Editor’s Note: The Decatur Pride, an ISC powerhouse in the 1990s, is back in the game and are starting out in ISC II. They made their debut in Villa Grove, dropping a quarter-final game in extra innings, but bigger things are expected from the Pride as they attempt to qualify for the 2009 ToC.

Team doesn’t miss a beat in return
From:

(click banner for original news story)

By Mark Tupper – H&R Executive Sports Editor

DECATUR – There’s no telling how many men’s fastpitch softball games Don “Doc” Boyer has witnessed at Borg-Warner Field. Maybe all of them from 1980 through 1995.

As the former trainer for the ADM and Decatur Pride softball teams, he has tended to more sore muscles, bloody contusions and overheated pitchers than he could ever count.

Read the rest of this story on our brother blog, the Morning Brief here.

Editor’s Note: Rude Pac made their ISC II debut in 2008, going 4-2 to finish in the top 10. The “third” team from California earned a ton of respect and enter the 2009 season with an upgraded lineup and a #6 preseason ranking.

A1-Rude Pac Roster for 2009

Javier Fierro – INF
Paul Reyes – INF
Ruben Lopez – INF
Jeremy Rooney – INF
John Pruneda – INF
Josh Tisdale – INF
Dean Waltier – INF/OF
Dave Carlton – INF/OF
Bryon Wells – C/INF
Daniel Frisbee – C
Keith Herbster – C
Rob Penticoff – OF
Scott Pulcifer – OF
Ron Mizener – OF
Matt Barnes – P
Doug Sleep – P
Ed Gasper – P
Gearld Pyle – P
Panfilo Valdez – P

MGR – Rudy Montanez
Coach – Bob Piddock
Coach – Jose Hernande

Villard, Minnesota

General manager Dave Dziengel is pleased to announce the upcoming schedule and team members for the 2009 ASB-Villard men’s fastpitch season.

ASB will be starting their 41st year of competitive men’s fastpitch softball and are looking to improve on their 48-10 record in 2008. With their first place finish in West St. Paul last year ASB has accepted a bid to attend the ISC II Tournament of Champions in Rock Island, Illinois.

New players added this year are Charlie Rambow, Nathanial Albers, and Jason Iuli.

In league play ASB-Villard will be competing in the always tough Freeport Select league, Freeport, Minnesota and also in the West St. Paul league in West St. Paul, Minnesota.

Before the season starts we would like to thank long time booster Larry Zavadil of American Solutions for Business in Glenwood, Minnesota for his long time and continued support of fastpitch softball in Minnesota. We would also like to thank Brett Breshnahan for the construction and upkeep of our team’s website. Look for the Villard website to be updated early next week. http://villard.minnesotafastpitch.com/

2009 ASB-Villard Roster

1 Zach Goring INF Minnesota
2 Joel Cooley P Minnesota
3 Andy Dziengel OF Minnesota
4 Jason Iuli P Minnesota
7 Josh Albers UTL Minnesota
8 Dave Reiter SS Minnesota
10 Jack Rowan OF/1ST Minnesota
11 Nathanial Albers UTL Minnesota
13 Jeff Schoeberl P/OF Minnesota
14 Shawn Reiter OF Minnesota
15 Kevin Bahn OF Minnesota
16 Dave Dziengel P Minnesota
17 Tom Schoberl C Minnesota
18 Charlie Rambow OF Minnesota
19 Jeff Henery 3rd Minnesota

MGR Dave Dziengel
Coach “Black” Jack Rowan

2009 Tournaments

June 20-21 Rice Lake, WI
June 27-28 Eau Clare, WI
July 11-12 Waverly, Mn
July 24-25 West St. Paul, Mn
July 30-31Freeport, Mn
August 18-22 ISC II Tournament of Champions

The Lee’s Sports (Pinckneyville, IL.) Falcons, formally known as the Radom Falcons will be participating in several fastpitch tournaments this summer. This will be the Falcons 13th year of existence playing at the highest levels in Illinois softball.
The Falcons will be starting the season this weekend at home and continuing on until NAFA fastpitch tournament in mid August. Lee’s Sports will be involved in 2 ISC II qualifiers and will be looking for a bid to the tournament. The Falcons will be at Villa Grove, IL on May 16th and 17th and at the Kelso Klassic in Kelso, MO on June 12th through the 14th.
The Falcons will be led by OF Haven Hicks, OF Eric Saunders, 3B Mooch Colle, C Clay McDonnough, Shortstop Travis Klingler, 1B Chris Gebhardt and OF Ricky Kasban. All of who are veteran Falcon players. The pitching staff will be Mark Radake and John Kiselewski who have been throwing for the Falcons for several years. Lee’s Sports have added some youth in the last couple of years and are expecting big contributions from several players.
Pinckneyville Falcons will be hosting 2 tournaments. 1st a kickoff Round Robin versus Pete’s Blues, Elkville, Belleville Stallions and Black Gold out of Missouri. Also the Falcons will be hosting the 12th annual Terry Deering Memorial Tournament. This field will consist of 8 teams including Villa Grove, Pete’s Blues and Belleville Stallions. Lee’s Sports will also be involved in the Elkville league this year playing during the week against local teams.

Schedule for the Round Robin
Friday May 8th
8:00 pm Falcons vs Stallions
9:30 pm Elkville vs Stallions

Sat May 9th
9:00 am Elkville vs Black/Gold
11:00 am Stallions vs Pete’s Blues
1:00 pm Stallions vs Black/Gold
1:00 pm Elkville vs Falcons
3:00 pm Black/Gold vs Falcons
3:00 pm Elkville vs Pete’s Blues
5:00 pm Black/Gold vs Pete’s Blues
7:00 pm Falcons vs Pete’s Blues

Below is the Falcons 2009 Schedule and Roster
May 3 @ Pinckneyville (versus Pete’s Blues and Belleville Stallions)
May 8/9 @ Pinckneyville – Round Robin (Blues, Stallions, Elkville, Black Gold)
May 16/17 @ Villa Grove
May 24 @ T-Town – Memorial
May 30 @ Springfield
June 3rd @ 715 – T-Town Wessels (D.H.)
June 6 @ Freeburg versus Belleville Stallions and T-Town Wessels
June 13 @ Kelso Klassic
June 20th @ Pinckneyville Terry Deering Memorial Tournament
June 27th @ Hermann (Black and Gold)
July 4th – OFF
July 11th – Nokomis
July 18th – Memphis
July 26th – Kelso Fastpitch (D.H.)
Aug 1 @ Altamont – Class A State
Aug 13-16 A-Major Sioux Falls, SD

Roster
# Name Pos.
1 Jay McCrary OF
2 Derek Beninanti IF
3 Collin Woodside IF/OF
5 Chris Gebhardt 1B/C
6 Josh Fisher IF
7 Travis Klingler IF
8 John Kiselewski P
9 Eric Saunders 1B/OF
10 Ryan Colle IF
12 Rick Kasban OF/P
14 Clay McDonnough C
16 Hayden Hicks OF
17 Mason Woodside OF
21 Mark Radake P
22 Haven Hicks OF
23 Lyle Winter IF/P

ASHLAND, OH

The Stock Pack fastpitch team, based out of Ashland, Ohio is pleased to announce their roster and tentative schedule for the 2009 season. The organization is looking to build on its successful 2008 season which saw it win two tournaments and place 5th at the ISC II Tournament of Champions.

The complete roster is as follows:

#1 David Wiley – IF
#2 Justin Blair – OF
#3 Pete Spoerl – IF
#4 Mike Justice – Utility
#5 Chad Honaker – IF
#6 George Salmons – P
#7 Trevor Urban – SS
#8 Shane Flinner – C
#11 Jim Saffle – Coach
#13 Jeff Van Hooser – P
#17 Nick McCurry – DP
#18 Jr. Rodriguez – IF
#19 Tyron McKinney – P/IF
#20 Rick Plangger – P
#23 Brad Webb – OF
#25 Jason Whiteley – OF
#40 Jaime Thompson – P
#44 Jim Yates – P

Our tentative schedule is as follows:
May 9-10 Early Bird Classic Coldwater, MI
May 22-25 Twisters Memorial Day Invitational Bay City, MI
June 5-7 Snapper Shootout Niagara-on-the-Lake, ON
June 12-14 Boulevard Lounge Tourney (ISC II Qualifier) Midland, MI
June 26-28 Outlaws Invitational Elkhart, IN
July 10-12 Mickey Brennan Memorial Lackawanna, NY
July 17-19 Pete Schwab Memorial Frankenmuth, MI
July 30 – Aug 2 ASA Major South Bend, IN
Aug 15-16 DH’s vs. Decatur Pride Decatur, IL
Aug 18-22 ISC II Tournament of Champions Quad Cities, IA/IL

jasonwhiteley2000@yahoo.com

The 2009 Hoffman Rise Fastpitch roster is substantially complete and is detailed below.

P Ryan Cummings
P Mike Smith
C Chad Oechsle
IF Chad Walters
IF Brian Miller
IF Matt Daley
IF Steve Moore
OF Bart Fenstermacher
OF Jon Hurst
OF Andy Sabo
OF Justin Cevette
UT Lance Bauer
UT Zac Fenstermacher
UT Zach Fullman
UT Matt Daley Jr.

Mgr. Chip Savini
Coach Joe Roslin
GM Keith Hammerschmidt
Sponsor Bob Hoffman

Our tentative schedule includes the 3 MAFTL weekends, Molly Sherman Tournament (Elkland, PA), 4th of July Tournament (Allentown, PA), ToC, and Elkland Labor Day. We would like to find a tournament for the last weekend in July so if anyone has any suggestions please get in touch.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the retirement of Tom Vogel. Tom gave everything he had to the creation of The Rise; he will be sorely missed for his leadership, passion, knowledge for the game and performance on the diamond. Tom will continue as the President of the MAFTL and will undoubtedly remain involved with the game he loves so much. I wouldn’t be shocked to see him wearing a uniform at a tournament before the season is over. Tom, thanks for a lot of great years.

Sincerely,

Keith Hammerschmidt
Hoffman Rise Fastpitch
dozen12@comcast.net

Editor’s Note: Still some roster kinks to be worked out, but the Decatur Pride, a long-time ISC team, are reforming and bringing back many of the game’s stars of yesteryear for a crack at the ISC II division.

From Al’s Fastball:

Decatur Pride is Back!

The Pride will participate in the ISC II Tournament of Champions in Rock Island (if we qualify) and will be host for the ASA Class A Nationals in Decatur, IL this season.

Head Coach Scott Standerfer will try to gel a mix of OLD and young. The Pride consists of 8 past Pride players as well as two sets of father-son combinations.

Roster
Brent Stevenson – P
Bobby Ginger – P
TJ Dobson – P
David Scott – P
Rick Minton – IF
Drew Minton – IF
David Boys – IF
Cole Koester – IF
Todd McQuality – IF
Larry Moffett – IF
Doug Williams – IF
Dustin Curran – IF
Paul Carlton – IF
Robbie Tirpak – OF
Tyler Morganthaler – OF
Blake Martin – OF
Dean Lambert – OF
Greg Morganthaler – C
Mike Hopkins – C

The Pride has the following Saturday and Sunday open HOME dates, which are played in Decatur, Illinois

August 15 – 6pm start
August 16 – 1pm start

We are wanting to host a team that may be traveling through Decatur, IL heading to Rock Island to play in ISC II Tournament of Champions.

We may be able to work on discounts on hotels with City of Decatur Better Business Bureau. Interested teams please contact Robbie Tirpak at Robert.Tirpak@adm.com

Tirpak, Robert
Robert.Tirpak@adm.com

ISC II #4 Oswego, NY Cutro Professional Inspections competed in the Jarvis Gamblers invitational this past weekend and finished 2-3 against quality ISC competition.

Game 1 Saturday
ISC #3 Kitchener 7
CPI 0
WP Frank Cox LP Jason Smith
5 innings
Score not indicative of a good game pitched by Jason Smith, CPI 6 errors
Frank Cox 1 hitter

Game 2 Saturday
ISC #12 Jarvis 8
CPI 0
WP Andrew Phibbs LP Charlie Walseman
6 innings
Andrew Phibbs Jarvis 2 Hitter

Game 3 Saturday
CPI 11
Scarborough JR’s 6
WP Jason Smith LP Luke Leahy

Sunday Playoff quarterfinal
CPI 2
ISC #15 St. Thomas 0
WP Jason Smith LP Scott Wagar
CPI 2 runs in the top of the seventh

Sunday Semi-Final
ISC #3 Kitchener 1
CPI 0
WP Todd Martin LP Jason Smith
Martin complete game 2 hitter
Jason Smith CPI 3 hitter

CPI Next up July 11-13th in the Ausable Forks Tourney

from the Oswego Palladium-Times

By Mike LeBoeuf
The Palladium-Times
Mon Jun 16, 2008
Oswego, N.Y. –
The Oswego-based Cutro Professional Inspections (CPI) fast-pitch softball team on Sunday earned a qualifying spot into this year’s world tournament.

CPI clinched a berth with its performance over the weekend in an International Softball Congress (ISC) II World Tournament Qualifier, held at the Legends Softball Complex in Oswego.

The 32-team world tourney is slated for Aug. 10-13 in Appleton, Wis.

Also earning a qualifying spot over the weekend was I4C Victory out of Ottawa.

Both CPI and I4C Victory won their semifinal games, thereby clinching world tournament berths. The teams mutually decided not to play a championship game, so they were declared co-champions of the qualifier.

CPI, No. 6 in the ISC II rankings, finished with a 3-1 record in the qualifier. It opened with a 3-1 win over 20th-ranked PA Power of Ephrata, Pa. In that game, Shaun Winship of London, Ontario pitched the win and blasted a two-run homer for CPI.

CPI lost its next game 6-3 to the seventh-ranked Waterdown Hammer of Toronto, Ontario. Waterdown got a bases-loaded triple from ninth-place hitter Matt DaSilva to take a 3-1 lead in the second inning. Dave Kingdon’s two-out, two-run double in the fourth made it 5-1, and Chris Smith tripled and scored in the sixth for a 6-1 Hammer lead.

Plating two runs in the bottom of the sixth, CPI drew to within 6-3. Oswego’s Mike Donovan and Winship singled and scored when Derek Stevens singled and the ball was misplayed in the outfield.

In the seventh, CPI threatened again, loading the bases before Waterdown relief pitcher Wayne Wells got a strikeout for the final out.

Oswego’s Shawn Samson pitched for CPI and struck out two. Donovan finished with three hits and an RBI.

CPI bounced back on Sunday with a tough 1-0 win over the fourth-ranked Perkasie Rise of Perkasie, Pa. Winship pitched the shutout, and Stevens drove in the game’s only run.

That put CPI in the semifinals against the ninth-ranked Easton Thunder of Ottawa, Ontario. Behind the pitching of Winship and a clutch two-run single in the first inning by Stevens, CPI picked up a 3-1 win.

Winship scattered seven hits and struck out seven. In the CPI first inning, Charlie Walseman singled and Winship walked to set the table for Stevens, who delivered a two-out, two-run single to left.

Shaun Winship delivers a pitch for Cutro Professional Inspections (CPI) during a world tournament qualifier held over the weekend at the Legends Softball Complex in Oswego. Winship pitched three victories as the Oswego-based CPI team earned a berth in the world tournament.

The Thunder got its run in the sixth on an RBI single by Dave Tubman, but CPI answered with a run in the bottom of the sixth. Mike McKie singled and scored after wild pitches by the Thunder’s Dan Konkle. Konkle finished with a four-hitter and seven strikeouts.

In the other semifinal game, unranked I4C victory chalked up a 4-2 win over the Waterdown Hammer. Brian Brooks pitched the win, and Joel Lankford had a two-out, two-run double for the winners. Pat Severin and Mike Money were other hitting standouts for I4C Victory.

For the CPI team, notching a world tourney berth was the goal, and it was achieved.

“It came down to clutch hitting and good pitching,” said Mike Cutro, CPI player/manager. “Shaun Winship gave up just two runs in 21 innings.”

Other Oswego players for CPI are Mike Sorzickas and Mark Blanchard. Rounding out the CPI roster are players from other parts of New York, Florida, and Canada.

CPI has competed in the world tournament the past three years. Its best finish was ninth place last year at Kitchener, Ontario.

The eight-team qualifier tournament included six teams ranked in the top 22.

Eagle Beverage made a donation to the tournament, and the Oswego Men’s Softball Association helped to organize the tournament and maintain the fields.