Eighth Annual Fremont Benefit Tournament

Glory road

Jay Falasca’s walk-off homer against Waymart Hotel hands Fitness Factory its second consecutive Fremont title

By RICHARD A. ROSS

FREMONT CENTER, NY - The majesty and allure of sports is in its reflection of life, a blend of celebration and jubilation with times of abject grief and sadness. Most of the time, we live internally between the lines of those extremes. Sometimes it is right in front of us. Both were evident this weekend as the eighth annual Fremont Tournament unfolded with more teams and more drama than ever before in its eight-year history.

This year’s tournament was a benefit for Long Eddy sportsman Ernie Ross, who had suffered for more than a year with a degenerative vascular disease known as Calciphlaxis. After undergoing 19 surgeries that included amputations, Ross passed away on July 31, just days before the tournament, which became a fundraiser for his grieving family.

While the funeral was held in Callicoon on August 4, the games up at the ballpark in Fremont Center were being played on three fields, the schedule already behind from rain-induced cancellations the night before. While one life ends, others go on. A casket is lowered in one place and a bat is raised in another. It’s all part of life’s indelible blend of opposites, and an affirmation that even in the midst of tragedy, life, indeed, does go on.

For three days, beginning with nature’s fury of blazing lightning on Friday night, August 3 and culminating in the man-made lightning strike delivered by the walk-off, three-run homer by Fitness Factory’s Jay Falasca in the bottom of the seventh amid darkening skies on Sunday night, this year’s tournament had it all: great moral victories, stunning upsets, heroics, controversy and feelings of frustration experienced by the volunteer staff at the ballpark that may well lead to this being the last tournament they sponsor at the wonderful facility. More about that later.

But all of that faded into the background as Falasca stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning. It was two out, two on and his defending champion team was clinging to the hope that their veteran center fielder could deliver in a game they had been trailing in from the fifth inning on.

In one of those iconic sports moments, life stood still as Waymart Hotel pitcher Scott Gross got set to deliver what he hoped would be his last pitch of the night. If he could retire Falasca, he’d hand his team and his home state of Pennsylvania a remarkable win over the local New York heavyweight Fitness Factory, a team most deemed the tournament favorite.

The pitch came in mid high as Falasca zoned in on it, before hitting what seemed like the longest ball of the weekend into the far reaches of right center field for a three-run homer. The 11-9 win was over the one team that seemed best equipped to finally beat the juggernaut men in blue and orange.

Veteran captain Bobby Bunting of Waymart Hotel had brought great Pennsylvania players to this tournament before, but they always had to leave for playoff games before the tourney ended. This year, he brought guys who were in it until the end.

As Falasca crossed the plate and leaped airborne into the awaiting arms of his teammates, the Waymart Hotel team comprised mostly of players from first-place Kestler’s of the Lake Ariel League just smiled. “What a game,” they exclaimed. “What a game.” There in the waning light of an August evening, the two best teams, both class acts, shook hands and celebrated a game well-played, punctuating the tourney’s final moment with the feel-good atmosphere that it truly deserved.

The game featured six home runs, three by each team. Waymart’s Pete Soprana led off the game with a solo shot off Fitness hurler Shane Conner. A three-run blast by Jeff Barnes in the fourth inning put his team temporarily in the lead, and a two-run homer by big Steve Knapp in the sixth had Waymart out in front 8-5. But Fitness Factory, a team that never rattles, and has been through the wars of countless games in a variety of tournaments, had its answers.

Heavy hitting Aaron Dinkel’s two-run blast in the first gave Fitness the early lead. Mike Weiner’s solo homer in the second made it a 3-1 game. RBI hits from Denny Rivera and Desmond Gonzalez in the fourth helped Fitness Factory regain the lead it lost in the top of the inning. The men in the uniforms that mirror the colors of the New York Mets found themselves trailing by two entering the bottom of the seventh. Waymart had added an insurance run in the top of the frame with a RBI single by Buddy Vale.

With one out, Fitness Factory captain Edwin “Flaco” Rodriguez stretched a base hit into a double. Conner brought him home with a single. Dinkel flied out to right, and Julian Dawson worked out a walk, having yet another great at bat in a weekend where his addition to the team proved most timely, given the absence of two of Fitness Factory’s starters.

Still trailing by one run, the polarity of the game shifted for good with Falasca’s three-run blast. Had Waymart won, the two teams would have been tied with one loss apiece and who knows what would have happened. It was too dark to play the tiebreaker.

Fitness Factory completed a 5-0 run through the tourney that was marked by wins over Lake Huntington Garage, Fredo Masonry, a tight and competitive 9-6 win against Stone Arch Inn, a 3-1 squeaker over Radio Shack of Hamlin, PA and the championship win over Waymart Hotel.

Waymart Hotel ended the weekend with a record of 4-2. After beating Darder’s Stone Works, they lost to Radio Shack, a team that Kestler’s regularly beats in the Lake Ariel league. That dropped them into the loser’s bracket where they went on to beat Sutphen East, FYI Graphics and came back from a 8-3 seventh-inning deficit to defeat Radio Shack in the loser’s bracket final 9-8 and advance to the championship game.

Stunners, milestones and some moments from the dark side

By their very nature, weekend softball tournaments are bound to have their share of upsets. This tournament was no exception. In the opening round, Fredo Masonry defeated FYI Graphics, a Pennsylvania team that went deep in the tournament the year before. This year, there were five Pennsylvania teams among the field of 19 and three of them made it to the final four.

One Pennsylvania team, however, AmPenn Converting of Eynon, PA left the tournament early following a heated controversy over a game called on account of darkness on August 4. With AmPenn leading 6-2 in the fourth inning, the game was set to continue the next morning, but several AmPenn players wanted the game to continue until it became official after five innings. Umpires deemed that impossible and an ugly argument ensued that led to the ejection of players and a forfeit.

AmPenn opted to leave the tournament instead of going into the loser’s bracket. It was one of several things that happened that led the ballpark staff to lean in favor of not sponsoring the tournament next year. Other things included a lack of cooperation in cleaning up after the games and some rude behavior that ran contrary to the tournament’s mission as a charity fundraiser and a feel-good event.

Stone Arch Inn got its first win of the year over arch-rival Matthew’s on Main by the score of 7-6 despite the fact that Matthew’s had the tying run on second base at game’s end. Later, Stone Arch found itself victimized by a meltdown to FYI Graphics. Leading 10-2 in the seventh inning, and coming within a hair of closing out FYI by the 10-run rule, Stone Arch Inn experienced an inexplicable defeat as FYI scored 10 runs in the seventh and eliminated the men in royal blue and white by the score of 12-10.

Earlier, Sutphen East got out to an 8-0 early lead on Matthew’s on Main, which had fortified itself for the tournament with a number of top-notch players in an attempt to win this year’s title. Frustration on the part of Matthew’s short stop, one of the players the team acquired for this tourney, led him to fire a ball in the direction of a Sutphen player, who had been commenting on his errors at short.

Umpires said they did not see the throw made, which came after the Sutphen East runner was safe at first and the play was over. The ball careened off a shed near which several children were seated. The player was not ejected. Sutphen came back in the bottom of the seventh to win the game with a RBI single by Chris Marston that drove in Des Williams with the winning run.

The loss was Matthew’s second of the tourney and ended their run. Sutphen East exuberantly celebrated the win, which would turn out to be their glorious moment. They were eliminated in the next game by Waymart Hotel.

Some controversy surrounded the use of slingshot pitching by several individuals on a couple of teams who were warned against its use. At times it seemed the tournament rule preventing its use wasn’t completely enforced. But by the time the game came down to the championship, it was no longer an issue as both pitchers threw the ball according to the rules, and each team had its share of great hits.

In still another lackluster moment, a team had an illegal bat taken away after it was called attention to. The bat was painted and had decals affixed to it masking its true identity. No other consequences were enforced over its use.

Despite some players’ inappropriate response to feelings of frustration, the tournament was a great success. A sum of $5,000 was raised for the Ross family by the tournament.

Kudos to the great job done by the umpires during the seemingly endless rounds of games.

The fine facility will be used for little league tournaments, car shows and other events next year. According to tournament organizer Loreen Gebelein, others who wish to carry on the tournament can still rent out the facilities.

Other teams that participated in the tournament included American Electric, Davis Excavating, Kohler Lumber, Live Bait Bar and Grill from Roscoe, Ratner and Sons Paving, Ron’s Ringers, Scrubs from Deposit and Sidetracks.

Many of the teams this weekend will continue their sojourn though other tournaments. Fitness Factory and Kestler’s Well Drilling of Hawley, PA will be at the Eddie Collins Memorial Tournament on August 10 through12, a fast-pitch tournament that brings the top teams in the nations to Collins Park in Mongaup Valley. Other teams will be heading to the White Sulphur Springs modified tournament. Still to come is the Turfler Tournament in Middletown and another Ron’s Ringers tournament at Heinle’s Field in early September.

For an album of photographs, click here.