[Eugene Church]

THE ISLANDIAN TIMES
Tuesday, September 22, 2043

SUN SOX REPEAT IN TIGHT TU SOUTH
The Southport Sun Sox were repeat winners in the Tycobbian South Division this season, but it was a whole lot tougher than 2042. The Sun Sox rang up an IPA-high 100 victories last year and cruised to the title, but not this year. Southport had to battle tooth-and-nail this year with the San Alejo Montaneros and the Summerland Sunsets the entire season to secure the division flag. In a down-to-wire race the Sun Sox edged the Montaneros by one game and the Sunsets by two games. Fourth place went to Cape Coral, who trailed by 11 games.

1. Southport: the Sun Sox have only made four appearances in the Pro Cup playoffs in history... they have won the TU South for the last two seasons and are set to win their first-ever Pro Cup this year... they were the favorite last year, but got knocked off in first-round action... Southport is getting a lot of support to take it all this year... strong bats with excellent power and rock-solid pitching make them quite formidable in the postseason... All-Star 3B Craig Glennon (.290/51/127/104) had a fantastic year and paced the IPA with 51 HRs and 127 RBIs... 1B Eddy Douglas (.309/32/97/90) was another big bat, along with 2B James Long, who slugged 33 out of the park, drove in 84 runs and scored 88, but batted a sparse .255... CF Barney Lewis also chipped in with 24 roundtrippers, 73 RBIs and 75 runs, while batting .273... other dependable bats were C Vasilis Vlachos (.279/17/79/67) and SS Gonzalo Topez (.306/10/58/70)... on the hill it was ace Billy Hoover (27-11/2.83), who led the IPA for the second time in victories with 27... he won 26 last year... Johnny Swanson (18-16/3.02) and Gordon Forbes (17-10/3.79) also contributed good seasons... leading the strong bullpen were Hal Combs (4-6/2.78/13 saves) and Wayne Stewart (4-2/3.00/7 saves).

2. San Alejo: the Monties have run near the top of the division for the last dozen years, winning four pennants and one Pro Cup in 2032... but it's been six years since the last division title... they came very close this year, falling just one game short... in the IPA San Alejo ran second to Crystal Lake (RU South) in scoring runs... coupled with fairly good pitching, they ranked fourth in victories with 91... only North Hills (93), Southport (92) and Ruthlandia's Volusia (92) were better... the Montaneros batted .275 (5th), scored 832 runs (1st in the TU, 2nd in the IPA) and hit 182 HRs (9th) with a 3.62 ERA (7th)... 24-year-old standout RF Paolo Teixeira made the All-Star team, batted .312 and ranked fifth in the TU with 45 HRs and 122 RBIs... veteran star and All-Star C Filipe Zamora (.303/28/119/92) delivered another fine season at age 33... 2B Sal McAllister (.313/3/56/100) played very well offensively and defensively... LF Charlie Wilberforce (.283/18/78/88), 1B Bubby Blackwell (.308/6/60/58), CF Andrew Hicks (.317/17/49/77) and 3B Sancho Cruz (.256/18/68/69) were dependable bats as well... Matt Bell (21-10/2.82) and Will McKinney (21-11/3.60) were the top starters... Tommy Smith (17-14/4.29) and Benny Buckmaster (16-12/4.30) did their parts, too... the bullpen was a good one, too, led by Maxie Richter (6-5/2.03/11 saves).

3. Summerland: for the ninth time in 10 seasons the Sunsets finished in the top four of the TU South... they won pennants in 2040 and 2032, but haven't yet claimed a Pro Cup... Summerland was fourth last year (13 GB) and improved to a very close third, just two games back of leading Southport... the Sunset staff led the entire IPA, setting a new standard with a remarkable 2.65 team ERA... the old record was set by Crystal Lake of the Ruthlandian South in 2022... the super starters were All-Star Jayson Hallstrom (.20-14/2.37), Dutch De Boer (18-8/2.23), Billy King (20-18/3.00) and All-Star Kyle Shepard (17-13/3.07)... De Boer posted the best ERA in the IPA this year with a fine 2.23... the bullpen (2.03 ERA-1st) was even better than the starters, paced by Jacob Gillen (8-5/1.68/14 saves)... Summerland played good defense with a .976 FA, but really suffered at the plate with terrible hitting, ranking near the bottom in all categories... 1B Stan Terry led the club with 24 HRs, 73 RBIs and 89 runs, but batted just .248... the club leader in BA was LF Tony Vargas (.294/8/55/68), followed by RF Antonio Vasquez (.293/5/65/68) and CF Benny Pierce (.283/13/56/84)... what a shame - the great season wasted because of lousy hitting.

4. Cape Coral: the Hurricanes won the pennant just two years ago, fell to third (11 GB) in 2042 and slipped to fourth (11 GB) this season... they have made the postseason on eight occasions, but never came away with a Pro Cup... the 'Canes still have a strong attack, but have mediocre pitching... they possess a strong core of hitters in star RF William Snyder (.325/26/100/84), All-Star LF, 2042 Tycobbian MVP and Gold Bat winner Rikky Van Dalen (.304/24/84/117), 2B Kent Mantle (.311/27/92/84), 1B Stan Ferguson (.292/37/114/79) and CF Maxi Tselika (.284/20/65/101)... Benton McCall (21-12/3.51) and Stacy Boyle (16-13/3.92) topped the twirlers... at 36 ace Tommy Van Noord (14-16/3.52) suffered a losing season... young 25-year-old Pete Collins (4-4/2.92/16 saves) did a nice job as closer.

5. Arroyo Grande: for the ninth consecutive season the Suns wound up in the TU South second division, but they had a winning record at 78-76 (14 GB )... last year they were 79-75 (21 GB) in the sixth spot in the standings... the Suns have been a playoff team just four times... the most recent was 2023... they have never won a Pro Cup trophy... top pitchers were Enrique Lopez (18-11/3.35) and Fernando Campos (14-14/3.96)... Dwayne McMahon (14-19/3.38) had a better year than his record showed... Russ Simmons (5-4/2.89/10 saves) and Duane Russell (2-3/1.58/3 saves) were the best in the bullpen... the Suns didn't have much in the way of bats in the line-up... CF Kenny Wade (.304/18/46/52) had the best BA with .302... RF Gregorio Oliviera (.234/22/65/55) led the club with 22 HRs... 3B Antoine Masson (.245/15/76/59) topped the team with 76 RBIs and 1B Matt Moore (.275/19/70/88) was the leader with 88 runs.

6. Ginza: the Ninjas haven't made the postseason since 2031 and they have never won a Pro Cup... however Ginza did have a shot at one, but was swept by Volusia in the first Pro Cup Finals in 2001... the Ninjas improved a little this year, going from the cellar (28 GB) to sixth (17 GB)... they hung with the big boys in the early going with a 31-21 mark, good for a third-place tie with Summerland, just two games behind Southport (33-19) and a game back of San Alejo (32-20), but the Suns soon faded in the second half of the season... only Julian Bass (19-10/4.23) and Carlos Del Toro (10-9/4.72) had winning records among the starters... Timmy Hickens (4-8/3.06/27 saves) had an up-and-down season, but tied La Claire's Terry Baird for first place in the IPA with 27 saves... the only reliable threats at the plate were star SS Sam Essex (.284/33/106/69) and superstar All-Star CF Sogo Takagi (.287/29/85/108).

7. Colchester: for the seventh year in a row the Elites been stuck in the second division... the club has made the playoffs only four times with no Pro Cups in its history... Colchester was seventh last year (23 GB) and the same this year... the only fairly effective starter was Dave Lacoste (13-15/3.73)... the only good reliever was Robby Rice (4-4/2.57/7 saves... super slugger RF Blake Barrister sparked the team with 44 homers, good for eighth place in the IPA... Barrister added 113 RBIs and scored 91 runs, but batted a puny .232... in his nine years in the IPA the 30-year-old Barrister has hit 401 HRs with a .274 BA... 2B Jasper Matthews had 26 HRs with 81 RBIs, 80 runs and a .262 BA... 3B Joey Rogers (.281/7/71/78) led the team with a .281 BA, followed by LF Chet Porter (.277/13/70/82) with a .277 mark.

8. Turon: 2043 was not a good year for the proud Typhoons, who have made 15 appearances in the the playoffs, winning a record four Pro Cups in six tries and 13 pennants... for the second time in history they came in dead last in the TU South... it hadn't happened since 2029... they had a winning 80-74 record in 2042, but came in fifth (20 GB)... this season Turon tumbled to 67-87 (25 GB)... basically the pitching went to heck, rising up from 3.84 to 4.35 ERA... starters All-Star Nate Scottsdale (20-14/3/12) was the only effective starter with a little help from Clyde Engstrom (12-15/3.83)... along with veteran closer Ralph Fulton (3-5/2.45/12 saves) in the pen... All-Star SS Rafer Robertson (.294/38/125/98) and All-Star 1B Nick Fisher (.286/24/104/86) posted good numbers... CF Guido Gervasio hit well with a club best .316, but only had 11 HRs, 66 RBIs and 75 runs... 2B C. C. Kingsford (.301/15/78/70) and LF J. P. Trevenot (.283/21/69/72) also had sub-par seasons.