[Eugene Church]

The Islandian Times
Wednesday, September 23, 2009

Colfax Favored in RU, Denton City in TU
The IPA Pro Cup Playoffs get underway this afternoon at four sites around the Islands. In the RU Elite 8 Series it will be Far Mountain entertaining Claxton and Colfax will host the Belle Plaine Musketeers. Over in the Tycobbian Union the Red Bluff Red Sox travel to Denton City and Turon will be in Hartsdale against the Hellcats. According to baseball scribes and gurus Colfax will prevail in the RU and Denton City gets the call in the TU and will battle for the Pro Cup in the postseason finals.

Ruthlandian Union Elite 8 Series
Head-to-head against the other teams in the regular season Colfax had the best record at 8-4, followed by Belle Plaine 8-7, Claxton 8-10 and Far Mountain 6-9. Colfax is expected to defeat Belle Plaine in the Elite 8 Series and Far Mountain will play the favorite's role in the other series against Claxton. Both series will be best-of-seven. The Blasters are forecast to whip the Redhawks in the RU Finals.

Colfax (94-60) has a fantastic pitching rotation that chalked up an unbelievable 2.69 ERA, led by Ilya Szabo (22-15 2.39), Stony Blackwell (19-11 2.64), Jimmy Joe Cartner (17-13 2.53) and All-Star Jasper LaForge (23-10 3.23)... Colfax broke Cape Coral's record (2.82) for the best team ERA set in 2004... Clem Rogers also has a capable closer Dallas Somerville (5-8 2.14), who saved 24 games... mix in a fine fielding team with a .978 FA and the Blasters are hard to score against... offensively Colfax hit for a .262 batting average with 140 home runs, which was adequate in the runs department... Leading the Blasters line-up was All-Star CF Ryan Raines (.302/26/99/99), LF Paul Coniglio (.302/27/111/96), 3B Mike Janocko (.284/19/72) and RF Karl Heidelberg (.319/17/50/72).

Alex Groveland has it all in Far Mountain (94-61), good hitting (.278), good power (179 HR) and good pitching (3.42)... climbed from seventh to first this year... first time in six years to make the playoffs... top pitchers are Leroy Hill (20-15 2.90), Boomerang Hines (9-4 3.10) and Robby Kelly (17-13 3.34)... Dave McDonald (19-9 4.46) benefited greatly from excellent offensive support... All-Star SS Don Nichols (.336/22/106) tops the hitters with help from C Otis Ott (.297/26/89) and 2B Duane Parsons (.336/22/106)... good defense with .976 FA.

Claxton jumped from fifth place to penthouse this season and captured its first RU South flag... Stacy Engel has the highest-scoring club in the IPA and his line-up is packed with fine hitters... the Claxton Diamonds (85-69) chalked up a .267 batting average, but hit 193 out of the park... pitching-wise Engel has a capable foursome that notched a 3.92 ERA... Claxton potent batting order consists of All-Star 1B Mike Luzzatti (.343/44/109/116), who had another colossal year... along with CF Dixie Baker (.260/32/114/92), LF Helmut Graczyk (.317/24/88/102), SS Erik Carducci (.285/18 81/61), 2B Paco Benitez (.281/2/37/93) and 3B Artie Sherman (.276/20/77/91)... Engel's starting rotation is All-Star Charlie Murphy (17-14 3.08), Peter Brenneman (18-13 3.96), Paul Grange (15-7 3.79) and Bob Grba (13-8 4.26)... Claxton is only average in the field with a .971 FA.

In a surprising turn of events Belle Plaine surged in September and outplayed the defending Pro Cup champs, the Wynnamac Sundowners. Belle Plaine (81-73) copped the flag mainly because of a pretty good group of starters in Jorge Bonilla (14-12 3.57), Tony Saroyan (17-13 3.75) and Danny Griffin (15-13 3.91... closer Denny Reynaud (6-5 4.11) was a plus, despite sometimes being inconsistent, but he saved 25 games... Boo Ladrieux's line-up was solid with a .276 BA, but not too powerful with only 105 home runs... the Musketeers were led by RF Juan Mendez (.326/7/45/96), 1B Rory Dickenson (.314/16/92/101), CF Harry Klyman (.285/26/107/79) and 3B Warren McDaniel (.273/17/78/87)... 2B Floyd Vinson (.286/1/64/89) played good defense and chipped in some offense, while SS Dave Torregrossa (.330/4/53) really had a great year after taking over at midseason... Torregrossa only played in 103 games.

Tycobbian Union Elite 8 Series
Over in Tycobbia the Denton City Redbirds compiled the best record against the other three playoff challengers, going 9-6, while Hartsdale was 8-7, Red Bluff 9-9 and Turon 4-8. The Redbirds will have a rough time with the Red Bluff Red Sox, but should survive to face the Hartsdale Hellcats in the TU Finals. However, Turon should give the Hellcats quite a tussle. Any one of the four clubs could go to the Pro Cup championship, they are all evenly matched. All playoff series are best-out-of-seven.

Hitting is apparently not enough to win a division... the Denton City Redbirds (92-62) didn't hit as well as Bayview, didn't go deep as much as Bayview and didn't score as much as Bayview, but they did well enough offensively to stay with the Vikings... and they outpitched them... DC hit a respectable .269 with 143 homers and had the best team ERA in the TU with a strong 3.46 ERA... Ford Whiteman has a solid threesome as starters: Kenyon MacKenzie (20-8 3.22), Mila Mohoski (20-15 3.54) and Mike Danek (13-7 3.36)... but the real separator between the two contenders might have been Roger Ramsey (7-3 2.69) in the Redbird bullpen... Ramsey had 24 saves after being converted to closer this season... Denton City was paced at bat by RF Lavon Gooch (.273/30/125/97), All-Star 1B Mick Abbott (.307/23/98/92) and SS Trevor Tomlinson (.307/8/47/113)... the Redbirds play good defense, too, with a .976 FA.

Hartsdale (92-62) tied Denton City of the TU West for the most wins in the TU this year with 92... the keys to success for Zim Donner were a solid set of starters, good closer, good power, good hitting and good defense... Hartsdale batted .269 with 171 homers and had a .976 FA... Hellcat starters were Ben Manderson (16-9 2.89), Tony Lane (14-12 3.11), Matt DeRosa (17-14 3.53), Nico Carnera (13-4 3.62) and Rip Arnold (17-14 4.12)... closer Mitch Yassen (7-5 2.74) was also a vital part of the team's success with 23 saves... overall the hill corps fashioned a fine 3.52 team ERA... the Hellcats also featured a solid core of hitters with good pop... Donner's top bats were 1B Tom Brabant (.321/35/110/78), 3B Kendry Moulton (.290/25/99/93), 2B Jud Turchin (.286/21/82/89) and CF Mac Faulkner (.299/24/75/82).

Red Bluff (86-68) took advantage of a strong pitching staff to win the TU East this season... Mack Connery had four fine starters, two very good ones and two that were quite dependable... the Red Sox notched a 3.82 ERA and were paced by All-Star John Dougherty (19-12 3.10), Frank Beaudoin (21-12 3.29), Jim Melanakos (14-10 4.13) and Cloyd Harris (18-18 4.04)... firepower also set Red Bluff apart from Tuckanarra... they outhomered the Blue Jays 149 to 99... both clubs hit about the same for average with Tuckanarra batting .268 and Red Bluff .267... Tuckanarra also had a slight edge defensively .978 FA to .976 FA... Connery's best bat was 3B Tommy Klegg (.281/36/132/85), who topped the IPA with 132 RBIs, along with Waleska's Kippy Doyle... other strong contributors were All-Star CF Stan Helmke (.317/14/62/100), SS Jose Aguilar (.290/13/66/106) and 1B Kris Grabowski (.299/17/72).

The Turon Typhoons (91-63) are on quite a roll with their third TU South pennant in four years... Whitey Richburn has a sound club in all respects... hitting, power, pitching... and decent defense... Turon's team batting average is .274... they hit 154 homers... have a fine 3.66 team ERA... and a .974 FA... the pitching rotation consists of Anthony Nardone (20-12 3.03), Jacques Lemaire (24-6 3.42) and James Stuart (17-13 3.61)... Freddi Spiegel (7-1 2.80) stands out in middle relief... at the plate Richburn has a bunch of good bats in CF Mac McCurnan (.306/34/105/106), 1B Johnny Carducci (.297/23/91/69) and 2B Alan Hansen (.299/1/49/109) with help from All-Star 3B John Cottrell (.304/8/63/57), LF Jimmy Tremayne (.306/14/80/67) and RF Andy Porter (.298/21/71/62).