[Eugene Church]

THE ISLANDIAN TIMES
Monday, September 22, 2031

2031 Ruthlandian South Final Recap

SD Rancheros Romp In RU South
The San Dimas Rancheros won the Ruthlandian South for only the second time in history. The last year they took the division pennant was way back in 2008. This season the Rancheros pulled away in the second half and won comfortably by 7 games over second place St. John. Third place went to the Grand City Cybercats and the Belair Beach Sunbirds, who were 9 games off the pace. The Cybercats were the RU South titlist last year.

Manager Wesley Pate guided division champ San Dimas (93-61) up from fourth in 2030 with standout mound work from Jay Barajas (23-10/2.68), Joaquin Lima (22-14/3.10) and Miguel Valdes (17-11/2.99) with quality help from Shannon White (13-10/3.47) and closer Hector Villa (5-6/2.24/25 saves)... Villa topped the RU with 25 saves... Pate only had an average offense (17th) with little power (32nd)... 2B Joey Harris (.314/10/76/81) was the team's top batter, followed by SS Cloyd Middleton (.299/3/58/67), 3B Gregg Mathis (.291/9/55/73) and CF Ramon Escobar (.279/10/76/88)... San Dimas was tied with St. John defensively with .977 FAs, ranked second in the RU.

The number two club was the St. John Crusaders (86-68) that rose up from fifth to second under the leadership of skipper Clayton Luck... the Crusaders hit well and scored well with a .273 BA and 711 runs (7th-tied), but possessed average pitchers with a 3.60 team ERA... the leader at the plate was SS Byron Johannsen (.327/10/86/91)... LF Joey Daigrepont provided 17 homers and 78 RBIs, while batting .268... 1B Johnny Zahn in a platoon role hit .347 with 5 homers and 48 RBIs... other quality bats were CF Brad Maddox (.277/2/56/77) and 3B Norm Murdoch (.292/3/72/66)... on the hill the threesome of Russell Larsen (24-13/3.11), Don Baillie (18-12/3.29) and Kazuki Hara (13-5/3.34) were prime starters.

Last year's flag winner Grand City (84-70) had firepower with 176 roundtrippers (3rd), but was just average with a .262 BA and 3.51 ERA... the sluggers were LF Wes Marlowe (.268/42/111/89), 1B Mick Langston (.321/30/89/84), CF Thomas Hall (.297/25/88/75) and RF Tyler LaFontaine (.289/23/77/77)... C Jumbo Carver (.316/6/55/84) also chipped in with some offense... Charley Chisholm (20-13/3.99) was the club's biggest winner... manager Wade Joslin also had 40-year-old Les Patterson (18-16/2.73) in his rotation... Patterson was picked up in a trade with Sligo... Quintin Tyler (18-14/3.52) and Sammy Cagle (12-9/3.99) were also dependable starters... Cagle missed 6 weeks with back problems.

For the first time in 5 years the Belair Beach Sunbirds (84-70) made the RU South first division, tying for fourth place, 9 games out of first... Jake Bungarooba's Sunbirds blossomed and climbed out of the cellar with a solid attack and fairly good pitching... Belair Beach batted .271 (10th), ranking fifth in runs and 13th in homers with 132... on the hill the team put up a 3.74 team ERA (20th)... star 1B Kees Draeger (.301/25/92/73) sparked the club offensively with help from 2B Edmund Derksen (.283/7/51/105), 3B James Cline (.296/14/79/81) and LF Rico Caballero (.310/3/60/71)... in the pitching depart Joel Gregg (15-9/3.22) stood out... the other starters were Jaime Pedroza (16-13/4.02) and Casey Grimm (18-13/4.14).

The Waleska Westerners (82-72) missed out on the first division for the first time in 10 years by coming in fifth, trailing by 11 games... IPA icon RF Roy Hobbs slowed down considerably at age 38 and played only parttime... nonetheless he hit .305 with 8 homers and 37 RBIs... Hobbs is a lifetime .345 hitter with 594 home runs and has passed the 2000 mark in runs and RBIs... rumor has it that longtime skipper McGraw Johnson may step down this year and Hobbs might replace him... Waleska dropped off at the plate and also on the mound this year... but LF Loco Dillinger (.333/43/114/114) still swings a mean bat and led the RU in homers and was ranked high in RBIs and runs scored... 1B Glenn Childress (.300/14/80/97), 3B Pawnee Cody (.304/16/73/53) and 2B Doug Melton (.306/5/64/67) were also productive for the Westerners... mound stalwarts Wild Bill Butler (13-10/3.13) and Terry Richards (16-13/3.32) were down a bit... last year they totaled 20 victories each... Eric Mayes lent a hand with a 14-11 mark and a 3.46 ERA... the bullpen was down as well... Jarred Laclair (11-9/3.79/17 saves) saw his ERA shoot up from 2.40 the previous year.

The Valka Blackhawks (78-76) faded in the second half and slumped to sixth place in the standings... manager Ron Landauer's squad finished 15 games back of San Dimas... they were within 3 games of the first place Rancheros at the All-Star break... Kristo Kivi (15-10/3.23) led the mound staff, while at the plate 3B Leevi Viru (.306/18/90/85) and 1B Mikk Kukk (.314/21/87/89) were the leaders.

The Claxton Diamonds (77-77) broke even for the year, yet wound up seventh in the competitive RU South and 16 games behind the division champion... just an average club, Claxton's best performers were Frddi Hahn (17-17/2.57), 1B Brad Jenkins (.327/10/65/63), 2B Gary Colton (.287/15/73/83) and RF Ivan Krause (.271/21/70/70).

It was not a good year for Baby George in Crystal Lake (69-85) where the Crushers had their worst season since 2016... George had a good run with 6 pennants in the last 11 years, but not this season... hitting was down from .287 to .270 (13th) and pitching was mediocre with a 3.97 team ERA (25th)... only 1B Josh George (.270/21/90/98), SS Timmy Robinson (.289/22/81/84) and LF Ryan Ray (.273/20/81/70) had respectable numbers in the lineup... ace T. D. Burnham dipped to 14-18 after winning 20 games in each of the last 2 seasons... likewise Arnie Cason had a subpar year going from 20-12 to 7-10.