July2010

NAFA Open World Series

July 26, 2010

Middleton, WI

After a bucket of rain fell in Madison last night, it looked like the NAFA Men's Open World Series might not get started at all but the top notch field crew at the Bowling Green Sports Complex overcame the rain and all games started near or on time this morning.

The day started out pretty exciting as three upsets unfolded in the first 3 games.

The Rocky Mountain Rebels from Colorado, Texas, Oklahoma and New Mexico overcame two unsettling incidents and upset Willkomm Mobil from Kenosha, 4-1, behind the pitching of David Beets. Todd Lubkeman took the loss for Willkomm. The two incidents that almost called the Rebels trip short were the loss of their star pickup pitcher Juan Potolloccio(on loan from the Angels), who's mother passed away yesterday and had to fly home to Argentina accompanied by his Angels coach Jeff Larsen. Our prayers are with Juan and his family. Their 2nd obstacle was the 16 inches of rain that closed the Milwaukie Airport where they were flying into which diverted several players and kept a couple at home.

In another first round upset, the Gehrig Falcons from Wisconsin behind Bryan Lathrop defeated the Blackhawks Athletic Club from Rockford, Illinois 8-6. Sean Kohse took the loss for the BAC Pride.

In the third 9 am game, Pete's Blues from Illinois and pitcher Jonas Mach upset New Image and Kevin Kammueller on the hill, 2-1 in a pitchers duel.

The next 3 games up are the Kegel Knights from Fargo face Wilber Lime of Wisconsin in an interesting rematch of the St. Paul Tournament where Wilber Lime put a beatdown on Kegel. Kegel says his guys will play much better in the rematch.

Top seeded Bar of Appleton faces the Gehrig Falcons and #2 seeded Dolan & Murphy faces the Rocky Mountain Rebels.


Two more surprises in 2nd round of NAFA Open World Series Wall no hits Kegel, Beets upsets #13 Shamrocks 

Two more surprises in 2nd round of NAFA Open World Series Wall no hits Kegel, Beets upsets #13 Shamrocks

The Bar of Appleton ,ranked 7th in the world, behind pitcher Josh Johnson beat Gehrig Falcons and #2 pitcher Mark Remus 9-0.

In the rematch from the St. Paul tournament last week, Wilber Lime and pitcher Dan Wall threw a no hitter and once again defeated higher seeded Kegel Knights and their famed pitcher Gerald Muizilar in a great battle, 1-0.

In another upset David Beets and the highlight of the tourney, Rocky Mountain Rebels upset #2 seeded and # 13 ranked in the world Dolan & Murphy and pitcher Ales Jetmer, 7-5 as Dolan mounted a 7th inning comeback and had the tying run at the plate but just fell short.

Special thanks to Tournament Directors Mike Watson from Kansas(who is 2 days out of the hospital with pneumonia) and Loren Lathrop from Wisconsin for tournament directing this event and doing a fine job.

A quote from one of the BAC Pride players who called me just to say, " Benjie, I don't know how they did it but they got these fields ready when this thing could have easily been cancelled due to the rain." Dave from BAC

Thanks again to Terry Knight and his field crew for doing the impossible once again under severe weather conditions.
Sent from my iPhone
Benjie


First Two Teams knocked into the Sunday Single Elimination at NAFA Open 

The groundskeeping wizards from this morning were Mike Mayer, Eugene Pasch and Terry Knight.

Jeremy Holman and New Image beat BAC Pride and Ray Reynolds, 9-0, sending the Pride into the Sunday Single Elimination Bracket. New Image next faces #12 in the world Dolan & Murphy.

In the other 3rd round game, The Kegel Knights(#15 in the world) and pitcher Brady Woods are tied in the 9th inning with Wilkomm Mobil and Vic Flores(relieved by Lubkeman) 2-2, sending the loser to the Sunday Single Elimination Bracket. Willkomm tied it in the 6th at 2-2. The winner faces Gehrig Falcons next.

This marks the first year with this format where the every team returns on Sunday.

The coaches attending this year have given a coaches survey asking for their input on future dates, location, number of days and the format of the Open World Series. The survey will also be emailed to the other too teams in the world and it will be posted on the "Open page of the website as well.

Doing an outstanding job with the scorekeeping at this event are Mike White, Matt White, and Jesse Faust.

Willkomm Mobil & New Image Advance at NAFA Open 

Willkomm Mobil and Tod Lubkeman beat Kegel(Brady Woods) 3-2 in 11 innings which sends Kegel to the Sunday Single Elimination Bracket. Willkomm advances in the losers bracket.

New Image and Kevin Kammueller beat Jeff Farion and Dolan & Murphy 2-0 in a great battle of pitchers. Dolan will play Kegel in the Sunday Single Elimination Bracket. New Image advances.

The umpires have been excellent using the three umpire system. The UIC is Hank St. Clair and the umpires are:Wu Tamaki from New Zealand,
Joe Squires, Dave Seldon, Rick Havercroft from Michigan. Steve Vail , Gary Johnson and Charlie Johnson from Minnesota. Dan Frezza from Kansas. Mike Orn and Rob Durand from North Dakota, and Steve Komoroski , Bob Neville and Ed Vodvarka from Wisconsin.

NAFA Open World Series Update Bar & Rebels tied after 3 innings, all but final 2 games for the day 

Bar of Appleton 3(Blackshaw), Wilber Lime 2(Wall) in the winners bracket
Rocky Mountain(David Beets), 5-1 over Pete's Blues(Jason Iuli)
Willkomm Mobil(Vic Flores) 6, Gehrig Falcons(Bryan Lathrop) 4, Gehrig goes to the Sunday Single Elimination Bracket and Willkomm advances to play Pete's Blues.
Pete's Blues(Jonas Mach threw a perfect game with 17 strikeouts) 3-0 over Willkomm Mobil(Todd Lubkeman) so Willkomm goes to the Sunday Single Elimination Bracket and Petes advances.

New Image is up 3-0 over Wilber Lime(Holman vs Wall) in a game where the winner advances and the loser goes the the Sunday Single Elimination Bracket.
In the Undefeated winners bracket final, The Rocky Mountain Rebels and Bar of Appleton are tied 1-1 in the third(Beets vs Blackshaw).
the bracket has been updated on the www.nafafastpitch.com website on the Open Page.

 

Final Saturday Report #6 from NAFA Open World Series at the Bowling Green Sports Complex in Middleton, Wisconsin

The Open Bracket has been updated on the website at www.Nafafastpitch.com on the "OPEN" page.

Bar of Appleton and pitcher Andrew Blackshaw beat the Rocky Mountain Rebels and the elastic arm of David Beets(26 innings today) 3-2 in the winners bracket final leaving Bar of Appleton as the team that has to be beaten twice(new this year) on Sunday. 


It was 2-1 Bar in the bottom of the 6th when the Rebels tied it up at 2-2 then Blackshaw walked Bruno to load the bases to get to David Beets who hit the ball deep for what seemed like the game winner 240 towering bomb but Josh Johnson made a great play to get it for the third out. They stayed tied at 2 until the top of the 8th when the Bar scored on an error to go up 3-2, then in the bottom of the 8th with Bitter on 1st base with one out, Bruno Matroni was up and ready to hit the game winning hit but he hit a hard grounder to the Bar shortstop who stepped on second and then doubled Patroni up at 1st base to end the game. Mike Armitage had the game winning rbi for the Bar of Appleton.
The Rocky Mountain Rebels and coach Dave Parker(NAFA Wood Bat Program Director) has overcome several obstacles in becoming the talk of this tournament as their star pickup pitcher Juan Pottolaccio's mother passed away and he had to fly home to Argentina yesterday. In addition to that, the Milwaukie Airport was closed due to flooding and several players were diverted to other spots or had to cancel their flights. 
They pulled together behind a very gutsy effort by Oklahoma Superchief pitcher David Beets to place themselves in a position to win this tournament. They have at least third place secured and that is pretty awesome considering they were the lowest seed coming into this event. They will play at 11 am against the winner of the 4th place game at 9am featuring New Image(the defending AA-Major Champion) and Pete's Blues who knocked them off in the first game of this tournament featuring Jonas Mach who threw a perfect game today. Jeremy Holman also threw a perfect game against Wilber Lime who has had one of the top hitting lineups in NAFA history.

New Image behind Kevin Kammueller took revenge on Petes' Blues and Jonas Mach for yesterdays game by winning 10-2. Pete's Blues takes 4th place. New Image advances to take on the Rocky Mountain Rebels and their pitcher David Beets who threw 29 flawless innings yesterday. The loser will be 3rd place and the winner will advance to the championship against the Bar of Appleton who is sitting undefeated and has to be beaten twice.
In the Sunday Single Elimination bracket Dolan & Murphy Shamrocks and young pitcher Kohse beat Kegel Knights 2-1 and Gerald Muizilar. Gehrig Falcons and Bryan Lathrop outlasted the BAC Pride and Ray Reynolds 9-6.
We will post the All World Selections as they happen but the championsihp info may arrive late tonight as I will be on the road.

NAFA OPEN World Series Sunday 2nd Round Games & Some All World Selections 

New Image and Jeremy Holman move on to the Championship Game by beating the Rocky Mountain Rebels 2-0. David Beets was the losing pitcher but led his team to a 3rd place finish. He was rewarded by being selected to the All World Team along with teammates Christian Moore, Bruno Matroni and Niko Bittor. 
Wilber Lime is playing Dolan & Murphy for the Sunday Single Elimination Bracket Final with Wilber leading 1-0 halfway through.
The Bar of Appleton is leading New Image 3-0 in the 4th inning of the championship game.
All World selections for other teams were Augie Laugerhausen from WillKomm Mobil, Kyle Schehr from Gehrig Falcons, and Steve Linton and Jonas Mach from Pete's Blues.

The Bar of Appleton led by the pitching of Andrew Blackshaw and the hitting of Josh Johnson defeated New Image 3-0 to win the 2010 NAFA Open.  Kevin Kammueller took the loss for New Image.

In the Sunday Single elimination bracket, Dolan and Murphy defeated Wilber Lime 4-1.  Jeff Farion got the win for the Shamrocks and Matt Stuhr took the loss for Wilber Lime.


Bar of Appleton (last years AAA Champions) claimed the NAFA Open World Series with a 3-0 shutout over New Image(last years AA-Major Champion). Andrew Blackshaw was the winning pitcher and Kevin Kammueller took the loss. Josh Johnson, Bar of Appleton, was the MVP and Jeremy Holman,New Image, was the MVPitcher with a zero era, 3-0 and a perfect game. Other all world selections not already listed were Dan Wall of Wilber Lime, Jim Pecoraro and David Schuett of Dolan & Murphy, Joe Benash, Todd Burlage, Harvey Knuteson, Adam Bussan of New Image and Pat Humphries, Chris Delorit, Andrew Blackshaw,Jess Delorit and Tom Crouch of the Bar. 

Final Order of Finish
1-Bar of Appleton, 4-0
2-New Image, 5-2
3-Rocky Mountain Rebels, 3-2
4-Pete's Blues, 2-2
5-Dolan & Murphy, 3-2
6-Wilber Lime, 2-3
7-Gehrig Falcons, 2-3
8-Willkom Mobil, 2-3
9-Kegel Knights,0-3
9-BAC Pride, 0-3

Dolan &  Murphy won the Sunday Single Elimination Bracket 4-1 over Wilber Lime with Ales Jetmer taking the win and Dan Wall taking the loss.

Sent from my iPhone
Benjie

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