Friday March 29th, 2024
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26th Annual Dudley/Budweiser Part 2

tied for 7th place Fence Brokers Inc/Laservision/Worth (Conf-A from Bryant, Arkansas)
Dudley Record 4-2
2008 Overall Record 13-10
Wins – Theraldson[b], Checking[b], DLB, Contractors Capital
Losses – Long Haul[M], GTL[A]

I was only able to watch FBI play one game which was a solid 23-19 win over Theraldson Enterprises from North Dakota. FBI's Paul Brannon hit .736 for the weekend and Brad Blankenship had an .840 on base percentage. Much like Suncoast, FBI needs to "turn the corner" and score that big win over a Major team or win one of the upcoming tournaments that the Majors are not coming to in order to get their season on track. They did play 6 quality teams at the Dudley.


FBI catcher Paul Brannon is an offensive force


tied for 7th place C-Town/American Funding/Easton (Conf-A from Boise, Idaho)
Dudley Record 3-2-
2008 Overall Record 23-9
[b]Wins – GMHI[C], ABS[A], WCS/LCV
Losses – Long Haul[A], Ropeclub[A]

Ryan Barabe returned from his knee injury he sufferred in Glen Burnie to play right field for C-Town this past weekend and they looked to have their whole team back after all the rumors. The only difference was the departure of pitcher Brendt Newbill. They brought in Justin Mucciarelli to pitch and he did a great job. I guess he didn't throw too many "cookies" when he held Long Haul to 18 runs. C-Town lost heart breakers to Dan Smith and Ropeclub in the last at bats but had quality wins over WCS and ABS. In the Long Haul game C-Town jumped out to like a 14-1 lead and then went scoreless for a number of innings before losing 18-17. Jon Oram was playing CF.


C-Town middle infielder Tony Mack turns two


Highlights of other teams at the Dudley Tournament:

Combat USA imploded defensively against Ropeclub late in the game in the second round of the winner's bracket. Combat did seem to be hitting it better this tournament. Brian Higginbotham won the Dudley homerun derby on Thursday night when he went on a tear in the final round.


Combat's offense is showing some life


Pipac from Iowa looked like they had a bunch of new players from their earlier Conference appearances and they came up with some nice wins over Canes and Theraldsons before losing close ones to Suncoast and an extra inning game to Ropeclub. Pipac seems like one of those teams that may be more suited to class A, we'll have to see.

WCS/LCV is a team that never gives up. They got their moneys worth with some great close games against Sellox/Miken in the first round which went 8 innings and they were beating Jean Shoppe late in the game on Saturday morning. WCS/LCV has a shortstop Carlos Vasquez who was making some great plays. They also have one of the best sponsors in the game in infieler Jim Torres.


This swing by WCS catcher Jason Kreider with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th sent hometown Selloxx to the loser's bracket

 


DLB, Contractors Capital, Spider Pigs, and Theraldsons were all playing hard all weekend. I hope to see these teams add some Conference tournaments to their schedules.


Contractor's Capital catcher Geno Burdi ck takes a lot of abuse on the message boards but his offense speaks for itself

 


Theralson's outfield veteran Chaun Demars


Quote of the week: Velocite a "D" team out of Minnesota lost to Resmondo 27-5 in the opening round of the tournament. On Saturday morning they were about to play Checking/Worth out of Connecticut when they huddled for a team meeting. The Velocite 3rd Baseman started the meeting by saying "Lets show these guys what we learned from the big boys last night, that if you score 27 runs in the first 4 innings you WILL win!" They then lost 40-23.


Velocite 3rd baseman who had the quote of the week

Final Word:
I would like to thank SoftballKingdom.com for asking me to do the recap. Also a special thanks to Wes Campbell for the ride from the airport and Cathy (the first female ump in Dudley history) for the ride to the Evergreen fields.


Cathy, the Dudley's first ever female umpire!


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