-Gregg Foster reporting
-posted by Sal Riggio
The Frankie Brin Financial national softball team was crowned champion in the Men’s 70 Major Division at the SPA World Championships. The tournament was held in Dalton, GA on September 4th through the 7th. The team played a best three out of five against the Southeast Left Overs (SLO) in the championship bracket. SLO is an interstate team with players from Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, South and North Carolina and Alabama – including three Hall of Fame players. The Frankie Brin team won the first two games on Thursday. In the first game they beat SLO 19 to 13 and then won the second game 17 to 2 in six innings. “We hit the ball very well throughout our line-up and SLO had an uncharacteristically difficult time in the second game. Although we had never played against this team, we knew about them by reputation. A couple of other Village softball players had played with them in years past and told us that they were a great hitting team,” said manager Gregg Foster.
“On Friday, the SLO team we had expected to see showed up, said Foster. The third game was hotly contested throughout. SLO scored 2 runs in the first and 7 runs in the third. We scored 4, then 3 and then 2 to tie the score at 9 all after 3 innings. SLO then pulled away with 6 more runs while we only scored 3, giving them a 15 to 12 victory in the third game. The fourth and final game was also closely contested. Each team played well in the field and had consistent hitting throughout the line-ups. We were fortunate to have two excellent pitchers on our team, John Ramage and Roger Scott. They both did a great job against a very good hitting team. We had the lead, 15 to 14, after six innings of play, but SLO scored 3 runs in the top of the 7th. We scored two runs in the bottom of the 7th and had a chance to win it with runners on first and third with one out, but couldn’t score the winning run. In the 8th, SLO scored first with two runs. They could have scored much more, but Dave Mamuscia made an over-the-shoulder catch in the outfield to shut them down. In the bottom of the 8th we got hits from the first four hitters to score one run and load the bases. Rod Severson then hit a smash to centerfield scoring two runs and securing the win and the championship.”
With the win, the Frankie Brin team was awarded placements for six All-American players, including the tournament MVP. The MVP was Tom Giles (.813) with Carter Honkenen (.769), Dick Kanyan (.750), Rod Severson (.714), Dave Sellars (.692) and Ralph Hollis (.688) named to the All-American team. With this win Frankie Brin 70’s was named SPA Team of the Year and Gregg Foster was named SPA Manager of the Year.
Front Row (left to right): Bob Thomas, Tom Giles, Roger Scott, Marv
Wolfgang, Jack Marx and Paul Duda.
Back Row (left to right): Rod Severson, Ralph Hollis, Carter Honkenen, Dave
Sellars, Dick Kanyan, Dave Mamuscia, John Ramage and Gregg Foster.
