Bronx bomb Santa Rosa for NAFA A-Major World Series Championship Written by Bob on August 12th, 2013 Bronx.Team.403web<\/p>\n
Bronx include from front left, Ian Glasser, Reid Pillar, Braden Reiger, Craig Geisler, Nathan Bender, Tyler Tomlinson, Colby Davidson, and Curtis Huata. Back left, Ashley Morris, Paul Robb, Joey Burnett, Quinn Glasser, Jordan Waterhouse, Jeremy Kenny, Cole MacLean, Stephen Kwasinicki, and Royce Cote. Photo By BOB OTTO URBANDALE, IOWA \u2013 They\u2019re called the Bronx, but the way they swing the bats, Bronx Bombers seems more appropriate. The Maple Valley Farm Equipment (MVFE) Bronx, of Saskatchewan, Canada won the NAFA A-Major World Series Championship in a five-inning mercy ruling by bombing Santa Rosa California Fastpitch 9-2 on Sunday. The Bronx went long ball to score seven of those nine runs with the bottom third of the batting order doing the damage. Ian Glasser, Reid Pillar and Craig Geisler each belted out the home runs. But finding the lower end of the Bronx batting order providing this kind of run production isn\u2019t that unusual, said Bronx manager Craig Geisler, adding that the Bronx hit seven homers in the tournament. \u201cWe\u2019re a pretty solid lineup one through nine,\u201d he said. \u201cAnyone can bat in any of the positions. When one guy\u2019s not going, the next guy picks him up. Today the bottom of the order, the last three guys did it hitting home runs.\u201d TWIN TWO BANGERS The Bronx trailed 1-0 going into the second, and then the power surge began. Ian Glasser hit a two-run homer over the centerfield fence, and Geisler followed with a two-run blast to erase Santa Rosa\u2019s lead for good. \u201cI had two strikes and I was just trying to protect and it went over,\u201d said Glasser. \u201cI was struggling up until this game hitting the ball, but the guys picked me up.\u201d Geisler said the team noticed something about Santa Rosa\u2019s starter Ed Gasper (2013 NAFA HAll of Fame inductee) that tipped them off and helped at the plate. \u201cThe guys were saying when he got up (in the count), he was going to his curve ball,\u201d Geisler said. \u201cI was looking curve ball and happened to get it and took it over the fence.\u201d BRONX PITCHER CARRIES THE LOAD With the lead, Bronx pitcher Jeremy Kenny pitched a strong game against a good-hitting Santa Rosa (6-2) that outlasted Kelso Fastpitch, 9-7, in the losers bracket final. Kenny allowed two runs (one earned) on five hits, three walks and nine strikeouts. \u201cHe\u2019s a workhorse,\u201d Geisler said. \u201cHe wants the ball every game. He was really on this weekend and pitched all our games. It was an awesome performance by him. Unbelievable.\u201d The Bronx continued their scoring by adding a run in the third on Glasser\u2019s RBI single to pull ahead, 5-1. But Santa Rosa showed no quit by threatening in the fifth on Brian Macler\u2019s home run. PILLAR\u2019S WALK-OFF WINNER Then in the bottom half of the inning, the Bronx ended the game on an run-scoring single by Braden Reiger and Reid Pillar\u2019s three-run blast that went ski-high and deep over the centerfield fence. But Pillar had no idea of his ensuing heroics when he stepped into the batter\u2019s box. \u201cI didn\u2019t even realize it was a walk-off situation untiI I came around third base and saw the guys cheering,\u201d said Pillar, who tagged a high rise ball off Justin Zimmerman in relief of Gasper in the fourth for the round tripper with Nathan Bender aboard on a double and Tyler Tomlinson by way of an error. \u201cI had dreams about this kind of thing, but never thought it would happen for me,\u201d Pillar added. \u201cIt hasn\u2019t sunk in yet. It feels great to win this. We\u2019ve been working hard for a lot of years.\u201d FINALLY A NAFA CHAMPIONSHIP When Pillar stepped on home plate the celebration began for a ball club that had lost to the first and second place teams in the A-Major Division the past two years, Geisler said, adding that the Bronx finished fourth in Topeka, Kansas last year, and finished no worse than sixth in the past five trips to the A-Major World Series. \u201cWe just couldn\u2019t get over the hump,\u201d he said. Getting over that hump was helped by a strong push by Kenny, who was selected the Co-Most Valuable Pitcher along with Tom Jansen of Kelso Fastpitch. Kenny, a right-hander with a sharp breaking rise ball as his out pitch, won all six of the Bronx\u2019s games in the 38-team A-Major. \u201cI\u2019ve been here four times and this feels awesome to finally win it,\u201d Kenny said. \u201cOne through nine we have good hitters. When I saw those home runs it made pitching a lot easier.\u201d MOVIN\u2019 ON UP Now with the A-Major World Championship finally won, what lies ahead for the Bronx? Geisler\u2019s already decided that. \u201cThis feels awesome,\u201d he said, \u201cand next year we\u2019ll be coming back and try to move up (AA or AA-Major divisions) a level and see what we can do.\u201d Bronx.AllWorld.420web Bronx All-World players from left include Joey Burnett, Braden Reiger, Nathan Bender (Most Valuable Player), Jeremy Kenny (Co-Most Valuable Pitcher), Curtis Huata, and Paul Robb. Photo By BOB OTTO BEST OF THE BEST Both teams had several players receiving All-World awards. From the Bronx, Braden Reiger, Joey Burnett, Paul Robb, and Curtis Huata were selected, with Nathan Bender chosen the Most Valuable Player. Santa Rosa\u2019s All-World players include Brian Macler, Danny Macler, Eddie Martin, Nick Green, and Shawn Mandolesi. For NAFA A-Major results and statistics visit Play NAFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4154"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4154"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4154\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4343,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4154\/revisions\/4343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4154"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4154"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.nafafastpitch.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4154"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}