetings, in February in the Norwalk Tournament and are coming off the heels of their Las Vegas Spring Swing title. Also competing will be the “Young Bucks” a (more or less) 23 and under team, with hard-throwing 21 year old, Anthony Martinez on the mound. Jason Iuli, slightly over 23 will pitch with them, as will Mark Bennett, more than slightly over 23. All kidding aside, Mark remains one of the best pitchers in California, as shown by a stellar performance against Team Rainey in last year’s Best of the West. Don’t miss a chance to see the best fastpitch teams in Southern California. Click here for the schedule of games at the So Cal ASA website
Benefit Ride for Masters’ Merritt Burgess Sunday
Wednesday, April 13th, 2005Merritt Burgess of the So Cal Masters was injured in a motorcycle accident and is still recovering. A benefit ride is being held. Details at So Cal ASA website
I.S.C. Out-of-Area Filing Deadline Approaches (May 2)
Wednesday, April 13th, 2005What is RSS?
Tuesday, April 12th, 2005Our “Morning Brief” blog has an explanation of RSS. Click that RSS link over there on the right, or here.
RSS stands for “Rich Site Summary”, or “Real Simple Syndication”. In short, it operates to send you emails when a site like “Morning Brief” is updated. It saves you having to log into the site over and over and trying to figure out if there is anything new. It’s like being on the private mailing list that tells you everytime something new has been posted.
There are a variety of software programs that serve as RSS readers, but for my two cents worth, the easiest is the one that Fastpitchwest recommends for email, Mozilla Thunderbird. Thunderbird is a great email program and also serves as a RSS reader. Get it free at:
http://www.mozilla.org/products/thunderbird/
For those of you married to Outlook, here is an add-on program called “RSS Popper” that will allow you to get RSS feeds via email in Outlook.
You can get RSS of your other favorite websites, like ESPN, Sports Illustrated, and most of the major websites on the net. Once you use RSS, you’ll wonder how you ever got along without it.