[Eugene Church]

The Islandian Union

Thursday, September 23, 2010

2010 IPA Ruthlandian North Final Recap

Far Mountain Wins 2nd Straight RU North, Outlast Glasco By 5 Games
For the second straight year Alex Groveland has guided the Far Mountain Redhawks to the Ruthlandian North pennant. The Redhawks led pretty much start to finish and outlasted the Glasco Athletics by a five-game margin. Kilkenny made a little more progress this season and wound up in the third spot, but 12 games off the pace. The LaGrange Sports wrapped up the season in fourth place and trailed by 13 games.

Far Mountain (93-61) took the flag and a spot in the Pro Cup playoffs with a good all-around ball club, good hitting, pitching, power and defense...Leroy Hill (24-10 3.13) and Boomerang Hines (24-10 3.17) were a dynamic duo on the mound staff... rookie closer Erich Dumont racked up 36 saves and led the league... the Redhawks were paced at the plate by 2B Duane Parsons (.312/38/133/105)... Parsons led the RU in RBIs and tied for the home run title with Scott Camden of Rocky Rapids... other solid hitters were SS Don Nichols (.302/19/96/108), rookie CF Xavier Sosa (.322/17/72/74) and C Otis Ott (.270/26/96/79).

The Glasco A's (88-66) were the surprise team this year as McDuffie Hughes' club rose from seventh in 2009 to second in a turnaround season... Pitching did it for the Athletics with a starting foursome of Felipe Branco (22-11 2.53), Buddy DeMarco (19=14 3.46), Hal Neyland (10-1 3.42) and Bobby Joe Belvin (15-14 3.66)... rookie closer Jack Hatcher (4-5 2.56) played a prime part in the renaissance with 32 saves...They ranked sixth with a 3.56 team ERA... Glasco's main run producers were 1B George Ferguson (.297/30/101), CF Ike Plunkett (.317/22/83) and RF Aidan Latimer (.298/11/60/83)... a poor .968 FA hurt the Athletics, the worst in the RU North.

It was another good year for the third place Kilkenny Cats (81-73) under manager Kieran McKenna... it was the Cats third consecutive finish in the RU North's first division after years of dismal failure... Kilkenny's ace was Gregg Neal (17-13 3.22), still going strong at age 38... Neal is the all-time leader with 177 victories in his 10 seasons in the IPA... other solid performers were pitchers Mack Harrell (18-12 3.35) and Steve Ohlinger (17-15 3.34), along with 2B Scooter Perez with a .305 batting average and 108 runs scored, while playing great shortstop and second base... other stalwarts were rookie CF Kevin McPhail with a .303 BA and 89 RBIs and rookie RF Robby Campbell with 19 homers, 80 RBIs and a .270 average.

Foxy Jimison and his fourth place LaGrange Sports (80-74) upgraded the pitching, but not enough to compete with Far Mountain and Glasco... the Sports wound up 12 games back... It was Jimison's best rotation in years, led by Phil Bijeaux (16-11 3.79), Denny Kristensen (14-12 3.34), Mike Arnold (18-11 4.19) and Leroy Labat (10-6 2.98)... as usual LaGrange's bats performed well with rookie 1B Bill Nance, who had an excellent year with 28 homers, 92 RBIs and 100 runs scored, while hitting at a .320 clip... CF Karl Perret batted .287 with 13 roundtrippers and 114 runs... C Otto Kronvath wallops 30 home runs, batted in 102 and scored 93 times and LF Quincy Peterson, one of the IPA's all-time superstars, had another fine year with a .279 batting average, 27 homers, 88 RBIs and 99 runs scored... Next year the 33-year-old Peterson should top the 300-homer, 1000-RBIs and 1000-runs milestones... the Sports play defense well and have a .976 FA.

Fifth place in the RU North belongs to Tommaso Lazzorda's Taranto Tars (75-79), who ended up 18 games off the pace... the Tars play in one of the smallest venues in the IPA, the Palazzo di Sport, so its pitchers have a tough time as far as ERAs go... 8-year vet Sal Pascioni (15-10 4.76) and Chris Hall (13-12 4.18) are Lazzorda's best arms... his best bats are SS Eddie Miles (.277/17/84/97), LF Wayne Pounders (.262/28/91) and 1B Pietro Skrmetta (.310/18/77)... one thing Taranto does is play good defense... the Tars finished up with a .976 FA.

Bad year for Manny Mickens and his Arcona Red Elephants (74-80), who tumbled from second place to sixth place tie this season... They were 19 games behind in the pennant chase... Arcona suffered a lapse of good pitching as the team ERA soared from a pretty good 3.68 to a lofty 4.21 in 2010... Mickens' ace was 5-year vet Gary Culver (16-12 3.34)... Marty Sellick (18-13 4.17) was the Red Elephants biggest winner... at the plate Arcona's top hitters were 3B Bob Arlin (.303/25/74), 1B Johnny Lee Harder (.299/19/86) and CF Lacey Tompkins (.287/18/98).

The Valmara Vipers (74-80) wound up 19 games back this year and tied for sixth... but this was slightly better than last year's drop to the very bottom of the division... Skipper J. Jackson Samuel's club did well until mid-year, but fizzled over the second half of the season... one standout star was 28-year-old right-hander Vanya Vasylenko who excelled with a brilliant season, posting a 23-8 record and a fine 2.85 ERA... the Vipers have a few good hitters... Samuel's top bats were RF Lou Gdowski (.310/17/88/95), C Erich Adamczyk (.291/17/80) and 1B Alan Guilford (.270/22/73/96).

2002 through 2008 Page Satcher's Ranford Bulls (68-86) never finished worst than fourth place... for the last two years the Bulls dipped down - fifth last year - and all the way to the basement this year, 25 games out of first... Ranford is a victim of lousy hitting and mediocre pitching... it's tough to win without runs, no matter how good your pitching is... much less when your pitching less than adequate... Satcher has a fine competitor in 34-year-old Chris Bernhoffer (14-19 3.39), who has won 154 games in nine years... Cleve Skinner (17-17 3.97) came on strong in the last half of the year and gave Bernhoffer some help... good bats were sparse in Ranford this season... the Bulls best were C Stan Pasek (.279/15/65) and 3B Ken Aubert (.268/22/79).