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1970 Roma’s Inn softball team that won the Class B fastpitch state championship.

By Lee Thompson

There was a time when fastpitch softball ruled.

And Roma’s Inn was king.

The 1970 Roma’s Inn team brought together a bunch of ballplayers in their prime, loving life and living for the game. And they lived it to its fullest while winning the Class B men’s fastpitch state championship.

“Those were the good old days — you don’t forget those days,” said Bob Stewart, an outfielder during Roma’s title run. “The camaraderie with all the guys… you can’t beat it.”

That unique squad gets a chance to reunite this month with its induction into the Bay County Sports Hall of Fame. The local team is part of the 19th induction class, which will be honored Oct. 25 at the DoubleTree hotel and conference center.
Roma’s Inn was built to win, and it delivered. The Bay City-based squad captured invitational titles in Lansing and Owosso in the summer of 1970 as a prelude to the Class B state tourney — and that’s exactly how manager Leo Urban planned it all along.
“When I first decided to form this team, I went over to Ray Fick’s house, knocked on the door and handed him a brand new first baseman’s glove,” Urban said. “Then I did the same thing with Bob Townsend. And they played with me ever since.”
First baseman Fick and shortstop Townsend would form the heart of the squad, joining Stewart to give Roma’s Inn three former professional baseball players. But the entire team was loaded with longtime ballplayers, including infielders Don Goss and Don Warner, outfielders Roger Zacharko, Dick Jozwiak, Bob Hartwig and Don Kruger, catchers Jim Weller and Tom Pritchard and pitchers Urban, Dave Seidenstucker and Jim Roekle.

And the experience showed.

“We were very fundamentally sound because so many of us played baseball,” said Stewart, who went on to play for five state championship teams. “If the ball was in the air, somebody made the play. And once you got the ball, everybody knew what to do. We were very good at the fundamentals, and that’s the way you’ve got to be to win a state championship.”
Roma’s had to earn the title. After posting a fourth-place finish in the Tri-County League – which featured high-powered teams from Flint, Saginaw, Midland and Oscoda’s Wurtsmith Air Force Base – Roma’s made its way through best-of-three series to claim district and regional crowns.

The Bay City squad downed Carling Black Label of Saginaw in the district and Ned’s Tires of Midland in the regional to qualify for the eight-team Class B state final in Scottville over Labor Day weekend. With three straight wins, Roma’s reached the title game unbeaten in the double-elimination event.

And when Townsend blasted a home run and Urban fired a one-hit shutout in a 4-0 win over Alpena’s Smith Funeral Home — the Class A runner-up from 1969 — Roma’s ruled the day.

“There were probably teams much more favored to win than us,” Stewart said. “But when you get on a roll and win some big ballgames, it’s amazing what you can do.”

Townsend hit two home runs in the state tournament and Weller added a three-run blast in the third game. Seidenstucker, Rickle and Urban shared the pitching duties throughout the tourney as Roma’s Inn brought home a grand prize for super sponsor Sal Gulino.

The state championship trophy stood as a highlight from the heyday of fastpitch softball. The game once thrived in the area as Urban governed 70 teams as president of the Bay County Softball Organization in the ‘70s.

And it took total commitment from the players, who were off virtually every weekend to compete in tournaments in Ludington, Petoskey or Traverse City.

“If there were nine guys on the field, eight were going through a divorce,” said Urban, now 73. “Softball was blood and guts for all of us back then. It was a helluva game, and it was in my blood.”

Four members — Townsend, Stewart, Zacharko and Urban — went on to play for the Arrow TV team that captured the Class A state title in 1978 and earned induction in the Hall of Fame in 2004. Some would leave for powerhouse teams like Midland McArdle Pontiac or the Saginaw Bolters, but all would forever share the bond that was built with Roma’s Inn.

“It’s an era I’ll never forget,” said Urban.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 8th, 2009 at 9:10 pm and is filed under General, Teams. 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.