From the Appleton Post-Crescent: Your Fox Cities News Source

Small town softball team hits it big

By Chris Lindeke
For The Post-Crescent

APPLETON — Jeramie Holman and his New Image teammates found out on Monday that commitment and dedication pay dividends.

The team from Monfort, a small town in Southwestern Wisconsin, showed the value of staying together by winning the North American Fastpitch Association’s AA World Series Championship with a 9-4 victory over the Larry Miller Hogs of Salt Lake City at Memorial Park.

The core players of New Image started the team 11 years ago. At first, the team struggled but it now boasts 80 wins and several tournament victories during this summer’s tournament play. The team averages around 100 home runs per summer.

“When we first started as a group, we were getting beat by anybody and everybody,” said Holman, voted the tournament’s most valuable player. “But we stuck together through a lot of years and it’s paying off now.”

Larry Miller took a 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first, but its lead was short-lived, as New Image exploded for six unanswered runs, highlighted by Steve Krupke’s two-run homer to left-center field in the top of the fourth.

“(The approach) was nothing special,” Krupke said. “We had taken a 3-2 lead, and we had a runner on base so I wanted to hit it hard. The guy threw me a change-up, and I got it. Really, that’s the way the game is.”

Larry Miller’s Jesse Bullock hit a two-run shot in the bottom of the fifth to bring the Hogs within two, but New Image added three insurance runs to protect its lead.

This entry was posted on Saturday, August 26th, 2006 at 11:27 am and is filed under NAFA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.