California Taylor Farms LumberKings rallied for a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Waterdown Hammer to become the first top-ranked team to win the ISC II Tournament of Champions.

The LumberKings victory capped a day spectacular fastball with all but one of the seven games played at Memorial Park in Appleton decided by only one or two runs.

In the final, winning pitcher Dave Drotzmann and the Hammer’s Wayne Wells each worked three scoreless innings before the Hammer got on the board in the bottom of the fourth with Matt DaSilva coming in to score.

The LumberKings replied with two runs of their own. Pat Fuentes scored the tying run on a wild pitch and then Brian Teeters scored on an infield ground out to put California in the lead for good. Drotzmann worked 1-2-3 innings in the sixth & seventh to get the complete game victory.

California started the day with a nervy 3-1 win over Ottawa Team Easton Thunder. ISC II MVP Marcus Tan lead off the game with an inside the park home rund to give the LumberKings a lead they would never relinquish. Jeff Twist reached base after a strike out passed ball, and came around to score the second run. Ottawa trimmed the lead to 2-1 on an unearned run, though the LumberKings added a key insurance run in the 6th on a Marcus Tan sacrifice fly. Centerfielder Brian Teeters made a game saving catch in the bottom of the 6th on a long gap shot with two men aboard to preserve the win.

In the semi finals, it was Teeters to the rescue again, with a two-run home run in the bottom of the sixth inning to provide themargin of victory as the Lumberkings edged the previously unbeaten New York Knights 2-1. Mike Egerdeen turned in his finest performance of the 2008 ISC II tournament, an 11 strikeout, 3-hitter, going the distance for the win. Egerdeen had only one mistake in the game, surrendering a fourth inning solo home run to straight-a-way center to first baseman Dave Lohman. Until the Teeters home run, it appeared that the performance might go for naught, but the Lumberkings showed remarkable resiliency, with three wins coming in their final at bat.

For Waterdown, they started the day facing hard-throwing righty Kevin Kammueller of St. Paul, MN ASB Villard. Wells lasted only four innings before giving way to Tim Neill. With the game tied at 2, the Hammer broke the game open in the top of the seventh with three runs, two of them coming on a key Dave Brownhill triple.

Neill would go the distance for Waterdown in their 2-1 semi-final win over Kitchener Outlaws. Waterdown got on the board early as Tim Coe followed a John Kemp triple with an RBI single. In the second, back to back triples by Brownhill and Kemp counted the second run for the Hammer. Neill was masterful, not allowing an Outlaws runner past first base until a Tim Dubois home run in the 5th.

Earlier in the day, New York ended the run by Bryan Newton and the River City Rockers with a 6-2 victory while Ashland Stock Pack were eliminated by Kitchener.

Marcus Tan was named the ISC II MVP. Also the RBI leader with 11, Tan played stellar defence at second for the LumberKings and provided both power and average from his lead-off spot in the order.

John Kemp was the leading hitter, batting .562 prior to the final.

Dave Drotzmann was the Most Outstanding Pitcher, finishing with a 5-0 record.

2008 ISC II All-Tournament Team

Catchers
John Kemp, Waterdown Hammer
Shane Flinner, Ashland Stock Pack

Pitchers
Dave Drotzmann, California Taylor Farms LumberKings
Bryan Newton, River City Rockers
Tim Neill, Waterdown Hammer

Infielders
Ron Guzman, California Taylor Farms LumberKings
Marcus Tan, California Taylor Farms LumberKings
Adam Hiller, Elmira Cubs
Josh Brohman, Kitchener Outlaws
Neil Curtis, Waterdown Hammer

Outfielders
Brad Webb, Ashland Stock Pack
Peter Hill, Bulyea Rustlers
Canyon Vance, Innovative Communications
Brian Teeters, California Taylor Farms LumberKings

Designated Player
Toby Ranck, Keating’s Fitness

Most RBIs
Marcus Tan, California Taylor Farms LumberKings

Leading Hitter
John Kemp, Waterdown Hammer .562

Top Pitcher
Dave Drotzmann, California Taylor Farms LumberKings 5-0

Most Valuable Player
Marcus Tan, California Taylor Farms LumberKings

Final Four
1st California Taylor Farms LumberKings
2nd Waterdown Hammer
T3 Kitchener Outlaws
T3 New York Knights

For several teams at the 2008 ISC II Tournament of Champions, it was all about survival Tuesday as they fought and scratched and clawed their way into the Elite Eight who will contend for the title on Wednesday.

On the top of the bracket, Kitchener Outlaws prevailed over Rude Pac to become the first team to qualify for the Elite Eight with a hard-fought 3-2 win. Mel Ross paced the Outlaws both in the circle and at the plate, driving in two of Kitchener’s three runs, including the first and the third. Ross also carried a 1-hitter into the 7th only to have Rude Pac rally for two runs on the bottom of the seventh before closing the door.

Ashland Stockpack made the Elite Eight, again, on the strength of pitching by Ty McKinney and good sticks at the plate. Stockpack never trailed as they eliminated Hoffman Rise 5-3. Stockpack also has the loudest fans at the tourney, as there are several families supporting the team from Ohio.

The Ashland-Kitchener matchup can be heard on Ballpark Radio Wednesday at 9 am.

A surprise member of the Elite Eight is St. Paul ASB Villard. With workhorse Kevin Kammueller on the mound, ASB Villard took out Elora Wellington Brewers 3-1 before hanging on to beat Lloydminster Dodgers 4-3.

Matching up with St. Paul will be Waterdown Hammer. The Hammer, who have scored but 8 runs in winning all four of their games thus far, will look to scratch out another win as they did against Pete’s Blues, grinding out a 2-0 win to qualify for the Elite Eight.

One of those four teams will be in the final.

On the bottom half of the bracket, it’s been one slobberknocker after another.

After being upset in pool play, the California LumberKings won a pair of games 5-4 to advance to the Elite Eight. In the first, the top-ranked LumberKings held off Salt Lake City Innovative Communications in a see-saw affair to advance to face the Bridgeport Braves. Trailing 4-3 heading into the bottom of the 7th, Brian Teeters hit an inside-the-park HR to knot the game at 4. Ron Guzman then came up with the game-winning RBI to keep California’s hopes alive.

Ottawa Team Easton Thunder trailed Keating’s Fitness 1-0 until late in the game when they strung together some key hits to take a 2-1 lead. With Corey Costello firing bullets, the Thunder moved into the Elite Eight and will face California in the morning.

River City Rockers took the longest route into the Elite Eight with three big wins on the day, including an 8-0 shellacking of the defending champion TNT to open their day. River City then dumped Palermo Athletics 5-0 before coming up against Elmira Cubs. Trailing 2-0, the Rockers’ Mario Pereira drilled a two-run bomb to tie the game and set the stage for extra innings heroics as the Rockers won 3-2.

The final team to qualify for the Elite Eight were the New York Knights. Facing CPI in an all-NY State battle, the big boys from the city doubled their upstate cousins 6-3 to advance.

Again, one of these four teams will advance to the finals.

Will Mel Ross be this year’s Jeremy Tracy or will it be Ty McKinney? Can Waterdown Hammer score off Kevin Kammueler? Can Wayne Wells hold down ASB Villard long enough to give the Hammer a chance to scratch out a run? A year after he didn’t get the chance to face them in the finals, can Corey Costello beat the California LumberKings? Does Bryan Newton, who has thrown all but 3 innings of his team’s games due to an injury, have enough left to beat the high octane offence of the NY Knights?

All of these questions will be answered by about 4 pm tomorrow. Don’t miss it!

If Day 1 went mostly according script with the higher ranked teams beating the lower ranked teams in their respective pools, then Day 2 will be remembered for some big upsets and shocking results with potentially terminal ramifications for a pair of highly regarded teams.

Top-ranked California LumberKings dropped a 4-2 decision to the lowest ranked team in their pool, Lloydminster Dodgers. That upset would propel the Dodgers to the top seed in Tuesday’s playoff round, giving them a double bye into the third round of the single-elimination bracket.

The LumberKings would recover to spank Memphis Posse Monday night and claim the #2 seed in Pool A and a first round bye. Memphis finishes #3 in Pool A by virtue of their win over Wyevale Tribe who finish at A4. Wyevale knocked off the Dodgers early in the day, but dropped an 8-5 decision to the Posse in the afternoon.

As shocking as the Dodgers win over the LumberKings, another western Canada team tripped up the defending champions South Lebanon TNT. Bulyea Rustlers threw the standings in Pool B into total disarray with a 3-2 win. That left TNT need a win over Sioux Falls Sox to claim the top seed and the double bye. It wasn’t to be.

Sioux Falls rallied from a 1-0 deficit with a game-tying single in the 6th and won it in the 8th on a game-ending double play with a TNT runner called out at the plate. The loss handed the division title to Bridgeport Braves, who had wins over Sioux Falls and Bulyea Monday, while TNT dropped to the #4 seed. Sioux Falls finishes #2 while Bulyea comes in at #3.

In Pool C, the New York Knights made it look relatively easy, finishing 3-0, but it wasn’t quite the cakewalk that it seemed at first glance. The Knights needed extras to put away Rude Pac and for 6 innings clung to a 1-0 lead over Elora Wellington Brewers before prevailing 3-0.

While the Knights get the double bye, it’s Rude Pac in the #2 spot as they rallied for a late 4-3 win over Elora who finished third. Earl’s Club will look to get their offence untracked in the playoff round as they went 0-3 in pool play.

John Rozich belted another pair of titanic home runs yesterday, giving him 4 for the tournament.

In Pool D, Kitchener Outlaws scored a 1-0 win over CPI, scoring the only run in the first inning and making it stand up. The Outlaws get the top seed with their 3-0 record, while CPI finishes 2nd. Pete’s Blues who edged Salt Lake City Innovative Communications, will be the #3 seed with Salt Lake finishing a hard-luck 0-3 will be #4.

In Pool E, the standings were a little cleaner as Ashland Stockpack, with a 7th inning walk-off win over Winterset A’s claimed the top seed. Palermo Athletics finished second at 2-1. Carp 14C Victory is the #3 seed at 1-2 while Winterset is the #4 seed at 0-3.

In Pool F, Elmira continued their imitation of a Mack truck, crushing the opposition. The Cubs have scored 27 runs and have yet to allow a run. Hoffman Rise, with a 2-1 nailbiter win over Black Gold secured the #2 seed and the first round bye. Black Gold comes in at #3 while The Bar of Appleton will be the #4 seed.

In Pool G, the tie-breaker rules were put to the test as Ottawa Team Easton Thunder, River City Rockers and St. Paul ASB Villard all finished with 2-1 records. Ottawa beat Villard Sunday before dropping a 2-1 decision in the bottom of the 7th to River City on Monday, but River City had earlier lost to Villard 3-1.

By virtue of allowing the fewest runs in the games involving the 3 tied teams, Ottawa finishes first and gets the double bye while the win by Villard over River City gave them the #2 seed. River City will have to play 3 games on Tuesday to advance to the Elite Eight with Kelvington PDC Comets getting the #4 seed.

Waterdown Hammer scored only 6 runs in their 3 pool games, but it was enough to win all of them and finish first in Pool H. The Hammer needed 8 innings to edge Chicago Fastpitch 1-0 while Keating’s Fitness scored 3 late runs to beat Herda & Sons 5-2 and nail down the #2 seed. Chicago finishes third in Pool H with Herda & Sons #4.

Setting up the first round of games on Tuesday morning, the best match-up is B4 vs G3 – TNT vs River City Rockers. Either the defending champions, who have struggled at the plate, or the team with one of the top 3 pitchers in the tournament will be headed home after this one. Wow.

The bottom half of the draw looks to be the toughest with the LumberKings, Ottawa, Elmira, New York and Bridgeport all on that side. Whoever comes out of that dog-fight will be battle tested, but will they have enough left for the finals on Wednesday?

Stick around to see – it’s gonna be great!

With 32 excellent teams gathering in Appleton for the 2008 ISC II Tournament of Champions, there were high expectations on the part of most for this year’s ToC to be the best ever. While it’s still too early to make that judgement, it’s certainly shaping up that way as things got off to an explosive start in the first round of games and kept going all through the day.

I didn’t get to see every game, but did get to see parts of most and here’s some standout moments from Day 1.

Bob Gillow of the Elmira, ON Cubs launching the first home run of the tournament, a 290-foot shot to right field that dinged a car in the first row of the parking lot. With all of the fences at 275 feet, many were awed by this one. A couple of innings later, teammate Shawn Detzler hit one a little further and dinged a car a little harder. Elmira would roll to a big 7-0 win over Perkasie, PA Hoffman Rise and looked very formidable in doing so as Casey Halstead tossed a tidy 1-hitter.

The Bulyea, SK Rustlers were an unknown commodity coming into the ToC. They have won the Regina Fastball League five straight years and took a 4-1 lead over the Sioux Falls, SD Sox into the 7th inning. But that’s when this game got interesting. Sioux Falls rallied for 4 runs in B7 to complete the comeback and get an important win in Pool B.

Two of the most talked about teams in the weeks leading up the ToC have been Waterdown, ON Hammer and Wilkes-Barre, PA Keating’s Fitness. Both have had recent successes as the Hammer won the Cubs Classic and Keating’s the Mid-Atlantic Fastpitch Travel League. Wayne Wells for the Hammer and David Stokes for Keating’s hooked up in a good old-fashioned pitching duel that left things knotted at 1 heading into B7 when Matt DaSilva singled through a drawn in infield to score Kyle Davis and give the Hammer the walk-off win.

Chicago, IL Fastpitch banged out 10 runs in six innings against a tough Waverly, MN Herda & Sons team as they just kept pushing runs across and served notice that they will have to be reckoned with in Pool H.

Carp, ON I4C Victory Consulting finished 0-4 at last year’s ToC but earned their first win in 2008 with a hard-fought, down-to-the-wire 1-0 victory over Winterset, IA A’s. Carp then dropped a tough 1-0 decision to Ashland, OH Stockpack, but showed that they will be much tougher this year.

Salt Lake City, UT Innovative Communications and Mascoutah, IL Pete’s Blues were scoreless for about four innings before Pete’s edged ahead 2-0. Innovative tied it at 2 before the Illinois state champs tacked on another two runs and held on the for the 4-2 win.

Bakersfield, CA Taylor Farms LumberKings were in a tight battle with Wyevale, ON Tribe, leading 2-0 into the 6th when Marcus Tan changed everything. Tan turned around a rise ball from Jason Giffen and drove it about 277 feet on a line for a Grand Slam to put the game out of reach for the top ranked LumberKings.

Bridgeport, ON Braves gave the defending champions South Lebanon, TNT all they could handle, nursing a 2-0 lead into the 6th, but four straight singles, including a controversial 2-RBI bleeder by John Lechtel that glanced off the leg of a base-runner tied the game and an RBI single by Mike Rohrer in B8 gave the champs the walkoff win.

Bill Hillhouse entered the ISC II record book with 20 strikeouts in his debut as the New York, NY Knights took 8 innings to beat Sun Valley, CA Rude Pac 6-2. John Rozitch belted a pair of home-runs, the first travelling an estimated 352 feet.

Corey Costello got the start for Ottawa, ON Team Easton Thunder against St. Paul, MN ASB Villard and the ISC II Strikeout King didn’t disappoint. Despite limited action this season, Costello tossed a no-hitter and struck out 11 in Ottawa’s 2-0 win.

Eric Steinbeck and Lee Cose hooked up in a pitcher’s duel in one of the last games of the night, combining for 27 Ks as Steinbeck’s Hermann, MO Black Gold scored 2 runs late to defeat the host squad Appleton, WI The Bar of Appleton Athletics 2-0.

Opening ceremonies went off without a hitch and featured Carrie and Kate, the Ballpark Radio girls, who were a big hit with the players and fans.

With the weather at a gorgeous mid-70s, the field in great shape, and technology cooperating all the way around, I have to say that Day 1 at the ToC certainly exceeded my expectations.

On to Day 2.

Cheers,

Blair

The 2008 ISC II Tournament of Champions is only a couple of days away. You can follow all of the action on the ISC website by clicking on the logo above as well as here at The Deuce with daily recaps from ISC II Commish Blair Setford, broadcast schedules from Jim Flanagan and links to preview photography by Maddy Flanagan.

Action gets under way at Memorial Park in Appleton, WI at 10:00 am central with Game 1 between Memphis, TN Posse and Lloydminster, AB Dodgers.

Ballpark Radio will be on hand for at least 20 webcasts starting at 10:30 am featuring Elmira, ON Cubs and Perkasie, PA Hoffman Rise.

Opening ceremonies are slated for 5:00 pm with defending champion South Lebanon, PA TNT slated to face Bridgeport, ON Braves on diamond 1 immediately following.

The 2008 ISC II Championship is scheduled for 2:00 pm on Wednesday August 13. Will TNT be able to repeat? Will top-ranked California LumberKings make another appearance in the final? Can 2005 champion Elmira regain the title? Stay tuned to find out.

Our good friend Al Doran has posted on Al’s Fastball where he will be providing ISC II fans with their updates throughout the ToC. See below for more info.

Here at The Deuce, keep an eye out for daily recaps from ISC II Commish Blair Setford as well as daily webcast schedules from Jim Flanagan.

A reminder that the ToC starts Sunday August 10 at 10 am with the first game between Memphis, TN Posse and Lloyminster, AB Dodgers.

The first Ballpark Radio webcast is Sunday at 10:30 am between Elmira, ON Cubs and Perkasie, PA Hoffman Rise.

ISC II – ToC
The ISC II Tournament of Champions kicks off at 10am in Appleton. The results from the first two games should be reported on the ISC web site by noon when I hopefully will be in place ready to go in Kimberly. For the remainder of the ToC, until the championship on Wednesday, we hope to bring you game results right after each game ends. While I will be in Kimberly working, I have been assured by ISC II staff that they will be sending me instant updates for each and every game.

The Key Page to watch for ISC II ToC results is:
http://www.iscfastpitch.com/uploads/File/2008%20ISC%20II%20Files/2008_ISC_II_ToC_ScheduleB.htm

The main page for the ISC II ToC is:
http://www.iscfastpitch.com/index.php?page=169

Book mark those links however I will be posting reminders once things are underway in Wisconsin.