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The Islandian Times
Monday, September 17, 2018
2018 Ruthlandian West Final Recap
RR Snappers Roll To 2nd Straight RU West Crown
For the second successive season the Rocky Rapids Snappers have captured the Ruthlandian West pennant by a fairly-wide margin... the Snappers easily won the title by 9 games over Forest City and Sligo... fourth place went to Fort Benton, who were 14 games back... resurgent Middlefield claimed fifth with its best season in years... the Roosters were 14 games behind... Volusia experienced its worst season in its history - sixth place and 18 games off the pace... it was another tough year for Colfax, which came in seventh, trailing by 21... and Stoner dropped back into its also-ran past with a last-place finish, 25 games behind winning Rocky Rapids.
Rocky Rapids won 94 games under manager Ryan Noland and is headed for a showdown with the defending IPA champion Eastshore Elegants in the RU Elite 8 Series... the Snappers were swept last season in the first round and are itching to redeem themselves... and they may just do it... Noland has a splendid ball club with outstanding hitting (1st) and pitching (3rd), near the top in both categories... Rocky Rapids ranks 4th in scoring and 8th in homers... Noland has three superb starters... the ace is his son, Junior Noland (23-10 2.57), along with Joe Anderson (21-13 2.62) and Don Chaney (18-15 3.12)... Milt Baker (4-3) stood out in the bullpen with 35 saves and a 2.22 ERA... Baker tied for the most saves in the IPA... at the plate the Snappers have good punch with fine 3B Paul Shelton (.277/37/139/99), legendary C Hank Bethel (.323/15/92/75), LF Rob Barton (.322/13/69/104) and 14-year veteran CF Carl Johnson (.291/24/72/96)... it's doubtful Eastshore will sweep the Snappers this year... many scribes say Noland has the best all-around team in the IPA.
The Sligo Rovers and Forest City Lumberjacks moved up in the standings this season on the strength of better pitching... the Rovers moved up from 5th to a tie for 2nd, while the Lumberjacks climbed from 7th to 2nd... Sligo was led on the hill by Les Patterson (21-12 2.32) and Ralph Odakota (15-8 3.29)... offensively it was 3B Manny Alou (.291/38/125/105) and SS Vic Carlin (.261/31/113/100) leading the way.
Rob Jackson at Forest City had three quality arms... Tommy Zenon (22-7 2.64) sparked the team with a great season and had help from starters Ricky Hoffman (17-14 3.43) and Paul Crews (12-7 3.82), along with a solid closer in Andy Velasco (5-4), who compiled an astronomically-low 0.87 ERA and posted 34 saves... the Lumberjacks only offensive force was 14-year star LF Joe Judlin with 41 homers, 94 RBIs, 105 runs scored and a .315 batting average.
Smitty Michaels got massive improvement in his Middlefield Roosters as they rose up from the cellar to fifth place... good pitching did wonders for the Roosters... Joe Schneider (22-8 2.19) had an outstanding sophomore year and led the RU in ERA, which is remarkable considering how small Middlefield Park is... Frank Dean also contributed a 19-15 record with a solid 3.52 ERA in a hitter's paradise... Middlefield didn't do it all with pitching, it still is blessed with some fine batsmen like RF Vic Ivarsson (.332/33/104/1-2), CF Chuck Larkin (.304/49/113/104), 3B Stu Butterworth (.285/39/94/80) and SS Jim Rose (.286/29/71/117)... a better foursome would be hard to find in the IPA... The Roosters led the RU with 214 homers... Larkin tied Jack Elliott of High Mesa for the home-run lead in the IPA this season... they each belted 49 out of the park.
It was a tough year for manager Alfonso Feliz, who saw his proud Volusia Vigilantes endure the worst season in its history... the V's fell to sixth place, the lowest the team has ever been... Volusia no longer has standout pitching... Sixto Moreno (15-10 3.69) and vet Gerry Hersh (16-17 3.30) are Feliz's best moundsmen... Volusia's terrific young CF Joe DeLucca (.338/30/114/103) continued to assault RU pitchers... fine C Ismael Gomez chipped in with a .316 BA, 27 roundtrippers, 77 RBIs and scored 100 times in his second year in the league.
Clem Rogers at Colfax has seen his once-unrivaled staff fall into disrepute... consequently the Blasters have wound up near the bottom for the second straight year, dropping from 6th to 7th this season... However, Colfax still had a pair of solid hurlers.. 16-year vet and all-time IPA great Ilya Szabo was 17-13 with an impressive 2.53 ERA at age 39... Szabo is 285-160 in his career... young Cliff James is still a fine pitcher despite his 14-17 mark this year... James posted a solid 3.19 ERA... he just needs better run support... Colfax rank near the bottom in scoring with a .249 BA... top hitters are 26-year-old LF Billy Garrett, who blossomed with 32 homers and 89 RBIs after being traded from Kilkenny, and vet C Joe Alexander with 29 home runs and 88 RBIs.
Benny Stern didn't do well as he did with a fourth-place finish in 2017... his Stoner Stars plunged into the cellar this year... the Stars are not much offensively, but do possess some quality hurlers... Stern's best are Billy Chapel (18-15 3.74), Don Patterson (15-18 3.61) and Charley Norton (17-20 2.55)... Norton was a workhorse the entire season and suffered greatly from a lack of runs... LF Mike Jaffe (.306/28/105/96) is a fine young hitter, who put up good numbers for the sixth year in a row... the 24-year-old Jaffe is a lifetime .326 hitter... 19-year-old C Rob Stern, following in the footsteps of his father, batted .336 in his second season with 7 homers, 47 RBIs and scored 79 runs... good things are expected from the younger Stern in the coming seasons.
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