[Eugene Church]

Red-Hot Race in TU South, Colchester, Turon Co-Leaders

It's a great pennant race in the Tycobbian South this year with five teams in the chase. The Colchester Elites and the Turon Typhoons are co-leaders at the All-Star break with the Ginza Ninjas only two games behind and the Cape Coral Hurricanes and San Alejo Montaneros in fourth place, just four games off the pace. The race is so tight you can't even count out the Southport Sun Sox and Summerland Sunsets. They are tied for sixth and only seven games out.

Colchester (38-34) lets its bats do the talking, while Turon depends on its pitching corps. The Elites have a .281 batting average (4th) with 97 home runs (2nd) and 401 runs (3rd), while the Typhoons sport a 3.41 ERA (3rd). Colchester has compiled a 4.05 ERA (21), while Turon is hitting only .261 (21st) and has hit only 54 home runs (28th). Time will tell which method is the most successful. Come September we'll know.

Elite manager Uncle Robbie Wilbertson has a line-up chocked full of All-Stars and .300 hitters, led by All-Star SS Bill Keese (.354) with 12 homers and 38 RBIs, CF Doug Tilford (.314) with 7 roundtrippers and 37 RBIs, All-Star 2B Leland Curtis (.312) with 3 dingers, 29 RBIs and 53 runs scored, 1B Harlan Roscoe (.309) with 9 homers and 34 RBIs and All-Star rookie RF Teddy Blanton (.306) with 24 home runs, 66 runs driven in and 46 runs. Blanton is tied for the IPA lead in homers with Belair Beach's Phil Gravelli and is second in RBIs to Gravelli's 68.

Colchester also has some quality arms in Fred Kimball (6-6 2.86), Jimmy Simmons (8-6 3.31) and Dickie Pendarvis (8-3 3.54).

Turon (38-34) manager Ashton "Whitey" Richburn doesn't have the offensive talent to compete with the Elites, but he does have it on the hill with his starting threesome in All-Star Scotty Boswell (10-5 1.99), James Longstreet (8-5 3.15) and James Stuart (5-2 2.56). For run production the Typhoons depend on All-Star rookie C Todd Somerset (.320) with 14 homers, 52 RBIs and 40 runs, 3B Eric Hix (.281) with 7 home runs and 40 runs batted in, 2B John Paul Trevenot (.307) with 3 homers, 20 RBIs and 39 runs, and 1B Boots Dubois (.316) with 2 home runs, 20 RBIs and 30 runs scored.

Manager Huroko Uchiyama has got his Ginza Ninjas (36-36) near the top in third place only 2 games out. It has been several years since the club has reached such heights. Give the credit mainly to Toshiharu Ito (9-2 2.41), who has been superb this season. Alec Sasek (8-6 3.29) and Carl Trebek (8-9 3.45) have also pitched well for Uchiyama. Ginza has a 3.58 team ERA (5th), but the bats have been pathetic with a .261 BA (12th) and only 44 roundtrippers (32nd) and just 313 runs (28th). The best Ninja batters have been 3B Toshiro Nomura (.276) with 13 homers and 44 RBIs, 1B Hiroji Fujikawa (.262) with 4 home runs and 40 RBIs and RF Lonnie Jacobson (.272) with 8 homers and 38 RBIs. It might be tough for the Ninjas to stay in the race with such poor hitting.

Cape Coral (34-38) and San Alejo (34-38) are tied for the fourth spot in the standings, but only four games back. Neither club is outstanding in any respects. The Hurricanes have compiled a .254 batting average (25th), but have hit 77 home runs (10th), while the Montaneros have hit at a .252 clip (27th) and have 71 homers (13th). San Alejo has a 4.06 ERA (23rd) to 4.28 (24th) for Cape Coral.

It is a very down year for Cape Coral and manager Huggy Miller, who has won the TU South crown the last two seasons. Everybody is having an off-year except the Hurricane mainstays All-Star pitcher Cody Burg (10-4 2.65), RF Kippy Doyle (.275) 18 roundtrippers, 54 RBIs and 47 runs and 2B Hoshi Sato (.281) with 13 home runs, 45 runs batted in and 52 scored. Doug Lyons (7-6 3.20) has done well on the mound, but is down in wins. He had 39 victories in 2004 and 2005.

This year has been a resurgence of sorts for manager Lando Peceda and the San Alejo Montaneros. He won the TU South pennants in 2002 and 2003 but has not done well the last two seasons. Top pitchers are starters Felipe Branco (8-4 3.46) and Alberto Herrera (7-8 2.67) and closer Clay Milwaine (0-1 1.88). Top hitters are 3B Paolo Huerta (.274) with 9 homers, 40 RBIs and 39 runs scored and 2B Denholm Carruthers (.278) with 7 home runs, 33 runs batted in and 42 runs scored.

Southport (31-41) and Summerland (31-41) are deadlocked for sixth and trail by 7 games. Charley Oscar is the skipper for the Sun Sox. He has only three quality players in pitcher Mark Mumford (8-5 3.22), 1B Pat Mystryk (.295) with 12 homers and 45 RBIs and C Ty Duncan (.327) with 8 home runs and 22 RBIs. Team-wise the Sun Sox are hitting .251 (29th) with 56 homers (27th) and have a 3.97 ERA (16th).

Summerland, managed by Will Hackett, has slumped tremendously over last season. The Sunsets ran second to Cape Coral last year and went to the Pro Cup Final 4 where they lost to Denham City, but have spiraled down almost to the bottom of the division this year. They just don't hit or pitch like they did in 2005. Summerland has averaged .266 (10th) as a team with 57 home runs (25th), while registering a 3.67 ERA (8th)

Hackett still has one of the best pitchers in the IPA, All-Star Paul Felkner (11-6 1.59), who has been excellent this season. Bill Taft (6-5 3.15) and Bobby Winwood (6-7 4.02) are still around, but they just don't have any help. Batting-wise the numbers are way off from last year, especially in homers. Summerland hit 144 in 2005, but are on schedule to hit only 114 this year. Hackett still has some good bats in 2B Tucker Hill (.321) with 1 homer, 31 RBIs and 37 runs, C Glen Tracy (.298) with 8 roundtrippers and 28 RBIs and RF Nickie Troxell (.262) with 13 home runs and 40 runs batted in.

The Arroyo Grande Suns (29-43) are back in the TU South basement, where they have spent most their five years in the IPA. In 2005 the Suns blazed with an IPA record of 260 home runs and finished at the .500 mark with a 77-77 record and sixth place. Manager Jean-Luc Marchand had 8 players hit over 18 homers. The Suns still go deep this year, but not as often. They have hit 100 (1st) so far, but will come up way short of last season. To make matters even worse, Arroyo Grande's pitching also went from awful last year (4.79 ERA) to atrocious this year with a 5.27 ERA (32nd).

Charley Boyer (6-6 3.89) is Marchand's only decent pitcher. At the plate his top batters are 1B Cristian Avajos (.273) with 16 roundtrippers, 51 RBIs and 42 runs, SS Jared McCarthy (.289) with 16 homers, 44 RBIs and 42 runs scored and 3B Randy Knowles (.278) with 10 home runs, 39 runs batted in and 38 runs scored. However, none of them will approached last year's figures.