september2010

NAFA Masters West World Series Wrap Up

September 23, 2010

Carson City, NV

NAFA Masters West World Series Wrap Up
September 17-19 Carson City, Nevada

Darren Zack, Peter Merideth, Paul Algar, Mike Pietnik, Mike Trotter, Dan Kolda, Gord Scott, Kevin Kammueller, Mike Crawford, Mark Bennett, Wayne Gaura, Ray Camacho, Lanky Johnson, Jim Ullock, Greg Alder, Matt Smith, Steve Morgan, Steve Black, Matt Barnes, Ed Gasper, Mitch Mendenhall, Reno Lato, Sam Aldridge, Cleon Tungsvik, Kelly Richardson were a few of the pitchers who attended and the batters were just as impressive on this fine weekend in Nevada. Mike Crawford from Ontario Canada won $12,000 and kept our annual big winner streak alive.
The weather and fields at Centennial  Park in Carson City were beautiful aside from some wind late Sunday afternoon.   3 divisions (50,45,40) were held and 3 new Champions were crowned-Ohio Battery in the 50, Tulsa Gray Sox in the 45 and Massachusetts Seadogs in the 40. The field prep crew did a great job and the concessions stand was incredible.  Complex Manager, Jeremiah Teeter and his staff were great to work with again. As usual the event ran a little long each day and that pushed some to ask for time limits on the round robin games and a tiebreaker plan(which is optional as long as both coaches agree in masters play). There were also a lot of requests to change to the yellow ball. We also had a bit of drama in the 40+ division as a couple people weren’t quite ready to make the jump from 35 to 40 but came anyway. For next year each roster will now have to be submitted by email with birthdays prior to the event and each team and player will be run through a wristband machine to be approved to play in any division prior to playing on Friday night. Color coded for each incremental age you are over. The new roster will have the birthday on it and there will be a special section for the legal underage players color coded on the roster.
4 great surprises in the event were the Fat City team playing superbly and making it into the 40 Gold Division, Santa Rosa Fastpitch going undefeated in pool play in the 45-over, NW Old Growth from Portland going undefeated in Pool play in the 50-Over and first time attendee Budweiser from Orland, California playing very well in the 40-Over Division.
Special thanks to tournament directors Bob Chapel and Robert Hernandez and UIC Pete Davis and Kris Russom on souvenirs and Debbie Ivie,  Amy Hardesty and Dewey Yoke on the gates. The umpires had a few complaints but many also commented that there were more top umpires there than ever before. Umpires were from Oregon, So Cal, Nevada, and NorCal.  People were excited to hear that we are adding Niagra Falls July 1-3 next year. The weather was low 80’s and perfect for playing in. The Stevie Ray Vaughn cover band concert Saturday night put on by the Gold Dust Motel was appreciated.  We had some issues with the mounds softening up and pitchers areas and they did their best to address it and will be adding more clay next year. The dust that came with the wind late Sunday afternoon was a first but we played through it and it didn’t take away from the perfect weather we had for all but about 4 hours of the event. Besides pulled muscles there were very few injuries. We were successful playing two 4:45 championship games and that helped keep all but two games at the main park on Sunday and we will continue to do that in the future. Of course there is no curfew there and the lights were used all three nights although we were done on Saturday at 8:30pm.
The surveys will be posted on the website Thursday. A breakdown by class is provided below and this information is also on the website at www.Nafafastpitch.com
2011 Sites and Dates
The Rockford event will be more appropriately renamed the Midwest Masters World Series(Sept. 9-11)  and may come back to Rockford although there were requests to check into new locations including Mankato and Madison. The Carson City event will remain the West Masters(Sept. 16-18) and the new Niagra Falls Canada event( July 1-3) will be titled the East Masters(U.S. East/Canada East). The Las Vegas (October 24-25) event will give Masters  teams  4 quality events they can attend annually in each part of the United States.

50-Over(Complete Bracket is on www.Nafafastpitch.com)
The two undefeated pool winners were NW Old Growth and Ohio Battery. The big surprise was that Texas Stars went 0-3 in pool play but as everyone knows Sunday everyone gets to start over and Texas Stars did it in a big way first beating Nevada Power (who was one pitch away from winning) and then taking out Undefeated NW Old Growth. Ohio Battery cruised through and won the final 7-0 over always strong Seattle FP. So Cal Relics started off the weekend of upsets with a big win 13-5 over  Seattle FP. Defending Champion Bay Area Merchants(playing under Savala Painters) was knocked out in the second round on Sunday. Peter Merideth was the MVPitcher and Dennis Brownsfield was the MVP in a star studded cast put together by Ohio Battery coach and sponsor Nick McCurry.

50-Over Finals Standings
Ohio Battery, Ohio, 6-0
Seattle FP, Washington, 4-2
3- Ladner Masters, B.C., Canada, 3-2
3- Texas Stars/Si Senor, Texas, 2-4
5-NW Old Growth, Oregon, 3-1
5- Savala Painters, 2-2
5- Pantera’s, So California, 2-3
5- Boise Fog, Idaho, 1-3
9- So Cal Relics, So California, 1-3
9- Nevada Power, Nevada, 0-4

50-Over All World Team
MVP Dennis Brownsfield, Ohio Battery
MVPitcher Peter Meredith, Ohio Battery
Wayne Gaura, Ohio Battery
Ray Camacho, Ohio Battery
Randy Brown, Ohio Battery
Jim Huerta, Ohio Battery
Jim Decatur, Seattle FP
Andy Watson, Seattle FP
Jim Bulman, Seattle FP
Cam Ackley, Seattle FP
Peter Allen, Ladner
Ken Hall, Ladner
Phil Cain, Texas
Dan Reynolds, Texas
Mike Trotter, NW Old Growth
Sean O’Neil, Boise Fog
Doug Shaw, Pantera’s
Tony Vierra, So Cal Relics

45-Over(Complete Bracket is on www.Nafafastpitch.com)
Parity was evident in this division in Carson City like it was in Rockford as the last seed pushed the 3rd seed to extra innings Sunday morning and the #4 seed upset the #1 seed on Sunday morning as well. The #4 seed Ladner went on to take a lead deep into the championship game but a late rally by the Gray Sox gave them the close victory and the title. NAFA Hall of Famer Gord Scott was the Most Valuable Pitcher and Richie Hunt was the MVP of the 45 Division although an incredible day was had by Ladner pitcher Sammy Aldridge who gave Tulsa all they could handle. Kevin Kammueller, was all world selection and was enjoyed by all but the opposing batters. Kevin was the MVPitcher in the East 45-Over for his regular team Jordan Realty but bought his own ticket out to Carson City because he just wanted to see what it was like. In the longest game of the tournament(of course at 8 am on Sunday backing things up), Kelly Richardson of the Blue Hares battled Kevin Kammueller of Oregon Masters in an extra inning game won by Oregon Masters on a game winning base hit by Executive Director, Benjie Hedgecock. Kelly Richardson noted, “He was just lucky bases were loaded so that I couldn’t bean him like I normally do…” and then he laughed. Longtime Tulsa sponsor and coach Hill was rewarded for his preserverence in the sport and many people in attendance were rooting for him. NAFA Hall of Famer and co-founder Jim Williamson coach the Ladner team to the championship game and was an umpire favorite as well.

45-Over Final Standings
Champions Tulsa Gray Sox, Oklahoma, 5-0
2nd Ladner Masters 45’s, B.C., Canada, 3-3
3rd Santa Rosa FP, Nor California, 3-1
3rd Oregon Masters, Oregon, 3-2
5th Strathmore Bulls, Winnipeg 0-4
5th Grants Pass Blue Hares, Oregon, 0-4
45-Over All World
MVP Richie Hunt, Tulsa
MVPitcher, Gord Scott, Tulsa
Wade Max, Tulsa
Lance Day, Tulsa
Herman Augerhole, Tulsa
Mike Mussina, Tulsa
Sam Aldridge, Ladner
Jack Andreas, Ladner
Brian Manderville, Ladner
Troy Grow, Ladner
Steve Pidwerberski, ladner
Kevin Kammueller, Oregon Masters
Chris Newbold, Oregon Masters
Dana Faccini , Santa Rosa
Rick Kain , Santa Rosa
Tim Grund, Santa Rosa
Les Elchuck, Bulls
Craig Vohland, Blue Hares

40-Over(Complete Bracket is on www.Nafafastpitch.com)
For the first time in the 40 Division we went to an upper and lower bracket on Sunday which was very well received by the lower bracket teams and understood by the upper teams even though they would have preferred to face someone Sunday prior to the #1 seeds having to face each other. We had a great final in the Gold Division with a one run game won by Seadogs over Portland as Paul Algar got some great relief from legend Darren Zack as the Seadogs outlasted Portland 7-6. Mike Pietnik and Mark Bennett threw for Portland in the final. In an incredible weekend for MVP Jeff Hook he hit 4 homeruns, .545, had 13 rbi’s, scored 9 times himself. Paul Algar nipped teammate Darren Zack for the MVPitcher honors. In the Silver Division, So Cal Rounders beat the San Antonio Classics in the final behind the great hitting of MVP Fred Hanker and great pitching of Mitch Mendenhall who was the MVPitcher. The Classics from Texas had a great first NAFA Masters and will be back with their pitcher Mike Crawford who won $12,000 at the Casino.

40-Over Final Standings
Gold Division
1st-Seadogs, Massachusetts, 5-0
2nd, C R Rockers, Oregon, 4-1
3rd, Cal State Builders, Nor California, 3-1
3rd, Utah FP, Utah, 3-2
5th Fat City, Nevada, 2-2
40-Over All World Gold Division
MVP Jeff Hook
MVPitcher Paul Algar
All World
Darren Zack, Seadogs
Mark Wofford, Seadogs
John Kosinski, Seadogs
Dennis Hajjar, Seadogs
Rob Gehrke, Portland
Todd Budke, Portland
Mike Pietnik, Portland
Russ Newton, Portland
Jim McDonald, Fat City
Larry Villafuerde, Fat City
Duey Christianson, Cal State
Chad Budrick, Cal State
Dean Waltiers, Cal State
Tommy Gray, Utah
Shad Alvey, Utah
 
Silver Division
1st- Rounders, So California, 4-2
2nd, San Antonio Classics, Texas, 2-4
3rd, Bandits, So California, 1-4
3rd, Budweiser, Orland, California, 3-2
5th, Yard Dogs, So California, 2-2
5th, Lawdogs, Nor California, 1-3
5th, N8V Cal NEVA, Nevada, 1-3
8th, RMC Builders,Nor California, 0-4, NO SHOW
40-Over All World Silver Division
MVP Fred Hanker, Rounders
MVPitcher Mitch Mendenhall, Rounders
All World
Tom Morton, Rounders
Mike Thomas, Rounders
Eric Guyerman, Rounders
Gilbert Garza, Classics
Albert Estrada, Classics
Michael Garza, Classics
Bobby Alonzo, Classics
Mike Crawford, Classics
Randall Baley, Lawdogs
Dave Waco, Yarddogs
Carty Sawtelle, Budweiser
Mike Elby, Budweiser
Steve Castro, Jr, Bandits
Andy De Corte, Bandits
 
NEXT UP….Las Vegas Nevada October 23-24….as the East meets the West.
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