Giants 45+ (W) 12, Sidewinders (W) 4 October 2, 2010, 7:00 PM Game Recap
Giants 45+ (W) 12, Sidewinders (W) 4
The Giants 45+ captured their 4th consecutive BAMSBL Title with a 12-4 victory over the Sidewinders Saturday night at Albert Park in San Rafael. Arturo Jaimes pitched his third complete game of the World Series to pick up the win. Charlie Goldberg launched a titanic Home Run to right center to highlight the Giants' attack.
Just like the previous three years it took the entire roster, 20 guys, to accomplish our goal of winning the Championship in the very competitive 45+ League. The team was hindered by numerous injuries throughout the season, many that will no doubt linger well into the off season, but managed to plug the holes as everyone stepped up to fill in where needed. At times Manager Brian Willis, master puppeteer that he is, had to be adept at pulling all the right strings in some very delicate situations, and as usual he came through with flying colors - this fourth Championship can attest to that.
Some statistical highlights of the 2010 campaign - Batting - some of the leading hitters for the Giants : Rob Goldstein (.483 BA & .556 OBA), Billy Neale (.433 BA & .469 OBA), Pat Carroll (.422 BA, 17 RBIs, 15 Runs & .574 OBA) and Lynn Lefevre (.406 BA, 13 RBIs, 20 Runs, 17 SB & .466 OBA). Also, Goldberg paced the team with a .724 SLG % and Tom Whelan tallied 15 RBIs and scored 20 Runs.
Defense - though the following are non-statistical highlights, they are very much just as important as the aforementioned batting stats. Ruben Ponce once again proved to be an iron man behind the plate in 2010 and the team could not have achieved the level of success that it did without his mastery of the "tools of ignorance". Stellar fielding and outstanding hustle was turned in by the outfielders : Neale, Goldstein, Hiroaki Ajari, Paul Wiederecht, Kevin Suzuki, Steve "Killer" Kowalski, David Schwartz, Drew Maran and John Shea. The infield was bolstered by Craig McKee-Parks, Ray Allen, John Harney, Whelan and Lefevre. Necessity required many players to play various positions, namely Allen filling in at catcher when Ponce was away. Others shifted seamlessly between the infield and outfield as needed. It was this kind of "team first" attitude that allowed the Giants 45+ to compete every week against very tough opponents.
The majority off innings on the mound went to Jaimes (9-3 W-L, 99.2 IP, 66 K's, 1.17 ERA and 0.863 WHIP) and Carroll (4-2 W-L, 52.2 IP, 41 K's, 2.22 ERA and 1.18 WHIP). John Sechler, though in a limited amount of work, went 2-0, in 10 IP with 9 K's for an ERA of 0.00.
Congratulations guys on a long and hard fought journey! It was well worth it.
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