[Eugene Church]

The Islandian Times

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Fairfax Back On Top In TU North
After a year's absence from atop the Tycobbian North, the Fairfax Frogs rebounded to win their second pennant in the last three years. The Frogs squandered a big lead in the final weeks of the season, but still won by a comfortable 5-game margin over second place Luxora and Mahaska and 8 games over fourth place Oxford.

Team Rankings

BA
1. HAR .266
2. FFX .265
3. MAH .261

HR
1. HAR 205
2. OXF 188
3. MAH 160

Runs
1. MAH 767
2. BL 740
3. LUX 728

ERA
1. FFX 3.33
2. LUX 3.50
3. WR 3.61

FA
1. FFX .977
1. BL .977
3. NH .976

Manager Harry Buckley's Fairfax Frogs (87-67) pretty much led start-to-finish and had things their way in 2013... The Frogs are a well-balanced ballclub with a solid core of veterans on the mound and in the batter's box... top twirlers are Ken Hill (25-13 3.09), Joe Hampton (18-13 2.97), rookie Dan Hunt (18-16 3.49) and Steve Aaron (12-12 3.20)... Toss in an excellent closer in Floyd Burnett (1-2 2.02), who had 26 saves and you have a fine staff... Superstar RF Dane Wesner again led the team and the IPA with a .368 BA... Wesner hammered 34 homers and had 106 RBIs and scored 91 times... SS Wes Hickox (.313/16/85/79) and 1B Chancey Quibedeaux (.278/17/70/106) chipped in good numbers, too.

The Luxora Zorros (82-72) and the Mahaska Haymakers (82-72) deadlocked for the runner-up spot this season... Alejandro Rodrigo had good pitching in Luxora, while Rusty Tanussa used offense in Mahaska... The Z's top pitchers were Elio Laurente (20-14 2.98), Tommy Wrightman (19-13 2.91) and Rudy De la Roca (14-11 3.37), plus super closer Connie Jahnke, who 28 saves and posted an extraordinary 1.14 ERA with a 4-3 record... top bats were RF Dickie Nordhagen (.316/13/83/112/30 SB), 3B Pablo Santa Cruz (.275/10/85/92/21 SB) and CF Bob Haviland (.263/28/101/79).

Mahaska used 160 homers to lead the TU North in scoring, led by 1B Johnny Carducci with 39 homers, 112 RBIs, 102 runs and a .284 batting average... The 39-year-old Carducci got reborn with the Haymakers as he wasted a year sitting on the bench in Turon after losing his spot in the line-up to a great rookie Clyde Kingsford in 2012... Rookie Bucky O'Brian (.303/21/87/87), SS Monte Davis (.276/14/62/105) and LF Dalton Leeds (.300/15/66/85) added punch to the Lanussa batting order... on the hill Mahaska had Yuri Dozhenko (18-9 4.02) and 41-year-old vet Johnny Spears (13-12 3.69).

The Oxford Red Caps (79-75), skippered by Campy Roy to a fourth-place finish, got off to a poor start, but ended up one of the better teams in the division by year's end... The Red Caps were 8 games off the pace... Oxford used the long ball for success with 188 overall (5th)... Roy could have used more pitching... 41-year-old 3B Cameron Kamara sparked the Red Cap batting order with 47 roundtrippers, 123 RBIs, 98 runs, while batting .311... Other contributors were LF Mack Spencer (.284/37/98/71), 2B Carl Graeme (.265/27/72/80) and 1B Eddy Dowler (.300/11/65/88)... Roy had two dependable starters in Del Anderson (19-14 3.45) and Emerson Carnell (15-14 3.97)... Rookie Rick Vaughn (13-15 3.65) shined at times and struck out 212 batters in his first year.

Heading up the second division 11 games out were Cobb Tyson's fifth place Blue Lake Blue Sox (76-78), who stumbled badly on the mound and took a sharp nosedive in the standings... Justin Eckhardt (15-14 3.51), Pete Henry (15-18 4.08) and Dan Whitfield (14-15 3.73) all had off-years this season... The Blue Sox bats put runs on the scoreboard, powered by CF Rick Hilliard (.290/24/102/88/23 SB), 2B Loren Babcock (.280/27/100/99/35 SB), C Justin Kucks (.276/24/81/61) and 1B Vic Gelder (.296/20/73/89).

Last year's titlist, the North Hill Hawks (73-81), saw their pitching crumble and plunged down to sixth place and 14 games back... Hub Carlson lost a valuable starter in Ben Dewberry, who was traded to Crystal Lake of the Ruthlandian Union... Dewberry was 19-9 this season for the Crushers... Carlson did not find a replacement for him and suffered the consequences... Lou Dozier (20-14 3.54) led the Hawks staff with some help from Fred Weidemeyer (16-15 3.75)... Ronnie Kerensky was 16-12 in 2012, but dipped to 16-19 and a 3.74 ERA this year... Offense was sorely lacking with 1B Masaichi Okawa (.258/25/84/82) and newcomer C Todd Simons (.284/11/74/71) Carlson's best bets... Simons was the only productive player obtained in the Dewberry deal.

The poor White River Rascals (72-82) continued their tradition of never making the playoffs in their 12-year IPA history, winding up seventh in the TU North and 15 games off the pace... Manager John Randison had three quality arms in his rotation with Clinton Banfield (19-13), Brian Charles (13-13 3.26) and Joe Hudson (11-12 3.29), but closer Stan Clermont failed to protect many leads for them... Clermont was only 4-10 with a high 3.44 ERA, although he did have 32 saves... Lifetime Clermont has a strong 2.78 ERA... The Rascals got a fine rookie in 1B Marty Blake, who smacked 36 homers and drove in 111 runs with a .317 BA... It was a bumper crop of freshmen this season in the IPA... Grandison only other decent hitter was LF Joey Jarrett (.270/17/62/97).

Manager Zim Donner saw his pitching trashed this season and his Hartsdale Hellcats (70-84) became clawless pussycats and plummeted to last place, an unlikely place for him... The Hellcats trailed first place Fairfax by 17 games... Last year's mound aces Rip Arnold (15-15 4.45) and Tony Lane (15-17 3.83) went downhill... Last year Arnold was 18-10 and 3.47 with Lane 21-8 and 2.80, big factors in the huge fall from third to the basement... However Donner's bunch could hit the ball hard and led the division with 205 homers (2nd) and a .266 BA (8th)... Hartsdale best hitters were its great 1B Tom Brabant (.333/42/103/88) and solid pros like 3B Kendry Moulton (.289/37/94/97), SS Jud Turchin (.281/27/90/96) and LF Mac Faulkner (.336/34/86/84).