Heavy Metal Softball

First Tournament Effort Of The Year A Stepping Stone 

First, as always, I want to thank all of the players who represented Heavy Metal Softball this weekend for their effort, help, and cooperation in making our first tournament of the year a somewhat successful effort -- in the sense that we were very competitive against some roughly comparable teams.  Here are some final tournament statistics for those who actually visit our website and are truly interested in such things.  I would like to state here again that unlike previous seasons a couple of years ago -- when I published an extensive summary of each tournament regardless of the outcome -- I will only do so if we achieve playoff status or have a winning record, with just a bare-bones tournament rundown for those events of little distinction.  So, without further adieu, I present some facts from this particular contest:

Slugfest Super 7 Series, Tournament #1 Summary --

Tournament Record:  0-3 (could easily have been 3-0)
                                1st game:  Lost 10-12 vs. Krush
                                2nd game:  Lost 9-13 vs. Hit Squad
                                3rd game:  Lost 13-15 vs. Bad Boyz 

Team Statistics (alphabetically):

Donny Aguiar -- 6 for 10; .600 BA; 26 points.
Vern Amaro -- 5 for 9; .556 BA; 17 points.
Rich Avery -- 4 for 10; .400 BA; 25 points.
Wes Avery -- 4 for 12; .333 BA; 12 points.
Lucio Cobos -- 5 for 9; .556 BA; 16 points.
Lee Garcia -- 4 for 9; .444 BA; 10 points.
Gene Hitt -- 2 for 9; .222 BA; 8 points.
Brian Hollingshead -- 2 for 9; .222 BA; 6 points.
Paul Lawrence -- 2 for 10; .200 BA; 10 points.
Mike Lujan -- 5 for 11; .455 BA; 15 points.
Lencho Martinez -- 3 for 8; .375 BA; 13 points.
Steve Stafford -- 6 for 10; .600 BA; 24 points.

Team Batting Average:  .422 (49 for 116; we averaged 10.6 runs/game for the whole tournament.  We need to definitely improve our team batting average, as this current one won't win games, much less tournaments....)

Tournament MVP:  Donny Aguiar (26 points -- Sizzlin' Stick award!)

Manager's Award:  I would like to take this time now to recognize a few other players who shined just as brightly this weekend with their contributions to the team:  Rich Avery, Steve Stafford, and Mike Lujan. Their stats above speak for themselves, but their consistency throughout the tournament is what I noticed most and appreciated greatly -- here's a "hats-off" to all three of you!  

2009 Season Statistics (alphabetically; all players):

Donny Aguiar -- 6 for 10; .600 BA; 26 points (1 tournament)
Vern Amaro -- 5 for 9; .556 BA; 17 points (1 tournament)
Rich Avery -- 4 for 10; .400 BA; 25 points (1 tournament)
Wes Avery -- 4 for 12; .333 BA; 12 points (1 tournament)
Lucio Cobos -- 5 for 9; .556 BA; 16 points (1 tournament)
Lee Garcia -- 4 for 9; .444 BA; 10 points (1 tournament)
Gene Hitt -- 2 for 9; .222 BA; 8 points (1 tournament)
Brian Hollingshead -- 2 for 9; .222 BA; 6 points (1 tournament)
Paul Lawrence -- 2 for 10; .200 BA; 10 points (1 tournament)
Mike Lujan -- 5 for 11; .455 BA; 15 points (1 tournament)
Lencho Martinez -- 3 for 8; .375 BA; 13 points (1 tournament)
Steve Stafford -- 6 for 10; .600 BA; 24 points (1 tournament) 

Year-End Award Progress:  Donny Aguiar and Steve Stafford both initially lead the race for the Batting Champions: Metal Men perpetual award bat, based on their single tournament batting averages of .600 -- but Vern Amaro and Lucio Cobos are close behind during this 2009 tournament tour with tournament batting averages of .556 (Mike Lujan is third with a single tournament batting average of .455). Please remember -- just in case everyone forgets -- a player must have played in a minimum of 5 tournaments to earn this recognition, which is something to think about when I ask everyone next time if they want to play some more ball in an upcoming tournament....

And, once again, that's all, folks!!!