The Gas House opened up with an early game against Pera Pedala or the Cebuana B team as they are known. After giving up three runs in the 1st Chris Angelosante pitched a gem guided the Gassers to a 14-5 victory. Ryan Callaway was 4-4 and Butterass 3-5 to pace the way at the plate.
In the afternoon the Gassers had the unenviable task of playing eventual tournament winners Tung Hwa in what turned out for them to be their closest game of the tournament! In a see saw affair (if you consider a fluctuation of a 5 to10 run lead a see saw) Tung Hwa held on for a 25-20 victory. Mike Flynn went deep twice, Darren Plested was 4-4 with 5 RBI, Darin “Snow Plow” Shelstad was 4-4 with 3 RBI and Tony Bego had several clutch hits as the Gassers actually made Tung Hwa sweat a little. The boys were optimistic though as they gave the men from Taiwan a little something to think about!
Saturday morning things started to go south for the Gas House Gang. In the first game the Fat Boyz jumped all over Fish jumping out to a 13-0 lead after 2 innings. Fish or “The Incredible Sulk” as he is now known got the hook and turned his attention to entertaining the boys! Dixon Ma, Andre Leigh and Anthony Davis all had big games to bring the Gassers back into it but still we came up short 22-12.
The afternoon game was a matchup against Cebuana. Early on the game seemed lost as Cebuana jumped out to a 19-3 lead. However, in the 6th inning lightening struck! Yours truly was brought in to pitch. I can’t say I was dominant but I would say Loo better look out next year! Were it not for me we would have lost this game by even more but thanks to my incredible pitching efforts we only lost 23-11. You can call me the Swan, Twinkle Toes, Bubbles or whatever you want- I’m the only guy to shut down Cebuana, even if it was after they emptied their benchJ
In the semifinals on Sunday the Gas House ran out of gas! Tired and sore we lost to the Guzzlero’s 14-10. Chris Nienhuis had a huge game at the plate and in the field along with great pitching from Mark McElory but in the end there was no gas left in the tank! The Gassers once again disappointed on Sunday. Coach Meade tried to pull out all the stops but he simply didn’t have enough horses to get it done. However, I can honestly say we laughed our asses off and had one of the funniest tournaments ever!
The Hogs, in what's become a tradition as HK's "other" team, will do things a little differently. Great times were had and memories were made, and to remember then we have the 1st Bacon Awards....
Team MVP: Preston Powell; This was a no-brainer. Preston had by far his best coaching and pitching performances of the year. He was able to go the entire weekend without yelling at players or shouting such encouraging phrases as “wake –up” or “try swinging hard” as players entered the batters box. This had a notable impact on player morale. He also set a career low for walks with zero, which is about 7 less than a typical inning for him.
Feast or Famine Award: Jeff “motor boat” Buhl; Saturday Stat line; 2 for 8. 2 hrs, 8RBI’s. Enough said.
Rickey Henderson Award: “Jeepney” Jake Boswell: Special thanks to guest-3rd base coach Chad Boyd for waving The Jeepney from 1st to Home. Distance covered: 180 feet. Elapsed time: 17 minutes. Outcome: Hilarity.
“Is this thing loaded” award: Doug Cubberly; 3 pitches, 3 strikes, 1 seat on the bench, 0 pride.
“If he wasnt the coach…..” award: Ken “Meat Ball” Clark; Game 4 stat line: 1 IP, 12 hits, 7R.
“No I in Team” Award Winner: Justin “Alabama” Watzka; After Fridays games it was clear that someone was going to have to radically alter their facial hair if we were going to have a shot at turning our fortunes around. The team needed a leader. The team needed spirit. The team needed Former United States President Chester A Arthur. Justin stepped up and made the change needed. The Hogs outscored opponents 31-22 after that point.
Rookie of the Tournament: Jeremy Kerbel AKA Lance AKA LBJ AKA “The Gerbil”; After being deemed “way to pretty to play softball” by Chad “big continent” Boyd. Lance proved the skeptics wrong with several long extra base hits in key situations. He was also able to keep the mood light by performing reverse summersaults in the infield when he deemed a ball (that was hit to him) uncatchable. As an apology for his statements, chad made sure Lance felt the love after the last game (see rumor mill pic). Kudos to lance and welcome to the league.
All-State Good Hands Award: Kevin “flyboy” Donahue; Kevin is usually a lock down outfielder, nothing new there. However in this tournament Prosser and Motorboat were able to take extended siestas in the outfield. Kevin had everything from LF to Makati covered. Bonus points for the laser beam throw of the tournament. This ball was a picture perfect one hopper from deep left center. The same throw coming from me would have had the trajectory of a rainbow and bounced 42 times.
Awesomeness Award: Ryan Prosser; Given to the person or persons who most exemplify awesomeness on and off the field.
Fashionista Award: Trent Frankum; Scouting report on Trent. Bats left. Throws Right. Plays SS. Great glove. Great arm. Great bat. Likes Capri pants. Bonus points for feeding 14 people after the game (perhaps his award should have centered around that….).
My body is a temple Award; Tom Allen; Roommates and beer are funny things. You put the two together and you learn a lot about people that you didn’t know previously. The mystery behind Tom Allens wondrous physique was partially explained when it was discovered that Tom doesn’t sleep. Ever. And he rarely closes his eyes. He simply rests between reps of push ups. It was also discovered that Tom has a weakness for Bermuda shorts and lady-boxing.
Pretty cool dude award, Tom Hill; Don’t know much about Tom. He hits lefty. Always comes up with the big hit. Plays good defense. Overall, a pretty cool dude.
Forever Young Award: Ryan Young; Tie game, bottom 5, all of his Hong Kong cohorts looking (and cheering as loud as 40 drunks can) on, Ryno hit a bazooka blast out to (just right of) Dead center to give the Hogs their first lead of the game (game 4) and one they would never relinquish. He also bailed Ken out after one of the most god awful pitching performances in history.
Vaguely Insane Award: Captain Jack Guest; To be honest,sometimes we are all scared of you.
Strangeness Award: Dave McKechnie; Did anyone see Dave wander off at Trents BBQ and reappear later with a giant blue snow cone? I wanted to give Dave an award that had to do with his 66 swings and misses but I can not get over how awesome that snow cone looked and what must have been going through his head to leave a party and go get one.This guy has Hogs written all over him.
Next stop....Jakarta....
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