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Sioux Falls, South Dakota
NAFA Class “A” World Series
August 6-9, 2009

Sioux Falls, South Dakota-2009

Break in action on Saturday at NAFA World Series in South Dakota

Cursed by a loss in the first round, Ricola had to battle back the entire tournament in route to a record of 5-2 at the NAFA Class “A” World Series held in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.   This news item has been delayed because I’ve been waiting for word from NAFA about our finish……I believe that we finished in the top 10 but that has not been confirmed yet. Tournament summary as follows:

Thursday August 6

            Preston Minnesota 8-Ricola 4

              Ricola Notes:   Barry Van Hooser-LP:    Sam Moore HR(pinch hit):  Chris Mendell 3 hits

Friday August 7

            Ricola 14-Ohio Mac ‘O Cheese 2

            Ricola Notes: Paul Furlong –WP:   Mike Rapicioli HR and 3 hits

Saturday August 8^th (We need to win 6 games today to advance to Sunday)

            Ricola 12-Nebraska John’s Plumbing 3

            Ricola Notes  Sam Moore WP:   Chris Mendell 2 HR’s:   Mike Rapicioli HR

            Ricola 6-Wisconsin Budweiser 4

            Ricola Notes:  Sam Moore WP in relief of Van Hooser

(In between games Harmodon Complex where we were playing was evacuated for a tornado warning…..never a dull moment in Cough Drop Land)

            Ricola 6-Kansas Wizard of Oz 4

            Ricola Notes:  Sam Moore WP in relief of Furlong:  Mike Romeo HR

            Ricola 10- South Dakota Ramona 6

            Ricola Notes:   Sam Moore WP in relief of Van Hooser:   Chris Mendell HR:   3 hits for Eric Hemphill and Fred Kent

            Duluth Minnesota 17-Ricola 16  In Extra Innings

            Ricola Notes:  LP Sammy Moore in relief of Furlong and Van Hooser.    Mike Rapicioli HR :   Our 5^th game of the day…Duluth’s 1^st game of the day…we gave them all they wanted but as much as we hit we just couldn’t hold their fresh bats with our tired arms.  The game finished at 1:30 am.

Tournament Notes:

Sammy Moore was the “Horse” on the mound…..he exhibited more guts than this writer can credit him for with mere words.   Eric Hemphill caught all 5 games on Saturday and his performance was also something  very special to watch….also more guts than I can put into words.   Chris Mendell, Mike Rapicioli, Matt Foster,  Fred Kent, and Mike Romeo also had very, very good tournaments.  Everyone gave it their best and then some on Saturday but winning 6 games in one day is a tall order. It took extra innings in the 5^th game from a team that was playing their first game of the day to send us home.

Harmodon Complex Notes:

Brand new…..8 fields….as nice as any that we ever have played at and the grounds crew was second to none.  Food was overpriced.  Tornado evacuation procedure was something new.

NAFA Notes:

Pre-tournament communication=Poor

Managers Meeting=Good (short and sweet)

Umpiring =Very good although some complaining was taking place about low strike zones (typical with college umps)

Souvenirs=Poor…..simply not much of a selection

Opening Ceremony= Poor…there was little (hardly any)recognition of the teams.  There was a touching tribute paid to a Sioux Falls player who recently succumbed to an illness…..it hit home because when I saw pictures of him I can remember him from past nationals.  

“Team Feed”=Very Good…..it was amazing how quickly the staff fed everyone and I thought the food was good.

Post Tournament Communication=Poor….there has been none.   We still don’t know where we finished.   There was a blurb on Al Doran that cited All World Selections…..no Ricola names were listed…..Sam Moore, Chris Mendell, Eric Hemphill, and Mike Rapicioli certainly deserved strong consideration…maybe Romeo and Foster too……we did play 7 games but it looked like almost all of the selections were from teams that made it to Sunday….I guess our 5 game run on Saturday didn’t mean much to anyone….except us.

Thank You Notes:

A special thanks to the following:

Ike Smith-Batboy

Jonathan Romeo -Batboy

Matthew Romeo-Scorebook

Christine Romeo, Elizabeth Smith, Lilla Smith—Fans true to the end of game 7 on SaturdayNight/Sunday morning

Motel 6-Inexpensive, nothing special, they gave us no grief and yes, they kept the light on for us.

Rollin’ Pin Restaurant- An all you can eat buffet next to the motel with nice people waiting on us.

Walmart-the employee lounge, water, popcorn, grapes, TV….all just for Ricola….what a way to spend a tornado evacuation!

Paul Furlong- my alter ego and one of the best strategic minds for the game that I’ve ever come across (are you listening college softball programs?)

Chris Mendell-keeps me grounded, flat out hits.

Mike Romeo-Good to have you back, Mayo…….you never really left anyway (and you can still hit)

Greg Sullivan-all the way to South Dakota for 2 AB’s and some pinch running…..never stopped smiling

Sammy Moore- for coming along….we don’t make the run like we did without Sam

Matt Foster-never say lose, never say die, and brothers don’t shake hands…Matt’s always there to pick up my pieces when I get teary and choked up.

Brett Belcastro-our glue in the infield, dances, sings, Uncle Larry is proud of you.

Fred Kent-could anyone love to play more?  Team nutritionist.  Still getting better.

Mike Rapicioli- Mr. Home Run…..the best is yet to come……you can make book on that!  

Eric Hemphill-kept me from donning the tools of ignorance because he was just so good for so many games

Mike Quinto and Rob Gray for doing whatever was asked whenever asked…..”Q”, your ballplayers would be proud of you.

Barry Van Hooser-for trying his best when his stuff was far from his best

Jason Levy-our webmaster

ALL OF YOU  from all over the world , the US, and Canada that have followed us via the website for yet another year.

Closing Notes:

Another year…our 20^th as Ricola and 26^th as a team.

Final Record:  20 Wins, 9 Losses, and 2 Ties…not too shabby and it was a great time.

Attitude…the best…..this year’s team simply wanted to play ball…any time, anywhere, against anyone.  It’s all about ball with this group…..fastpitch softball.

I’m signing off for now….We’ll be back.

12

Preston Minnesota 8 - Ricola 4
Losing Pitcher Barry Van Hooser
Homerun Sammy Moore

Ricola Finishes 2nd in Molly Sherman Tourney

May 23-24, 2009-Elkland , Pa.

Ricola Men’s Fastpitch Softball Club went 4-2 for the weekend at the 3rd annual Molly Sherman Memorial Tournament in Elkland, Pa. The Cough Drops lost to the NY Bombers in the finals.

Game recaps as follows:

Saturday Pool Play
Ricola 13-Ormrod 2	WP Paul Furlong HR Paul Furlong
Ricola 9 - Clearfield, Pa. Busters 3	WP Barry Van Hooser
NY Bombers 6-Ricola 4	LP Barry Van Hooser in relief of Paul Furlong
	Jeff Carr Walk off HR for Bombers in extra innings
Sunday Single Elimination Round
Ricola 5- Elkland,Pa 3	WP Paul Furlong
Ricola 3-Rise 2	WP Barry Van Hooser in Semi Finals
NY Bombers 11-Ricola 1	LP Paul Furlong in Finals

Notes:

A good weekend of ball for the Ricola eleven. Pitchers Barry Van Hooser and Paul Furlong each threw well and got plenty of work. Furlong had 2 quality wins and Van Hooser came up huge in the semi final game against the highly touted Rise team. The Ricola defense was stingy, and offensively the Cough Drops showed some pop.

Saturday night, a large contingent of the team camped out next to the ball park. Their tents were pitched, the grill was filled with homemade venison sausage ala Mendell, a game was going on under the lights inside the park and there was Old Glory flying proudly above the stadium.

The talk was about ball but what was in the air was more than ball. The Spirit of Fastpitch Softball made a visit but what was in the air was even bigger than that. Tough to figure out? I think not.

Ricola’s record stands at 5-4-1. We travel to Oswego,NY for 4 games on Saturday, June 6th. Thanks for staying with us as we enjoy our 26th year and 20th year as Ricola.

Ricola Finishes 4th in Elkland “B”

August 23-24-Elkland, Pa...In the heart of Pa’s Tioga Mountainsbr>
After a first round bye, Jamie Thompson pitched almost all of the time as the Cough Drops managed 2 wins and 2 losses in Elkland, Pa to finish the 2008 season with 13 wins and 7 losses.

Jeff Van Hooser was unable to pitch due to an injury suffered at the ISC II’s so Jamie Thompson had to carry almost all of the pitching load and he did so admirably. Game recaps as follows:

Ricola 11-Keeneyville 4 (6 inning mercy rule game)
  WP Jamie Thompson 7 K’s
  LP Flynn

Northern Merchants 5- Ricola 4
  WP Steve Price
  LP Jamie Thompson

Ricola 4-Elkland Thunderbellies 3
  WP Jamie Thompson 11K’s
  LP Gord Scott

Waterdown Hammer 5-Ricola 1
  WP Tim Neill
  LP Jamie Thompson

Weekend Comment: A beautiful weekend in Elkland and I don’t believe that the chicken barbecue was ever better. Ricola, as always, was game but a lack of timely hitting and having to operate with 1 pitcher made the sledding tough. Jamie Thompson did throw well and proved that he can go back to back games. Mike Rapacioli, Ricola’s clean up hitter, had 8 hits for the weekend including one dinger and almost had a few more hits on infield grounders……..pure myth that Rapicioli can’t run……matter of fact, he’s pretty quick and also make no mistake about his hustle and level of commitment…he hasn’t missed a game for Ricola in 2 years and most of the time he’s in centerfield before our infield is set. Good to see Freddie Kent back on the field…..Freddie missed a few weekends because of the arrival of a new baby girl. Congrat’s to Fred and Liz! First year Ricola player , Bruce Hackett, contributed nicely with a handful of hits and 2 sacrifice bunts….Bruce always plays hard and has been an extremely pleasant addition to Ricola’s ranks.

Future Comment: So, another campaign comes to and end ...13-7 is a pretty fair year. We had lots of fun, played our best, endured an interesting situation (are you listening ISC II?), and enjoyed the fellowship that being part of a team is supposed to be about….. wish we could have played more but such is life. We’ll be back next year and there will be posts on this site throughout the winter…so, go get a beer but don’t change the dial.

Historical Comment: It simply has to be noted that the 2008 season was the 25th season for our team. A group of half a dozen or so of us (mostly malcontents) broke away from Bill Miller’s Graf Graphics after the 1983 season hoping to put the fun back into the game under the leadership of Jack Smith (no relationship to Doug) and to do it our way….the way that we felt was the right way. Well, for 25 years we’ve done it our way based on the ideals established way back then. We were Stan and Ollies for a year, County News for a year, The Goal Post for 4 years and 2008 was our 19th year carrying the Ricola banner……..25 years!!!!!! One of these days I’m going to write a detailed history of our 25 year odyssey. Where have the years gone?

I often wonder how much further along my career would be if I had put the time into my business life that I’ve put into my fastpitch life. There really were a number of years when my life was way out of balance because of this game. Instead of making a fastpitch call what if it had been a business call? Where would I be now????? What about the trout streams that I’ve yet to fish and the trails that I’ve not yet hiked because of the commitment to the game and all of the weekends on the road for all of these years? Where have the years gone?

I get like this every year when the season is over...reflective. Usually, I have to fight back the tears when I say my good bye’s to the team after our last game….it’s never been an easy time of the year for me. Another season, yet really it’s just the end of what has been a very long parade of seasons…each one filled with the joys and sorrows that can only be known by those in our elite fraternity. Where have the years gone?....Memories……more memories than can be counted……passionate memories…...memories that no career can duplicate…memories that no money can buy…memories that can only be made by the people, places, and events that have been a part of the parade of seasons…fastpitch seasons…..the game of games…Fastpitch memories....trade them for more money or an advanced career or more days on the trout stream.....not a chance.

Where have the years gone? Lord, have I been blessed! There are no guarantees: It’s all about people: You get what you give:

Ricola 2-1 at Rain Shortened Holland Patent, NY Tourney

August 2-3//Holland Patent, NY…the foothills of the Adirondacks

Tom Haver, Bill Hillhouse, and Jason Smith were the pitchers that Ricola had to face this past weekend …that’s why you travel as far as you do… it just doesn’t get much better!

Unfortunately, the weather could have been a lot better…it poured off and on and ultimately the final 4 games were totally washed out with Ricola and Halpin Fuel(Northern Merchants) splitting the 3rd and 4th place money and The NY Knights and the NY Bombers splitting the 1st and 2nd place cash.

Game ReCaps
Ricola 6-Halpin Fuel 4
   WP Jeff Van Hooser (12K’s)
   LP Tom Haver

NY Knights 4-Ricola 0
   WP Bill Hillhouse (Paul Furlong’s single in the 7th spoiled Hillhouse’ perfect game bid)
   LP Jamie Thompson

Ricola 1- CPI 0
   WP Jeff Van Hooser 13 K’s (perfect game spoiled by 7th inning walk)
   LP Jason Smith

Comment:

Tom Heburn and staff did as good a job as possible under the circumstances…..a nice tournament in a place that has a reverence for fastpitch.

The Cough Drops did well against some lofty competition….both the NY Knight and CPI are ranked in the top 10 in ISC II rankings. Look for the NY Knights to be in the thick of it in Appleton, Wisconsin.

Jeff Van Hooser was on fire for Ricola and Jamie Thompson threw well against The Knights. As usual the Cough Drop defense was stingy with SS Brett Belcastro leading the charge with a number of great defensive plays.

Ricola next travels to Elkland Pa. August 23-24. We’ll keep you posted.

Ricola Goes 1-2 at Dunkirk

July 19-20/ Dunkirk, NY on the shores of Lake Erie

Well, we won a game anyway and that’s something that we haven’t done before in the Annual First Ward Falcons Open Tournament.

Game Summaries as follows:

Kelseys 2-Ricola 1
  WP Jamie Simpson
  LP Jeff Van Hooser

Ricola 7-Lackawanna All Stars 1
  WP Jamie Thompson

Dunkirk Falcons 3- Ricola 1
  WP Tom Berube
  LP Jeff Van Hooser

Comment

It was good to get back to a double elimination format where every game really counts.

Despite the fact that we don’t do well in Dunkirk, it’s a good tournament to go to. Good teams (we want to play the good teams and we feel it is a compliment to be paired up with them early) and there is a sense of pride and tradition that surrounds this event that has been going for 33 years and is sponsored by the First Ward Falcons of Dunkirk. Lots of rain Saturday night and the fields were set to go by game time Sunday morning….kudos to the tournament organizers and the Twp of Dunkirk who did the field maintenance. They were working on the fields at 7:00 a.m. and really busted to get them ready.

Every time we step on the field I feel a strange emotion that I can’t quite put my finger on……..you see we go with our guys all the time and we play a pretty fair brand of ball.. if Jeff Van Hooser is on and if we hit a little we can hang with most teams in our class.....this weekend for instance we hung in there against Jamie Simpson and Tom Berube….two pretty fair thumbs…….heck, we’re even getting the bunts down this year…...what hurts is that we go with our team weekend in and weekend out …rarely do we pick up a player. As Paul Furlong said….”With us, what you see is what you get…every weekend.” We have 1 new guy this year and the rest of the team has been around for at least 4 years with half of the team being around 7 years or more. What I’m getting at is the ISC II…what a damn shame for our group and for the game too that we weren’t allowed to try and qualify for the ISC II tournament because we have 4 OOA players instead of the allowed 3…..it didn’t matter that our OOA players have been with us for 9, 5, 5, and 4 years…..not exactly ringers that we’re trying to pickup. In light of all of the BS you hear about with reclassifications, backroom political favors, and other flat out that has gone down it kind of makes you wonder about things just a little. Feel sorry for our group, yes I do…..this year with an ever shrinking budget and more and more money out of their pockets they’ve proven that they just want to play ball. But it’s also about the game…..isn’t it????????????????????????????

Ricola’s record stands at 9-4. We travel to Holland Patent, NY for the Annual Robert’s Post Tournament on August 1-2. Many thanks to all of you that are following us again this year…… it’s the 25th year of our team and the 19th year that we’ve been Ricola…….the amount of hits on our website is really overwhelming at times……and Brett Hare, thanks for following along from New Zealand……I wish this group of guys could meet you and you them……..

View all pictures

Ricola Wins 4 in Cortland, NY

Cortland, NY., June 28-29, 2008

Ricola Men’s Fastpitch Softball Club won 4 games and lost 1 this past weekend in Cortland, NY. Their 1 loss came in the semi final round so Ricola did not finish in the money.

Recap as follows:

Ricola 5-Nortthern Merchants 0
Jeff Van Hooser Winning Pitcher 16 K’s

Ricola 4-Pa. Power 3
Jamie Thompson Winning Pitcher 10 K’s
Jamie Thompson/Ricola HR

Ricola 6- NY Bombers 4
Paul Furlong Winning Pitcher
Jamie Thompson/Ricola 3 hits/3 RBI

Ricola 12-Rahway AC 3
Jamie Thompson Winning Pitcher
Jamie Thompson/Ricola HR

PA Power 6- Ricola 5
Merlin High Winning Pitcher
Mike Rapicioli/Ricola HR

Ricola’s record now stands at 8-2 for the year.

Ricola next travels to Dunkirk, NY July 19-20.

 Ricola Takes 2nd at Molly Sherman Memorial Tournament

Elkland, Pa.- June 14-15, 2008

Ricola went 4-1 for the weekend to take 2nd place for the 2nd year in a row at The Molly Sherman Memorial Tournament: Recap as follows:


Ricola 5-Cornerstone Excavating 4
WP Jamie Thompson 12 K’s

Ricola 3-Rochester, NY 0
WP Jeff Van Hooser 13 K’s

Ricola 8-Elkland Pa Thunderbellies 0
WP Jeff Van Hooser

Ricola 2- Yeungling 0
WP Jeff Van Hooser 11 K’s

NY Bombers 10-Ricola 2
LP Jeff Van Hooser in relief of Thompson

Ricola travels to Cortland , NY , June 28-29

Bruce Hackett Joins Ricola


Bruce Hackett, a veteran first baseman/outfielder has joined Ricola for the 2008 season. Hackett comes to Ricola following a number of successful campaigns with The Elkland Softball Association. Elkland discontinued operations and Hackett became available.

In Bruce Hackett, Ricola gets a good lefty bat and a solid defensive player. Hackett’s work ethic, his approach to the game, and his skill level made him a solid fit for Ricola.

Welcome Bruce Hackett!

Greetings From Tom and Tonya Pearson in Minot, ND

Tom and Tonya Pearson were our hosts for the 1995 ASA Men’s Class A Fastpitch Nationals in Minot, North Dakota. When you go to Minot for a nationals, each team is hosted by a local ballplayer and his family.

Tom and Tonya (affectionately known as “Two Beer Tonya”) hosted us. Tom met us at the airport. He transported all of our gear to the motel in the back of his pickup truck. He arranged for practice fields and he worked out with us. Tom and Tonya marched with us in the parade, they were at every game, they drank with us afterwards, and Tonya baked cookies for us to eat on the plane ride home. They both made our stay enjoyable, memorable, and it was so nice to have someone take care of so many of the logistics for us. In between and during all of this, they became our friends and we became theirs.

Every year since 1995 at Christmas time we exchange Christmas Cards and catch up a little. Tom and Tonya Pearson and our enduring friendship with them proves to me that the T-Shirt is correct when it says, “Fastpitch Softball-More Than Just a Game.”

Tom and Tonya did make Minot the “Magic City” for us.