Thursday March 28th, 2024
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2018 War by the Shore series report!

 

 


 

 

2018 War by the Shore!

 

Monsta vs Smash It Sports

 

Viera, Florida

 

March 16-17

 

The deciding game #5, Monsta's Ryan Mcclanahan in blue pitches to Andrew Vitcak in white.

Link to the War by the Shore picture album 

The series was played in perfect, if not cool weather at times.  The Viera, Florida Space Coast Stadium featured 325-365-385-365-325 fence distances and artificial turf.  The wind blew in some during the two day games but did not blow during the 3 night games.  The .52 core hot dot ball just was not enough ball for the size of the field and scores were mostly single digits and batting averages for the most part were below .500.  Monsta outscored Smash It Thunder in the series 45-34 in 36 innings.  Remember though that the .52 core ball was one of the reasons for the challenge between the teams as Monsta bats are known for hitting the .52's.  For the most part only the elite home run hitters like Washington, Harvey, Williams, Dillon, Branch, and Greinert hit home runs.  Luis Reyna did hit one on Friday night which was an impressive shot to left center field.  The defense, particularly both teams pitching and infield defense were spectacular with highlight plays made almost every inning.  Danny Lopez, Losson White, and Ryan Mcclanahan for Monsta and Andrew Vitcak for Smash It Thunder were the pitchers.  The outfielders did not drop any balls and made a ton of plays and long running catches.  Filip Washington made a spectacular diving catch and a running catch towards the foul wall in Game #4 that belong on the highlight reel.  Jason Branch, Travis Houseman, and Nic Santana all made nice running catches as well.  In the infield we saw incredible diving plays from Granados, Whaley, Williams, Dedonatis and others and a bunch of line drive stabs from the pitchers.  I will try to grab some highlights off the videos and post them next week.

I would like to thank the livestream crew who did a great job, the umpires, the players on great sportsmanship under adverse offensive conditions.  And mostly I would like to thank the main sponsors Rick Schiffhauer, Seth Green, and Carl Pegnatori for putting this together.  There is talk of the 2019 War by the Shore being a 4 team event with the stadium ball…

 


 

Game #1 Recap – Friday Night at 8 PM

 

Monsta's Filip Washington hits his 2nd homer of the game!  He was 4-4 with 2 HR and 5 RBI

Monsta Athletics threw the first punch in their best of 5 grudge match series with Smash It Sports/Thunder Friday night.  They blanked Smash It Thunder 1-2-3 in the top of the first inning and then put up 3 runs on 6 hits in the bottom of the inning.  In the 2nd inning they added 3 more runs on a 2 out – 3 run "no doubt" homer by left fielder Filip Washington and went up 8-1 on a 2 run double by Steve Whaley in the bottom of the 3rd inning.  Monsta scored at least 1 run in every inning and won easily 14-3.  Chris Greinert had the only other Monsta homer in the 5th and it hit the top of the score board in left field.  For Smash It Thunder the hits were few and far between as they collected just 8 hits and the lone homer was by Luis Reyna in the top of the 7th.  The defense for both teams went errorless and the pitching on both sides was as good as it gets.  At game time it was a pleasant 64 degrees and there was no wind.  This series is using the .52 core hot dot ball.

Games were livestreamed at Warbytheshore2018.com.

Monstas Lineup Game 1
1B Steven Lopez 3-4 (Walk) 2 rbi
LF Filip Washington 4-4 2 HR 5 RBI
CF Travis Houseman 1-4 1 RBI
C Chris Greinert 2-3 1 HR 1 RBI
2B Chente Granados 0-3 1 RBI
3B John Williams 2-3 Walk 1 RBI
EH Ryan Dacko 1-3
SS Steve Whaley 2-3 2 RBI
RF Daniel McClement 1-3
MI Ryan Mcclanahan 1-3
P Daniel Lopez  1-2

David Johnson had a pinch hit for D Lopez also

 

Smash It Sports/Backman/Thunder/TDB/Miken/Worth Lineup:
RF Jason Branch  1-3
1B Kyle Pearson 0-3
C Ryan Harvey 1-3
EH Josh Riley 1-3
MI Luis Reyna 2/3 1 HR 1 RBI
CF Nic Santana 0-3
3B Cory Briggs 2-3 1 rbi
2B Adam Ussery 1-3
SS Don Dedonatis 0-2
LF Brian McBryde 1-2
P Andrew Vitcak 1-2

Archived game video of Game #1, you have to fast forward to the game towards the end

The crowd numbered around 250 in person.

Video Clips of the first game

Monsta shortstop Steve Whaley lays out for a line drive!

It was all Monsta, all night long in game #1

Smash It Thunder pitcher Andrew Vitcak stabs a hot shot up the middle

Monsta's Chris Greinert hammers one off the top of the scoreboard

 


 

Game #2 & 3 Recap – 10 AM and 11:30 AM Saturday

 

A perfect day in Viera, Florida for the "War by the Shore"!   72 degrees!

War by the Shore picture album

Smash It Sports jumped out to a 3-2 lead in the first inning on a Ryan Harvey homer in Game #2 at 10 AM on Saturday morning.  Harvey hit 2 singles in the middle run scoring innings and a game winning solo homer with 2 outs in the bottom of the 8th to beat Monsta 9-8.  Fans in the stadium, fans watching on the internet, and the announcers questioned why you would pitch to Harvey with 2 outs and the bases empty in extra innings?  Definitely one for us keyboard cowboys to ponder.  Monsta did not homer in the game.

With the series tied at 1 game each, the 11:30 AM game #4 started with Monsta the home team grabbing a 2-0 lead in the first inning on back to back doubles by John Williams and Steve Whaley.  Smash It Thunder answered with 4 runs in the top of the 2nd inning on 4 hits by the bottom of the lineup – Santana, Dedonatis double, Lee Payne double, and a base hit by Andrew Vitcak.  Both teams then proceeded to put up zeroes for the next few innings.  In the top of the 5th inning Smash It Thunder's Jason Branch, Kyle Pearson, and Ryan Harvey hit back to back to back solo homer's with 2 outs to put up Smash It 7-2.  In the bottom of the 5th Monsta answered with 3 runs on base hits but wouldn't draw any closer in a tough 9-6 loss.  Monsta again failed to hit a homer in this game.

In the 2nd game at 10 AM, Ryan Harvey went 4-4 with 2 HR.

He hit a walk off homer in the bottom of the 8th inning to give Smash It Sports/Thunder a 9-8 win

Game #2 scoreboard

Game #3 scoreboard

Game #2 and Game #3 archived livestream

Smash It Sports Thunder manager Jason Kendrick gives the team a pep talk before Game #2

Tim Martinez pinch hitting for Monsta.

Monsta Athletics who have had a shot to win every game will try to regroup!

 


 

 

Game #4 & 5 Recap – 8 PM and 9:30 PM Saturday

 

Scoreboard for the final game.

 

Smash It Thunder left fielder catches the final out and the celebration or maybe relief was on!

Archived video of Game #4

Archived video of Game #5

 

Game #4 was a dominating performance by Monsta in a must win situation.  They scored 4 runs in the 1st inning on a homer by Filip Washington, a triple by Chris Greinert, a double by Steve Whaley, and a single by Daniel Mcclement.  Then John Williams hit a big 2 run homer in the 3rd and a 3 run homer in the 4th and Monsta forced the 5th game with an impressive 15-8 win!

In the deciding game Monsta scored first on a Steve Whaley RBI double.  Smash It Thunder answered with a run scored after a double by Cory Briggs.  In the 3rd inning Smash It grabbed a 2-1 lead on a triple by Jason Branch and an RBI double by Ryan Harvey.  Monsta would tie the game in the top of the 4th on a solo homer by Filip Washington and Smash It went up 1 run in the bottom of the 4th on a solo homer by Brandon Dillon.  But Monsta would score their 3rd and final run on an inside the park homer by Travis Houseman and Smash It Thunder grabbed the lead 4-3 on a Reyna single after a Harvey double and added an insurance run in the bottom of the 6th on a Don Dedonatis Jr. RBI single.  5-3 was the final.

 

 

 


 

Only 3% of Old Scout pollers were correct

 


 

Video Highlites brought to you by:

Games 2-5 Video Clips

 


 

Long Bombers of the Week

Monsta's Filip Washington had the most homer's and most likely the highest average in an unlimited HR Series.

He is by far the Long Bomber of the week!

 


 

Softball Center Awards and Final Standings

Monsta's Filip Washington was the MVP

I will give the Defensive MVP to Smash It Thunder pitcher Andrew Vitcak and his defense

that gave up just 18 runs in the 22 innings of their 3 wins.

 

I will go with Ryan Harvey for the Offensive MVP

11-17 .647 with 3 HR and 7 RBI

 

Monsta's Steve Whaley makes my all tournament team on both offense and defense.  Clutch two out hitting almost every game.

Other all tournaments would be John Williams, Branch, Santana, and Steve Lopez if I were to just eye ball it.

 

 


 

Team by team notes brought to you by:

 

1st Place

Smash It Sports/Thunder/Backman/TDB/S&S/Miken/Worth

Conf Major from New York  3-2 Record

Smash It Thunder somehow won when it counted, winning Game #2 by one run on a Harvey walk off in the bottom of the 8th inning.  They won game #3 and #4 with flat out shut down defense and pitching.  Their offensive highlite was one inning where they hit 3 home runs in one inning – Branch, Pearson, and Harvey.

 

Smash It Sports/Backman/Thunder/TDB/S&S/Miken/Worth Roster
P Andrew Vitcak
1B Kyle Pearson
2B Adam Ussery
MI Luis Reyna
SS Don Dedonatis
3B Cory Briggs
LF Brandon Dillon
CF Nic Santana
UT/RF Jason Branch
C/RF Ryan Harvey
EH Josh Riley

Off the Bench:
OF Lee Payne
IF Brian McBryde
UT Jason Kendrick
P Andy Purcell (Injured

 

Dedonatis gets a clutch single and RBI in the bottom of the 6th to go up 5-3 in the final game 

 

Branch in right and Santana in Center with his gold glove

 

Kyle Pearson and Lee Payne

 

Brian McBryde and Adam Usserry both played 2nd base

 

Josh Riley and Luis Reyna

SIS manager Jason Kendrick gives the team a talk after winning the final game.

Basically said don't worry about the bad offense and build on the finding ways to win.

 


 

2nd Place Monsta Athletics

Major from California  2-3 Record

 

Monsta had two blow out wins – one on Friday night and one on Saturday night but came up just short offensively in the other 3 games.  I am sure there will be a lot of second guessing and players that feel they let the team down but really they should all feel great that they went toe to toe with what many believe is the best team in the country.  Monsta played spectacular defense and got a huge offensive and defensive contribution from Washington and Whaley in particular and John Williams came up big as well.  I hope to post their stats soon.  Monsta did a nice job of getting all of their players into the games as they searched for a lineup that would produce more runs.

Monsta did a great job of playing small ball in their wins and adjusted to the conditions quicker and probably ended up out hitting Smash It Thunder.

 

Monstas Roster for the War by the Shore:
Pitchers Daniel Lopez and Lossen White
1B Steven Lopez
2B Chente Granados
MI Ryan Mcclanahan
SS Steve Whaley
3B John Williams
LF Filip Washington
CF Travis Houseman
RF Daniel Mcclement
C Chris Greinert
EH Ryan Dacko

Off the Bench:
Brett Rettenmeier
John Eshleman
David Johnson
Tim Martinez
Mario Granados
Jared Hunt
Jerrad Messersmith

 

Ryan Mcclanahan played middle and pitched.  John Williams

 

Chente Granados making yet another play from his knees.  Chris Greinert.

 

Travis Houseman and Eshelman

 

Brett Rettenmeier and Daniel Mcclement

 

Pilar Amaya and Tim Martinez

 

Ryan Dacko and Steven Lopez

John Williams, Steve Whaley, and Ryan Mcclanahan

 


 

Some more pictures for you:

Bat testing before every game.

Smash It Thunder fans celebrate their win

Coin toss for the final game

Umpiring crew: Jason Oberlag, Ken Hawk, UIC Doc Beckwell, Justin Lauby, Bill Geatches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 responses to “2018 War by the Shore series report!”

  1. Lowki says:

    Just goes to show you these “major” players are only good with 1 type of ball. I was there and what a snooze-fest it was. Great fields though. This will have more of a negative impact than positive, we definitely walked away laughing. You have your major players needing the best ball out there in order to score 40 runs. It’s like HGH for these guys. “I can hit .750 bro but you need to make sure it’s stadium balls”. These players with exception to Flip, Harvey (huge in person) are just your normal old guys that need a certain ball to play at their level, there is no difference from C level all the way up, it’s the ball.

    • Dave says:

      I kind of agree. The defense was really good. I like watching great defense. These guys are supposed to be the best. They looked like they were swinging for the fence every at bat. Stop with the ball thing and show me you can get a base hit. The averages were a joke!!

      • Mike Smith says:

        I agree as well, this was a poor showing for the Major guys. This goes to show they are nothing special and that more guys in tiers below should get more chances. A solid C team that can hit the 52 core would have beat SIS easily. You give everyone stadium balls and turf infields/outfields, you’ll see more players playing at the majors level.

  2. TW says:

    How can obp be lower than avg?

  3. JC says:

    DW, thanks for the dedication to everything softball. Monsta makes tennis rackets to hit tennis balls. But as you can see it was a big waste of time because at the major level it’s about competition not compromise. Dynamic high scoring offense was absent. One of my local guys said major guys should be able to hit anywhere, anytime. That is not possible because we are talking about the highest ranking team (SIS) having trouble with a 52 core ball. Helmer, on the mic eluded to saying fans wouldn’t even want to keep a foul ball which I agree with him on that. Scores should have been 50-47 or more. Kyle Pearson (a monster hitter, not referring to Team Monsta) was neutralized at 4-for-17 hitting .235 when there is usually showcase potential with him. The next best thing to baseball is high compression softball. That is the market of USSSA’s appeal. The 2 players Flip & Harvey showed technique from their respective playing days. Everything was right except the 52 core ball.

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