[Eugene Church]

The Islandian Times

Monday, September 19, 2011

Tycobbian Union North Final Standings, Team Batting and Pitching

Favored Fairfax Outduels Blue Lake in TU North
Good hitting made the difference in the Tycobbian North this season. The Fairfax Frogs superior offense enabled them to subdue the tough Blue Lake Blue Sox by 3 games in a close pennant race. Manager Harry Buckley's charges came out on top in one of the strongest divisions in the IPA, where almost every team had a reliable mound staff. Luxora played well in the second half of the year and came in third, just 6 games off the pace. The fourth spot in the standings went to the Hartsdale Hellcats, who trailed Fairfax by 9 games. White River was fifth, Mahaska sixth, Oxford seventh and North Hills was last.

Fairfax hit at a .270 clip (5th) with 167 homers (5th) and 770 runs (3rd), numbers only Hartsdale could match in the TU North... In addition Buckley's bunch excelled with a fine 3.38 ERA and a .977 fielding average, making them a hard team to beat... Wally Tidwell (22-10 2.74), Joe Hampton (21-8 2.95) and Ken Hill (17-12 3.16) were an impressive rotation... Fairfax had the bats, too, led by the gifted and talented LF Dane Wesner (.342/47/127/104), who almost copped another Triple Crown Award... He led in homers and RBIs, but finished fourth in the bat race...SS Wes Hickox (.278/25/104/81) and 1B Chancey Quibedeaux (.280/23/74/130) chipped in some good offense, too.

Manager Tyson Cobb's Blue Lake mound corps almost was good enough to carry him to the division flag with its 3.26 team ERA (1st), but a .259 BA (15th) and 123 home runs (27th) couldn't get the job done... the Blue Sox's CF Rick Hilliard (.295/25/85/81) and LF Vic Gelder (.292/20/71) couldn't come close to competing with Fairfax at the plate... but pitchers Pete Henry (21-12 2.97), Dan Whitfield (19-14 3.50) and standout rookie closer Mark Carey (5-6 2.92) were very good competition... Justin Eckhardt lost 20 games, but was the victim of terrible run support... Eckhardt won 12 games and had a solid 3.12 ERA.

The third-place Luxora Zorros with Alejandro Rodrigo at the helm really suffered from its .240 BA (32th) and 117 homers (30th)... the Z's wound up just 6 games off the pace after a very good second-half rally... a little more hitting would have gone a long way for the Zorros... C Benny Stern (.282/18/73), 1B Jack McNeal (.280/17/65) and RF Bob Haviland (253/20/65) couldn't hit with the likes of Fairfax... On the hill, it was a different story... the Zorros notched a sensational 3.27 team ERA (2nd) and were headed by Tommy Wrightman (19-12 2.67), Hal Neyland (19-8 3.08) and Elio Laurente (15-13 3.15)... in the bullpen Connie Jahnke (5-6 2.11) was one tough customer with 29 saves to his credit.

Zim Donner had another good ballclub in Hartsdale... the fourth-place Hellcats just happened to be in the wrong division... Donner's team is well-balanced at the plate, on the mound and in the field... They batted .270 (6th) with 185 roundtrippers (2nd), compiled a 3.71 ERA (15th) and were tied for best fielding percentage at .977... Hartsdale was 9 games behind in the pennant chase... the Hellcats best hurlers were Nico Carnera (21-15 3.78), Matt DeRosa (19-15 3.46) and Rip Arnold (17-14 3.56)... in the batter's box leading the way were 1B Tom Brabant (.325/38/118/94), 3B Kendry Moulton (.300/32/100/91), 2B Jud Turchin (.304/25/74/96) and RF Mac Faulkner (.295/22/69/87).

The fifth-place White River Rascals pitched well with a 3.50 team ERA and were decent with a .256 BA (20th) and 150 homers (12th)... but they had trouble putting runs on the scoreboard... John Randison's Rascals ranked 20th in runs scored... his best bats were SS Riley Cloy with 32 home runs, 98 RBIs and 91 runs, but he batted only .244... and RF Joey Jarrett, who hit .274 with 16 home runs, 105 runs and 69 runs batted in... White River's pitching corps featured three good ones in starters Brian Charles (19-11 3.20), Mick Cronyn (19-15 3.38) and Lance Logan (4-5 2.52), who was the closer most of the season, but was switched to a starting role in the last few weeks of the season... Logan saved 25 games.

The Mahaska Haymakers made serious runs at the TU North title in three of the last five years, guided by Rusty Tanussa, but not this year as they fell down to sixth in the standings and 14 games out... Like most of the division teams, the Haymakers hitting did them in... they batted only .254 (22nd), hit 139 home runs (22nd) and were ranked 24th in runs scored... however, Mahaska had a good mound staff, paced by 39-year-old Johnny Spears with a 15-15 mark and a 3.56 ERA... Johnny Picou was also solid with a 3.31 ERA, but went 15-18 in the won-loss department... Tanussa only had one reliable bat and that was 40-year-old 3B Domingo Rios, who hammered 26 homers, drove in 97 and scored 82 times.

2011 was a big letdown for skipper Campy Roy of the Oxford Red Caps... for the first time in the club's 10-year history they failed to finish in the TU North's top four teams, coming in seventh and trailing by 19 games... The Red Caps hit 161 homers (8th), but were only average in other categories and mediocre in pitching with a 4.10 team ERA (24th)... top performers were pitchers Del Anderson (15-12 3.59) and closer Ronnie D'Abo (4-4 2.86), who chalked up 29 saves... 39-year-old 3B Cameron Kamara (.319/31/107/95) continued to sparkle at the plate and he got a little help from 2B Carl Graeme (.276/21/91).

To show the strength of the TU North, even last place North Hills had quality pitching with a 3.84 team ERA (18th), but Hub Carlson's batting order could only manage a very poor .242 mark (30th) with 118 home runs (28th - tied) and were rated 28th in scoring... The Hawks ended up in the cellar, 20 games back... Ben Dewberry (15-9 2.51) had a strong season on the hill and closer Ken Wright (5-8 3.10) picked up 29 saves... North Hills best bats belonged to 1B Masaichi Okawa (.277/32/108/87), who put up one of his better seasons at age 37... RF Ron Landauer (.307/16/53/78) did well, too.