Frankie Brin Financial (FBF) 70’s, playing at the Southwest Softball Complex in Lakeland Florida, placed second in Division I of the 70’s-plus Age Bracket in the monthly Florida Half Century (FHC) Tournament. The Tournament was reduced to three games due to weather conditions on June 5th. Team Manager Jack Marx stated, “We battled hard but lost our last complete game in extra innings before the skies opened up and ended the Tournament”.
The first game on Saturday was a 10-9 win over Senior Moments. FBF 70’s pulled out the victory in the bottom of the 7th inning when Rod Severson delivered a base hit to drive in the winning run. Linwood Manning and Dave Sellars were both 4 for 4 and Carter Honkonen was 3 for 3 to lead the team to a hard fought win. The second game Saturday against Lane Construction started out slowly with FBF trailing 1 to 0 after two innings. FBF went on to win 16 to 1 in a run ruled 6 inning game. Sellars and Manning again led the team with strong support from Roger Scott and Paul Sorce.
Sunday’s only game was against DAF 70’s and was an extra inning affair that DAF won in the bottom of the 8th inning. Final score DAF 16, FBF 15. Bob Buchanan, John Leone, Sorce, Scott and Manning lead the FBF attack but the team came up a little short. The scheduled final game against the Florida Legends was called in the 4th inning when the rain started blowing sideways into the dugouts.
Leading hitters for Frankie Brin Financial: Linwood Manning (.846), Dave Sellars (.769), Paul Sorce (.700), Roger Scott (.692), John Leone (.667), Bob Buchanan (.636), Dave Oatley (.545), Carter Honkonen (.500), Rod Severson (.462), Tom Giles (.444), Jack Marx (.400) and Cal Allison (.300).