Videos from ISC Qualifier in Napanee

June 25th, 2010

Canada East ISC VP – and Ballpark Radio’s – Blair Setford posts these three videos from the Qualifier in Napanee last weekend. Keep an eye out for some more video to come. And with Blair broadcasting in Kitchener this weekend with Kyle Smith at the Legends tournament, watch for more videos.


Dylan Cunningham of the Napanee Express works Jason Smith, Cobourg Force, for a single in Friday night action.


Cree Nation Bears’ Brent Blackned with a 2-run home run and Ray Shanoush with a solo bomb go deep back-to-back against Donnacona.


Toronto Gators pitcher Kyle Linton, catcher Darrin Newson and ISC game controller/cameraman Mal Swift provide a moment of levity on Saturday morning.


Toronto Gators pitcher Tom Berube gets Jodie Schnarr of the Cobourg Force on a ground out.


Donnacona Blue Sox third baseman makes a nice catch in the championship game.

SCIFL at Santa Fe Springs This Weekend

June 25th, 2010

Schedule of Games Posted at official SCIFL website


(click SCIFL logo for official website

More great local action for the SCIFL (So Cal Independent Fastpitch League) in Santa Fe Springs this weekend. This will be “Santa Fe Springs III, with two more to go, July 10-11 and July 24-25, all at the “home fields” for the SCIFL, Little Lake Park.

Click here for the schedule of games.

From New Zealand for the Weekend

June 25th, 2010

Want an idea how the players feel about the 2010 Legends Fastball Classic? My friend Jason Gerbes tells me that Brad Rona flying to Kitchener, Ontario from New Zealand — for the weekend. Think Jarvis is serious about challenging Kitchener for that # 1 spot in the rankings?


Brad Rona, member of the New Zealand Black Sox national team, among those in Kitchener for the Legends Classic.

Memorial for Coach Seymour Saturday

June 25th, 2010

Not fastball related, but for those in the Long Beach, California area, I wanted to pass along the information relating to the memorial service for Coach Robert Seymour, to be held on Saturday:

A memorial service will take place at California Heights United Methodist Church, 3759 Orange Avenue, Long Beach, on Saturday, June 26, 2010, at 11:00 am. A reception will follow the service in the Bob Seymour Gymnasium at Stanford Middle School, 5871 E. Los Arcos St., Long Beach.

Click here to read the obituary published in the Long Beach Press Telegram, noting Coach as one of the 100 top sports figures in Long Beach, CA. He was 77.

As the article notes:

A partial list of the athletes he taught and coached in those 31 years reads almost like a “Who’s who” of area sportsmen:

Major League Baseball players Jeff Burroughs, Dave Frost and Ed Crosby; current Cal men’s basketball coach Mike Montgomery; Michael Wiley, who led Poly to a 1976 CIF championship before playing basketball at LBSU and in the NBA; Poly football standouts Leonard Russell, who played in the NFL, and the late Kirk Jones; Three-time Olympic volleyball player Bob Ctvrtlik, who played the sport at Wilson High, LBCC and LBSU before transferring to Pepperdine, where he helped the Waves win a national title; Jim Ferguson, a basketball standout at Millikan, LBCC (where he played for future Hall of Fame coach Lute Olson) and Texas Christian, and longtime basketball coach at Wilson.

I was fortunate to have been a student of his, and played for the Stanford basketball team under Coach Seymour. For those who didn’t know him, the best description I can think of would be to say he could have been Coach John Wooden’s twin brother. Whether you were among the notables listed above, or any other student, you were treated the same. His firm kindness and knack for teaching life’s lessons will be remembered by all who had the good fortune to know Coach Seymour.

Ballparkradio at the 2010 Legends Fastball Classic

June 24th, 2010



Earlier today, we hinted that an announcement about Ballparkradio would be coming soon.

We are pleased to announce that Ballparkradio will be broadcasting on Sunday from the 2010 Legends Fastball Classic at Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

Kyle Smith and Blair Setford will be on the air for two games Sunday, a semi-final and the championship game, set for 1:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. Eastern, respectively. (10am and 12noon on the west coast). With the number 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6th ranked teams in the world, and many other top teams in this tournament, Sunday’s broadcasts figure to provide some exciting action.

Al’s Fastball is billing this one as the “Feature Tournament of the Week”. In the months leading up to the ISC World Tournament in Midland, Michigan, this one could well be the Feature Tournament of the summer. You won’t want to miss the finale of this one !

The main impediment to broadcasting from this tournametn has been the lack of a internet connection at Peter Hallman Ballyard. (the internet connection used at the ISC World Tournament in 2006 and 2007 is no longer there). Thanks to some legwork by Larry Lynch and other tournament officials, we’ll have the use of a USB wireless broadband connection (aka “internet stick” like the one we tested and used to broadcast the Best of the West tournament earlier this month. Kyle and I completed some preliminary testing this evening, with some additional testing to be done on Saturday. We’ll update the Ballparkradio website, our twitter feed, and notify Al’s Fastball to let you know we’re all systems go for Sunday.

Click here for the Ballparkradio website.


Click here for the Ballparkradio Twitter feed

(short text-style messages and updates)

Click here for the complete schedule of games (PDF)

Text version of schedule after the jump.

Read the rest of this entry »

Diamond Dirt Issue No. 1 – 2010 Legends Fastball Classic

June 24th, 2010

Courtesy of Diamond Dirt editor, John Thompson

Click here for the first issue of Diamond Dirt for the Legends of Fastball Classic, to be played this weekend, at the Peter Hallman Ballyard, in Kitchener, Ontario, Canada.

Ken Vierling Update

June 24th, 2010

A brief note from Ken:

“I have moved again. I am now at Richfield Health Center, 7727 Portland Avenue South, Richfield MN 55423…still working hard on coming back and still keeping the faith.”

Prior posts on Ken.

Women’s ISF World Championships – Day 2

June 24th, 2010

World Clock for Caracas, Venezuela

New Zealand Women, 8, Botswana 1

Click her for Play by Play


Australia (link to page)

Argentina 4, South Africa 3

Rough Google translation
Original news story from Martin Jorge
Head of Media and Communication
Softball Confederation Argentina

Argentina National Team earned their first victory this afternoon in the ISF Women’s World Championship, which is being played in the city of Caracas, Venezuela. At a heated and contested encounter , Argentina beat South Africa, 4-3 and thus achieved its second victory in World Cup history.

The game was completely evenly from start to finish. Was noticed throughout the game that the series of games between these two teams just a week ago in Buenos Air allowed both teams to study your opponent and know perfectly the strengths and weaknesses of his opponent.

Argentina went ahead in the opening of the first inning, by Pamela Clark’s double with two outs, to bring the dish to Florence and Carla Olheiser Villalva. However, the closure of the entrance to South Africa drew the shares. A long double to left by Novelli Bianca brought the dish to Candice Stephens, and a batter later she would step the plate thanks to a blunder of the Argentina defense.

The home team struck again on the third episode. Olheiser Florence, the great figure of the whole offensive albiceleste (April 3, two runs scored, an RBI) singled, advanced to second thanks to the sacrifice of Villalva, and stood in third after a pass ball. With the table set, Valeria Livschitz brought to the plate connecting a strong line on third base. However, the African team leveled the shares immediately. Kim Nicholson walked, got in scoring position thanks to a sacrifice, and Novelli boosted its second run of the game with a single.

From there, the game went on the side of the pitchers for two periods. Virginia Sciuto by Argentina and South Africa nicolena Jones, controlled the actions of the party. Until the end of the sixth inning, Sciuto was simple and was relieved, no outs, by Carla Villalva. A base on balls, and a third on a fielder’s choice which failed to remove the runner loaded the bases with one out and put the game on the line for both teams. Perhaps it was this the most important moment of the game and Villalva overcame the threat by striking out the next batter, and forcing a grounder to end the inning.

This gave the Argentina one extra morale boost when taking his turn at bat, that would not pass. With one out, Agustina Godoy walked, and taken to second by a touch of Nadia Heis, allowing the definition of the game in the hands of Florence Olheiser, with runners at second and two outs. And Florence is dressed heroine once more with a single to center field to drive the fourth and final race.

Villalva closed the door at the end of the seventh, striking out the last batter of the game and won the game rising, with two innings pitched, 2 hits, one walk and two strikeouts. Virginia starting pitcher went Sciuto, who allowed five hits, three runs (two clean), giving a single ticket and striking out one.

On offense, Florence Olheiser was the most prominent, with Pamela Clark (1 of 3, 2 RBI) and Valeria Livschitz (1 of 3, 1 RBI) also plays a great job.

Thus, Argentina returned to World Cup triumph after sixteen years getting a crucial victory in the aspirations of the selection. Argentina will face Canada tomorrow, to 19 pm in Caracas (20.30 Hs Argentina) for the third game of the group.

Education: Agustina Godoy 6 Nadia Heis 5, Florence Olheiser 3 Villalva JD Carla, Pamela Clark 9, Valeria Livschitz 8, Soledad Angeletti 2, Natalia Jimenez 4, Magali Frezzotti 7, Virginia Sciuto 2.

Jorge Martin
Head of Media and Communication
Softball Confederation Argentina

Legends Of Fastball Classic this weekend in Kitchener

June 24th, 2010

Fastball Fans, here we go — the Legends opens up Friday nite with 5 games at Peter Hallman Ball Yard with ten of the top twenty teams that will be at the ISC World Championships in Midland in a few short weeks.

Click here for the first issue of Diamond Dirt with a copy of the flow chart (schedule) showing the times of almost 3 dozen fastball games including the local #1 ISC Ranked Kitchener Hallman Rivershark Twins, the KW Cubs, Elmira Expos, plus the #2 ranked Jarvis Travelers, #3NY Gremlins, #4 NY/Chicago Dominicana, #6 Midland Michigan Explorers, other strong teams such as Owen Sound, Niagara, and Port Elgin (last years ISC II champ) ….plus in the junior division a four team tournament featuring Waterloo, Linwood, Brantford and Fingal…

THIS isn’t your company picnic softball tournament….see you at the ball park.

-Dennis Dosman


(click to enlarge)

USA Women Top China 1-0

June 24th, 2010

From Jennie Finch’s blog:

Day #3
Today we had a big win against China, we won 1-0! It felt good getting our uni’s on and competing! Venezuela has really created an Olympic style atmosphere in Caracas! The stadium is gorgeous and the stands were full of people.


Cat pitched a great game for us on the mound.

Ashley Hansen started us off getting on base and stealing 2nd in the top of the 7th.


Lappin moved her to third on a ground ball to 2nd and

Tasha came up HUGE with a line shot the pitcher barely tipped with her glove to score Hansen! It was the lone run we needed! It was a great game. Lots of action on defense, I played 1st base. It felt good to get the games started and good to get our juices flowing! The crowd was nonstop with cheers, noise makers, and lots of horns. We are so grateful for all of the support here in Caracas!

You can follow the games @ USASoftball.org! There will be live stats and updates throughout World Championships! Lots of pictures are posted too!

Tonight we are resting up getting ready for our two games tomorrow. We play New Zealand at 11am and then come back to play the home team Venezuela at 7pm! We are expecting lots of people and lots of noise for the Venezuelan game!

The food here has been delicious! Lots of fresh vegetables, chicken, salad, fresh fruit, and of course great desserts! We are enjoying the delish coffee here too! Yesterday we had Watermelon juice with lunch that was quite tasty.

Go USA!

Believing!
#27


Click here for the Team USA Women’s Media Guide

Click here for USA Softball website with live stats and schedule