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The Islandian Times
Thursday, September 21, 2017
2017 Ruthlandian North Final Recap
Valmara Victor In RU North, Ancona 2nd, Favored Far Mountain 3rd
In a jolting turn of events, Valmara rose up from the dregs of the Ruthlandian North to take its first flag in 12 years. The Vipers under the leadership of new manager Jet Kazmarek climbed up from 7th place with the strong pitching of 34-year-old rookie Tad Janicki (20-14), vet Vanya Vasylenko (20-11) and Kolya Romanov (17-17) and closer Frank Fanuzzo (5-6), who racked up 24 saves. Valmara held back second-place Ancona by 3 games and last year's winner Far Mountain by 4 games. Kilkenny and Taranto wound up tied for fourth and trailed by 6.
At the plate the Vipers (84-70) were paced by rookie 1B Tyler Ferguson (.305/9 HR)), RF Lou Gdowski (.305/12 HR) and LF Stan Czerwinski (.281/7 HR).
The runner-up Ancona Red Elephants (81-73) with Manny Mickens at the helm, jumped up from 6th place with the help of Clete Dukas (22-13) and relief ace John Sharpe (1-5), who registered 30 saves and a 2.42 ERA... LF Kenny Willard (.335) led the bats with 32 homers and 119 RBIs.
Far Mountain (80-74), which has dominated the RU North scene for the last nine years is showing signs of age and dipped to a third-place tie with Kilkenny... manager Alex Groveland only had two quality starters: Woody Crawford (18-15) and Bryan Frazier (17-14)... at 41 Robby Kelly (6-8) slumped badly this season and was relegated to the bullpen... SS Don Nichols (.340/24 HR) had a brilliant season and led the offense, along with RF Jonas Boehm (.292/13 HR)), 3B Mackie McAllister (.273/25 HR) and newcomer Tony Tanaka (.272/18), obtained in a trade in July from Colfax.
The Kilkenny Cats (80-74) were just 4 games back... Kieran McKenna's Cats had two solid starters in Justin Eckhardt (16-10) and Kyle Ferguson (22-11)... 23-year-old rookie Doug Foster (2-2) did well as the closer with 21 saves and a 2.23 ERA... CF Kevin McPhail prospered this year with a .312 average, 9 homers and 90 RBIs.
If you could win with bats alone, fifth-place Taranto (78-76) would have taken the crown easily with its .279 BA (2nd), 913 runs (1st) and 224 HR (1st), but you need some pitching to go along with it... poor Tommaso Lazzorda didn't have it this season... the team ERA was a whopping 4.86 (32nd), last in the RU... the Tars best twirler was Anthony Zinacola (19-10 4.80)... but Taranto had the offense, sparked by SS Aron Aiello (.327/16 HR), RF Augie Marshall (.301/37 HR) and LF Arnie Kennedy (.305/31 HR), 3B Wayne Pounders (.272/35 HR) and 2B Eddy Miles (.291/18 HR)... Miles easily led the RU with 140 runs scored.
The sixth-place Glasco Athletics (73-81) finished 11 games out in the race under new skipper Ike Plunkett... his top performers were Davy McAdams (12-9 3.74) and LF Tony Piel (.321/14 HR).
In seventh place 15 games behind were the Ranford Bulls (72-82), guided by new manager Rick Fargnoli... the Bulls did not hit much at all with a .248 BA (30th) and only had average pitching with a 3.82 team ERA (15th)... Leading the staff were starter Archie Young (10-6 2.62) and closer Neil Walton (5-4 2.61), who logged 23 saves...both of them are 27... 3B Vic Scalzi is a fine ballplayer... Scalzi batted .313, hit 28 roundtrippers and drove in 94 runs.
The LaGrange Sports (66-88) got a new skipper, but it didn't make much difference...Otto Kronvath ended up in the cellar, 18 games off the pace... Denny Kristensen (19-16 4.12) was the best pitcher, while future HOF-er LF Quincy Peterson is still posting impressive numbers at age 40 and 17 seasons in the IPA... Peterson hit .291 with 31 home runs, 94 RBIs and scored 91 times.
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