[Eugene Church]

THE ISLANDIAN TIMES
Tuesday, June 19, 2035

San Alejo Blowout In TU South
The San Alejo Montaneros are blowing through the Tycobbian South like a hurricane, demolishing all opposition at the halfway mark of the season... the Monties lead the IPA with 51 victories, good enough to be 11 games in front of the runner-up Turon Typhoons and Colchester Elites... Arroyo Grande is in the fourth spot in the standings to round out the first division... topping the TU South second division are the Summerland Sunsets in fifth place, 14 games back... Cape Coral is 18 games out and in sixth... followed by seventh-place Southport, 21 games behind, and Ginza in last place, trailing by 23... San Alejo is the defending champion and appears to be headed for its third pennant in the last four seasons.

San Alejo has magnificent pitching with a 2.66 team ERA (1st), the best in the IPA... All-Star Johnny Brown (14-3/2.06) tops the rotation, but has plenty of help from All-Star Clete Lawson (11-7/2.84), Tommy Smith (9-5/2.61) and Ollie Olivares (5-1/2.05/4 saves)... All-Star closer Frank Jankowski (2-1/1.16/7 saves) is the bullpen leader... the Montaneros don't hit for much average, but they can hit with power and score well... 30-year-old All-Star RF Gilberto Duarte (.332/21/62/46) has really burst on the scene and carried the club with some help from CF Dusty Rogan (.282/11/43/33), C Steve Daniels (.247/18/36/39) and 32-year-old rookie SS Sancho Cruz (.253/11/33/33)... the Montaneros are primed for another run at the Pro Cup... they won it in 2032 and forced IPA champ North Hills to seven games last season in the first round.

Turon has some impressive pitching, too, but not quite on par with San Alejo... Victor Suarez (9-6/3.36), Jonathon Pitri (7-2/3.61), Wes Brynnton (8-7/2.53) and Armin Boehm (5-9/3.38) are an above-average starting rotation... the Typhoons are strong in the bullpen, too, led by Ralph Fulton (4-2/2.13/9 saves)... at the plate Turon is solid with C Clyde Willis (.292/9/39/35), SS Fred Bird (.283/2/31/43), 1B Steve Burns (.324/4/29/23) and rookie 2B Little Mac McCurnan (.286/8/21/260, the son of former Typhoon great CF and Hall-of-Famer Mac McCurnan.

Tied for second with Turon, Colchester is better-than-average on the mound and at the plate... Roy Watson (7-3/2.51) and Dave Lacoste (9-6/3.16) are the best starters... and Kim Kono (2-0/1.02/1 save) and Kevin Nixon (3-1/2.94) are the top relievers... Colchester's top guns are All-Star SS Joey Rogers (.333/1/22/50), star LF Jim Lewellen (.238/19/67/35), 33-year-old free agent from Volusia (RU) Sonny Oliver (.320/12/30/30), 3B Billy Christianson (.277/9/33/38), RF Blake Barrister (.254/14/36/44), 2B Jackie Jackson (.264/2/32/34) and 1B Jamie Scott (.302/1/24/26).

Fourth-place Arroyo Grande is an average club, but not on the same level as the three teams above them in the standings... best performers are starters Monty Stratford (11-5/3.92) and Blue Lake (TU) free agent 29-year-old Derek Joubert (6-5/3.08), along with bullpen ace John Nelson (4-1/1.27/9 saves)... the Suns have decent power in the lineup with 2B Frank Marcello (.277/13/34/32), 21-year-old rookie LF Rene Jesclard (.260/13/30/34) and 1B Wesley Cox (.280/9/28/34).

Fifth-place Summerland has quality pitching, but little in the way of offense... Don French (8-6/2.91) Terry Johnson (6-5/3.55) are the most effective starters, while Ronald Shaddock (6-4/2.92/10 saves) is the class of the bullpen, along with John Young (3-2/2.08/1 save)... the Sunsets are last in scoring in the Tycobbian Union... CF Antonio Vasquez (.260/3/26/33) and 3B Cy Akins (.255/5/24/29) sadly are the top batters... Summerland just doesn't have much talent in the batter's box.

The Cape Coral Hurricanes won the Pro Cup in 2030, but it's been disasterous since with nothing but second-division finishes, the last three years in the cellar... this year the 'Canes are in sixth place, a slight improvement... the pitching is much better relatively speaking, going from a horrific 5.07 to 4.19... Tommy Van Noord (10-6/2.81) has been excellent, but hasn't had much help... offensively the Hurricanes do their job well, sparked by gifted 21-year-old All-Star RF William Snyder (.316/19/56/46), 33-year-old rookie CF Paul Law (.263/14/32/52), 3B Joel Collins (.279/3/30/37) and SS Jeff Lang (.286/5/32/26).

Seventh-place Southport doesn't have much to boast about... they Sun Sox don't shine very much anywhere... they are average on the hill and near the bottom with the bats... Chip Bickford (6-6/4.02) has been the most dependable starter... rookie reliever Ruben Ekker (3-0/0.61), who has done very well in the bullpen in 16 appearances, will now get his chance as the number four starter... it's a tough season for veterans Don Pascioni (4-11/4.11), Wiley Wheeler (6-10/4/13) and Ronnie Galus (3-8/3.27)... Pascioni was a 20-game winner last year for the third-place Sun Sox... there's very little to speak of in the batting order... the best of the very poor lot are RF Cody Dougherty (.269/10/20/27), 2B Jesse Clayton (.258/7/31/27) and LF Lenny Roberson (.305/7/20/31).

The Ginza Ninjas were bad last year and they are almost as bad this year... the Ninjas are eighth and last in the TU South, ranking just as bad in hitting and pitching... only veteran Hollis Pace (5-9/2.99) has been effective on the mound, but get very little run support... only rookie 3B Jiro Yamamura (.292/5/25/44) and 10-year veteran LF Sadaharu Uchiyama (.284/4/33/23) have decent batting averages... Ginza is one of the worst teams in the IPA and the future is not very bright.

Tycobbian South Forecast: should we go out on the proverbial limb and pick San Alejo to cop the flag? I think so... for second place we give Turon a slight edge over Colchester... the Typhoons starting foursome might be better than the Elites rotation... Arroyo Grande looks to be the best of the rest and should hold on to the fourth spot in the standings... Cape Coral gets the call for fifth place... the 'Canes have more scoring power than Summerland (6th), Southport (7th) and Ginza (8th).