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The Islandian Times
Tuesday, September 17, 2019
2019 Tycobbian West Final Recap
RH Reds Rise To The Top, TU West Winner
The Rolling Hills Reds rode superior pitching from fifth place in 2018 to the Tycobbian West title this season... the Reds whipped runner-up Bayview by 5 games, Arlon by 11 and Denton City by 18... after a close 7-team race in the first half of the season, only the Vikings could stay near Rolling Hills... the rest of the pretenders faded quickly in the last half of the year.
Pennant-winning Rolling Hills featured outstanding pitching with starters Sal Jordan (19-9 2.15), rookie Errol Gaudet (18-10 2.29) and James Elliott (21-13 3.27), combined with excellent relievers, led by closer Barney Kearns (4-6), who collected 32 saves and had a terrific 2.17 ERA... top to bottom in his rotation Matty Christianson has a wealth of fine moundsmen... and the Reds have just enough offense to get by... top bats are LF Donnie Lewis (.321/16/87/107) and 3B Clay Hoffman (.306/27/97).
A bad May and June cost the second-place Bayview Vikings the pennant... manager Walter Johanssen's club played under .500 in those months, but rallied in the second half of the year by playing well above .600 baseball... Harald Turi (21-13 2.02) was the ace of the staff and tied for the TU lead in ERA... Rick Pritchard (18-11 2.77) posted a fine season and Don Griggs (17-14 3.78) was a solid number three starter... the Vikings need a better closer and some improvement in the relief corps... offensively LF Davey Krueger (.285/35/95/108), 1B Stan Haddix (.334/23/107/85) and SS Tommy Shore (.317/15/86/94) got the runs the Viks needed.
The Arlon Champions were third in the pennant chase, but not really a challenger after mid-year... the Champs ended up 11 games behind Rolling Hills... skipper Gary Louis had fair starters and the best bullpen in the TU... closer Ross Birchford (9-2) led the relievers with a splendid 1.70 ERA... Birchford chalked up 12 saves and setup man Johnny Rabelais (3-2 2.72) had 17... Armando Cruz (22-11 3.26) was Louis' ace... at the plate two players carried the Champs... LF Rocco Belasario (.340/34/98/113) and CF Chucky Gilton (.268/23/108/88) provided most of the offense.
Ford Whiteman saw some improvement in his Denton City Redbirds... they climbed up to fourth in the standings after spending the previous three seasons in the basement, but still did not finish above .500... all-time IPA great Mila Mohoski (16-12 2.93) and Tommy Price (18-9 3.67) led the way... Mohoski is 40 and Price 37... the Redbirds had to do it all with pitching as they came up short when it came to offense... CF Todd Bryant (.271/25/96/93) and C Pete Gibbs (.286/17/77) were the most reliable bats.
Fifth-place Kenwood wound up 19 games out of first... Aaron Hankins' has pitiful hitting (29th) and scoring (31st) and just fairly good pitching... Sammy Shaw (17-16 3.30), Connie Gavagan (13-16 3.24) and Roger Murray (12-11 3.01) give the Wildcats a good trio of starters... closer Jody Gentry (3-4) saved 26 games with a strong 2.30 ERA... RF Marty Nuxhall led Kenwood with a .282 BA and 13 homers... CF Vince Palmer led the club with 67 runs batted in, but hit only .240 for average... as a team the Wildcats hit only .235.
The sixth-place LaClaire Lynx were 21 games behind champ Rolling Hills... manager Rip Calkin relied on firepower with 161 homers (5th) and ranked fifth in scoring... but he had bad pitching... 23-year-old Don Schmidt was Calkin's only capable starter with a 17-13 mark and a 3.53 ERA... star RF Zeppy Deshotel (.330/22/85/97) and talented 3B Flash Devlin (.320/39/111/115) were LaClaire's only big bats.
What a fall from grace!... the Bay St. Clair Buccaneers had won the TU West flag two of the last three years... however, this season the Bucs almost went from first to worst, placing seventh and 23 games off the pace... Guy Rondre's pitching went into the pits in just one year... the starting rotation rated 31st with a 4.48 team ERA... Hal Meissner was the best he had with a 15-13 record and lofty 4.68 ERA... at the plate CF Bill Howell (.322/1/59/88) and RF Justin Kucks (.299/25/73/81) put up the best numbers.
Last place went to the Chicopee Braves, 24 games out... manager Harry Fleetfoot had little to smile about this season... Tommy Ruffin (16-11 3.41) was his only winning starter and Tom Greenwood pitched extremely well as the closer... Greenwood was 6-4 with a superb 1.44 ERA and 24 saves... 1B Rob Pearson paced the Braves with 21 roundtrippers and 86 RBIs, but batted only .248... SS Austin Hardy had 15 home runs, 77 RBIs and a .273 BA.
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