From 
2007 NAFA Masters World Series
Update July 14
Carson City, Nevada and Rockford, IllinoisThe 2007 NAFA Masters World Series is fast approaching, interested teams should be making their plans now ! NAFA offers 4 different age divisions in 2 different locations.
Editor’s notes: The California Lumberkings finished the day 0-3, but all three were one run losses to ranked ISC World teams, including an 11 inning loss to the Quad City Sox:
ISC # 16 Quad City Sox 5, California Lumberkings 4
(11 innings)
ISC # 17 Bloomington Stix 5, California Lumberkings 4
ISC # 11 Townline 2, California Lumberkings 1
The biggest upset of the day was the #25 Thomson Merchants 5-3 win over # 8 ranked Circle Tap.
From
[Aurora, Illinois] – AFSA Classic ISC Qualifier
A VERY windy and cool day.
Thomson Merchants 15, Plangger’s Furniture 8 (6 innings)
Roberto Bahler (W) 8 H, 6 K, 0 BB, pitched five innings
Steve Manson 2 H, 0 K, 0 BB, pitched 1 inning
Rick Plangger (L) 11 H, 3 K, 7 BB
2 B Thompson: Casey Eden, Rory Miller Mike House, Marques Cody
2 B Plangger’s: AQdam Binkley, Tim Lawmaster, Joe Czarnecki
3 B Bruce Bielema (T)
HR Thompson: Tony Cody, Steve Manson
HR Plangger: Tim Lawmaster
Rain at Orillia.
Click here for Al’s Orillia Scoreboard page. Saturday afternoon and evening’s games were cancelled. Watch Al’s Fastball for further news.
Saturday night update: from
Orillia Rained out for Saturday
Saturday, July 14, 2007A rain delay at 11am when the 2nd and 3rd games of the day were just underway.
Broken Bow Gremlins Overtakes Orillia for Top Spot
Not much movement from the June 21 rankings to the final set, which is used for seeding of the ISC World Tournament. The biggest jump came from the So Cal Bombers, moving from # 7 to # 4, no doubt on the strength of their win at Monkton among all of the best teams.
Broken Bow, however, grabbed the top spot, moving up from # 3 to # 1, trading places with Orillia, which held the top spot nearly all season long. Patsy’s stayed put at # 2. Broken Bow was the consensus choice for the top spot, garnering 8 of the 12 first place votes, while Patsy’s and Orillia just two each. The Bombers received no first place votes, despite the win at Monkton, but did get three second place votes.
Kitchener, The Farm and Minn Dak moved down one slot each, more a measure of making room for the Bombers jump than anything else. Most of the rest stayed put. Portland traded places with Midland (# 12 and #13), likely on their runnerup finish at Rose Cup. Bloomington and Pueblo also traded places (#17 and # 18), as did Planggers and Elkland (# 23 and 24).
Prior ranking from June 21 shown parenthetically:
Rank Team Name
1 Broken Bow Gremlins (3)
2 Patsy’s (2)
3 Orillia Quaker Riversharks (1)
4 So Cal Bombers (7)
5 Kitchener Hallman Twins (4)
6 The Farm (5)
7 MinnDak Millers (6)
8 Circle Tap (8)
9 Aspen Interiors (9)
10 Vancouver Grey Sox (10)
11 Townline (11)
12 Portland/Demarini (13)
13 Midland Explorers (12)
14 Albaugh, Inc. (14)
15 Jarvis (15)
16 Quad City Sox (16)
17 Bloomington Stix (18)
18 Pueblo Bandits (17)
19 Dolan & Murphy (19)
20 Innerkip (20)
21 St. Thomas Centennials (21)
22 Ashland Mets (22)
23 Plangger Furniture (24)
24 Elkland (23)
25 Thomson Area Merch. (25)
26 Midwest Stampede (26)
(click link to visit official site)
The schedule of games was released today for the 2007 ISC II Tournament of Champions in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, Aug 14-18, 2007. The highly competitive ISC II division is one of the premier divisions in all of fastball.
California will send two teams, A-1 Taylor Farms of Salinas/Castro Valley, CA and the Lumberkings of Bakersfield, CA. (ISC II Rankings are shown parenthetically below)
A-1/Taylor Farms is in Pool C
Tavistock, ON Merchants (# 3)
Kitchener, ON Outlaws (#12)
Moraviantown, ON Bucktown Bees (#17)
Castro Valley, CA A-1 Taylor Farms (#24)
Linwood, ON 86ers (unranked)
A-1/Taylor Farms Schedule:
Tues, Aug 14
12:00 PM EST/9:00am PST
vs. Linwood 86ers
Wednesday, Aug 15
3:30 PM EST/12:30pm PST
vs. Tavistock Merchants
6:30 PM/3:30pm PST
vs. Bucktown Bees
* Tentatively scheduled for broadcast on Ballparkradio.com *
Thursday, Aug 16
5:30 PM EST/2:30pm PST
vs. Kitchener Outlaws
The Lumberkings are in Pool B:
Bakersfield, CA California LumberKings (#2)
Bridgeport, ON PROforma Braves (#13)
Harrisburg, PA PA Power (#16)
Carp, ON I4C Victory (#31)
Hamilton, ON Hawks (unranked)
The Lumberkings schedule:
Tuesday, Aug 14
7:30pm EST/4:30pm PST – vs. the host Bridgeport, ON PROforma Braves. (This game is immediately following opening ceremonies, a rematch of last year’s game which drew one of the largest crowds of the tournament.) * Tentatively scheduled for broadcast on Ballparkradio.com *
Wednesday, Aug 15
9:30a EST/6:30am PST
vs. Harrisburg PA Power, PA
7:30pm EST/4:30pm PST
vs. Hamilton Hawks, ON
Thursday, August 16
1:30pm EST/10:30am PST
vs. Carp, ON I4C Victory
The single elimination playoff round starts at 9am Friday morning, with the top 24 teams advancing, and seeded according to their record in pool play competition. (Tie Breaker games are slated for — ugh — 7:00 a.m. (4am here on the west coast!)
Want to print this post so you can stick it on your fridge or bulletin board for later reference ? Click the headline of this post, then print.
From
AFSA Classic ISC Qualifier, Aurora Illinois
Aurora Dolan & Murphy 6, Thomson, IL 0
Juan Potolicchio (W) 5 H, 11 K, 0 BB
Steve Manson (L) 7 H, 5 K, 3 BB
2b Jarod Gutesha (Aurora), John Sudges (Aurora)
HR Camden Decker (Aurora), Luis Saldana (Aurora)
Denmark Circle Tap 8, Dolan & Murphy 1
Collin McKenzie (W) 5 H, 5 K, 0 BB
Jonas Mach (L) 8 H, 9 K, 5 BB
Six innings…..no extra base hits
(click logo for official tournament website)
Kitchener, Broken Bow, and Patsy’s came away winners on opening night, while the host Orillia Riversharks won a pair at the World Series of Fastball Friday night.
Vancouver, Jarvis, Aspen and Pueblo suffered opening night losses, while Midland dropped a couple of close ones, to the # 2 and # 3 ranked teams in the world, Patsy’s and Broken Bow.
Al Doran is in attendance and posting scores and updates regularly via his Blackberry. Click here to follow all the action at Orillia at Al’s World Series of Fastball page.
Play resumes Saturday morning at 8:30 a.m. with a full slate of games on tap. The final game of the day is set to begin at 8:45pm, with the playoff round starting on Sunday morning at 9:00am.
The tournament features a “Candian” division and an “American” division, with five teams in each.
The feature matchups of the day on Saturday will be ISC World # 2 vs. # 3, Patsy’s vs. Broken Bow in the American division at 2:30pm, and # 1 Orillia Riversharks vs. # 4 Kitchener Hallman Twins, in the Canadian division at 6:45pm in the evening. All game times are EST, adjust accordingly.
The California Lumberkings travel all the way to Aurora, Illinois, to compete in the AFSA Classic for the second year in a row. The Lumberkings are currently ranked #2 in the ISC II rankings, and will step up in class this weekend, playing against upper division, ISC World teams. The stiff competition will help the Lumberkings gear up for the ISC II Tournament of Champions held next month in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada, August 14-18, 2007. The tournament will mark the third time this year that the Lumberkings have stepped up to upper division play, including the Red Rock Tournament at St. George, Utah in May, and the Rose Cup tournament in Portland, Oregon in June.
The ISC World Tournament will host the top 32 teams, while the ISC II division will host 35 intermediate level teams. In the AFSA Classic, the Lumberkings will play Saturday, July 14, 2007 at 9am, 11am and 5pm, Chicago time against Quad City Sox, Bloomington Stix and Townline, all upper division ISC World teams. Quad City is ranked #16, Bloomington #18, and Townline #11.
The local Illinois newspaper, the Aurora Beacon News will be posting updates over the weekend, and have been kind enough to grant us permission to reprint those here. Keep an eye out for news stories with this banner graphic:
[Vancouver, BC] – The Vancouver Grey Sox and South Hill Sports are pleased to confirm the slate of teams for the 6th Annual Vancouver Challenge Tournament to be held July 27 – 29 at South Memorial Park in Vancouver.
The host Grey Sox currently ranked 10th by the International Softball Congress, will face stiff competition from the Broken Bow New York Gremlins (ISC # 3), So Cal Bombers -Yucaipa California (ISC # 7), Portland, Oregon Demarini (ISC # 13) and the Richmond, BC Linus Software Stealers (unranked).
The event has historically attracted good quality teams, providing an excellent tune up prior to the ISC World Tournament, and the Softball Canada Nationals. Past tournament champions include: 2006 – Vancouver Grey Sox, 2005 – Broken Bow NY Spirit, 2004 – Victoria Travellers Inn, 2003 – Vancouver Grey Sox, 2002 – Victoria Fine Line.
We are again very pleased with the high quality teams that are coming to Vancouver for this event, which we anticipate will result in some interesting and well played contests, involving several of the elite players in the sport of mens fastpitch.
Action kicks off Friday July 27th with a single game when the host Grey Sox tangle with the Richmond, BC Linus Software Stealers at 7:00 pm. A full slate of games commences at 8:00 am on Saturday July 28th, with the final game of the day set to start at 8:00 pm. Sunday July 29th the action starts again at 8:00 am with the Championship Game scheduled for 2:00pm. A
complete draw will be issued shortly. Admission is $5.00 per day or $10.00 for a tournament pass – children under 12 are admitted free. All games are to be played at South Memorial Park in Vancouver, located at 5950 Prince Albert Street (41st Avenue East – between Knight and Fraser Streets).
Larry Kancs
President
Vancouver Grey Sox
www.vancouvergreysox.com
Editor’s note: The Vancouver Grey Sox, currently ranked # 10 in the ISC World rankings, are among the teams in Orillia this weekend for the World Series of Fastball.
(click logo for official tournament website)
Editor’s note: Al Doran will be attending this one in person, so be sure to follow his reports at Al’s Fastball. (Click logo below). He’ll be posting scores and more via his Blackberry on his Orillia tournament page.
From
[Orillia, Ontario, Canada] – With under 24 hours to go until the first pitch is thrown at the 10th Annual World Series of Fastball the park is taking shape. The stands are in place, all the fencing is complete, the tents are up and the diamonds look absoulutly great. All that remains is all the last minute things that will have our entire committee running around all day Friday to make sure that every little detail is looked after.
The World Series of Fastball has always had the reputation as one of the most difficult invitational tournaments to win and this year’s line-up of teams will put that reputation to the
test again. With 8 of the top 10 ISC ranked teams in attendance, the tournament title is wide open this year. If the top 8 teams take either of the other 2 teams lightly they may find themselves in a hole as both Midland Explorers and Pueblo Bandits are quite capable of jumping up and taking games away from the higher ranked teams.
All ten teams will see action tomorrow night with the Canadian division kicking things off at 5:00 PM with Vancouver taking on Kitchener and the host River Sharks against Jarvis. At 7:00
PM Saskatoon plays their first game against the River Sharks and the 1st game of the American division gets under way with Midland, MI taking on the Broken Bow Gremlins. At 9:00 PM, the
Pueblo Bandits make their first ever appearance at the World Series of Fastball against local favorite, the Farm Tavern.
In the last game of the night Midland will take on Patsy’s of New York. Round Robin games continue throughout the day on Saturday with the playoff games starting at 9:00 AM on Sunday. Al Doran will be on-site all weekend making regular updates of all the games.
The latest weather forecast calls for a fairly good weekend with tempatures in the low 20’s, mainly sunny with a slight chance of a shower on Saturday.
All in all, it looks to be an absolutely great weekend of elite fastball action that will feature probably the most competitive field of teams in the World Sereies of Fastball history. The tournament title is wide open and whoever emerges will have had to be at their very best all weekend.
See you at Kitchener Park starting at 5:00 PM tomorrow night.
Paul Barnetson
World Series of Fastball
pbarnetson(at)city.orillia.on.ca
www.city.orillia.on.ca/worldseries
