Individuals play the game yet teams win championships
Bill Parcells
May 13, 2021
“May Madness” has begun in Hong Kong with some major silverware to be handed out in the next two weeks. This weekend will see the first of three championships where TTBC has a chance to win. On Sunday the Eagles will play the Buffaloes in the Majors Championship and a week later the Pirates will play the Angels in the Minors Championship. As a warm-up for the minors championship – the CP champion will be ordained at HKIS on Saturday. Some exciting baseball to come!
Here is how we did around the Bay Area this past weekend
The Juniors Division
The Eagles squared off against the second seeded Lions in a second round playoff duel at a very hot and dusty Lion Rock 2. As we have come to expect from the Eagles, it was a hard fought game although the Eagles came up just short in yet another full 7 inning journey succumbing to the lions 12-11.
The Eagles outhit the Lions with over 20 hits spread out over 9 batters throughout the line-up. Offensive highlights included a another moon shot homerun from Woochan Nam that clanked off the electrical box in left center. Such a sweet sweet sound. It is predicted that “Woochan” will become the next global one name wonder rivalling that of “Neimar” and “Pele.”
The Eagles also got multiple and timely hits in clutch situations most notably a rip single from Kai Cheng in the 5th inning marking his first career juniors base hit (many more to come).
Eagles pitching kept the ball in play only walking five over 7 innings. The Lions bats were just one extra hit too much.
On to the 3rd place game against the Astros where the Eagles will looking to avenge a close loss in their last matchup.
End of season stat leaders will be posted after the game on Sunday.
Fly Eagles Fly. (Copyright permission not obtained)
The Majors Division
Toughest loss of the year this week for the Thunder. Lost our playoff game 5-3 despite out hitting the Buffaloes 10-6 and out pitching 11k’s to 6 K’s . Some unlucky breaks along with a few base running errors caused the Thunder to have to sit out the Championship game. Dylan Burgess came in relief over 4 innings striking out 8 and giving up 3 hits….Dylan also had 3 hits. Harrison Waag had an RBI triple in the bottom of the 4th to tie the game at 2-2 before the Buffaloes came back with 3 unanswered runs. Two defensive highlights were two catches by the outfielders Seb Schroth and Aiden Kuo- the first time we have done that all year!! Also, Harrison caught all 6 innings for the second week in a row showing great resilience and lefty catching skills. We all wish the Eagles good luck next week as they have a chance to win the Championship. Go Eagles!!
The Eagles, with two outs, scored 10 runs with 11 consecutive hits in the second inning to route the Astros 17 -1 in the first round of the play-offs. Michael Lee got out of his slump by knocking in five runs (in one inning) while Max Barney, Michael Lee, Blayden Schwartz, Ryan Wang and Daniel “the goose” Guzak all had perfect days at the plate and did not get out. Andes Chai returned to the bump and pitched scoreless relief of starter Max Barney. Next stop for the Eagles is the Majors Championship with the JBC Buffaloes on Sunday.
The Minors Division
The Hong Kong summer has arrived at Ho Man Tin West (HMTW) and everyone could feel the temperature increase this past weekend! In the Lower Bracket, the Eagles look to get back to their winning ways and pull away from the pack.
In the Upper Bracket, we already knew last week the TTBC Pirates and Korean Angels had secured the top two spots which meant they will vie for the 2021 HKLL Minors Championship. These two team met this past Sunday to determine seeding and who will be home team in the finals. The Sharks and Typhoons were also in battle to determine which final i.e. 3rd place or 5th place final they will take part in.
The Eagles hosted the Blue Jays in a one-sided affair which saw the birds of prey efficiently dispatch their opponents. The Eagles scored five runs in each of the first three innings and shut down the Jays in the top of the fourth to complete a 2 to 15 rout.
Leadoff batter Gabriel Gusak led the onslaught with a 3-for-3 performance which included a homer, triple and a double. Oliver Barnes and pool player, David Weiss contributed with two hits of their own. The Eagles racked up ten hits in total on the day.
Barnes got the start on the hill and was relieved by Alexander Min and Gusak. The trio would combine to allow two runs on two hits and collectively striking out seven.
The Sharks met the Yakult Swallows of the Japanese Club where a Sharks victory would have secured a berth in the 3rd place final. The Sharks led 7 to 4 at one point of the game but could not hold onto the lead as Swallows came back to win 7 to 11.
Sebastian Snape had a bases clearing double in an otherwise muted day for the Sharks’ high-octane offence. Briggs Freeman worked the mound and lasted three innings where he struck out five Swallows.
The Sharks playoff record was 1 win, 3 losses and 1 tie but which final they will compete in remains unknown as the Typhoons – Shatin Martins games was inconclusive.
The Pirates played host to the Angels in a game that didn’t mean very much in the grand scheme of things. The last meeting between these two teams ended in a doozy with the Angels escaping with a 2 to 1 victory.
This most recent game looked to pick up where they left off and would go the full six innings – you would expect nothing less from the top two teams in HK Minors baseball. As promised, the Angels led 3 to 1 after four innings of play but a series of miscues and gifting in the fifth inning from the Pirates handed the game to the Angels. Final score: Angels 7 – 1 Pirates.
Will “Lights Out” Talsness got the start and pitched admirably going three innings and allowing three runs on two hits whilst striking out nine. Isshin Satake and Ryan Lem came in from the bullpen in relief.
The hot bats of Triple T (Blakely, Cheng and Carale) continued into this game. However, the Pirates registered just four hits, despite making decent contact with the ball. With some good, and sometimes lucky defense, the Angels managed to keep the Pirates offence at bay.
The buccaneers will look to exact revenge on Sunday, May 23rd in the Championship Final and put a damper on the Angels’ season – because that’s what Pirates do…
| Position | Team | Win | Loss | Tie |
| Upper | ||||
| 1 | KBC Angels | 5 | 0 | – |
| 2 | TTBC Pirates | 3 | 2 | – |
| 3 | JBC Yakult Swallows | 3 | 2 | – |
| 4 | TTBC Sharks | 1 | 3 | 1 |
| 5 | TTBC Typhoons | 1 | 3 | – |
| 6 | Shatin Martins | 0 | 3 | 1 |
| Lower | ||||
| 7 | TTBC Eagles | 4 | 1 | – |
| 8 | Astros | 4 | 1 | – |
| 9 | Kaakiro Lions | 1 | 4 | – |
| 10 | HMT Blue Jays | 1 | 4 | – |
The CP Division
The Coaches Pitch will begin its playoffs starting this Saturday! We’ll have the #1 seed Dragons host the #4 Typhoons and the #2 Sharks attempt to defend their title against the #3 seeded Thunder this weekend.
| W | L | T | GB | |
| Dragons | 6 | 2 | 0 | — |
| Sharks | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0.5 |
| Thunder | 3 | 4 | 1 | 2.5 |
| Typhoons | 1 | 7 | 0 | 5 |
The TTBC Leaders
Hits:
Takeo Blakely (Pirates) 26
Donovan Ma (Pirates) 22
Taylor Gardner (Typhoons) 21
Briggs Freeman (Sharks) 20
Kingsley Wang (Sharks) 19
RBIs:
Briggs Freeman (Sharks) 16
Taylor Gardner (Typhoons) 16
Kingsley Wang (Sharks) 16
Takeo Blakely (Pirates) 15
Jack Simmons (Sharks) 14
Strikeouts:
Taylor Gardner (Typhoons) 57
Briggs Freeman (Sharks) 53
Isshin Satake (Pirates) 45
David Weiss (Typhoons) 42
Will Talsness (Pirates) 36
Majors stats
Hits
Chai 46 – New TTBC Record
Barney 45 – New TTBC Record
Gardner 43
Holland 42
Lee 36
RBI
Holland 46 – TTBC Record
Chai 45 – TTBC Record
Lee 44
Barney 34
Gardner 27
Wang 27
K’s
Barney 100 New TTBC Record
Chai 81
Holland 81
Flach 57
Burgess 47
The Juniors Stats
Hits:
Evan Wu – 26
Woochan Nam – 24
Niki Hui – 20
Daniel Zhang – 19
Rohan Shah – 18
Sean Nelson – 16
RBIs:
Evan Wu – 24
Woo chan Nam – 24
Niky Hui – 14
Kaes Carter – 14
Rohan Shah – 11
Sean Nelson – 11
Strikeouts:
Wochan Nam – 20
J Pederson -19
Evan Wu – 16
Daniel Zhang – 12
Theo Sims – 9
The Record Books
Here are some of the records being chased by our players this year. For all the records please go to our website. The green highlighted are players this year that are currently playing :
The Majors have seen every major category eclipsed this year and there are still as many as five games to play for some of the teams.
| Majors Record | ||
| Strikeouts | ||
| Max Barney | Eagles – 21 | 100 |
| Jojo Mann | Typhoons -15 | 94 |
| Andes Chai | Eagles – 21 | 81 |
| Ethan Holland | Thunder – 21 | 72 |
| Zach Seahafer | Cardinals -16 | 68 |
| Hits | ||
| Andes Chai | Eagles -21 | 46 |
| Max Barney | Eagles – 21 | 45 |
| Ryan Gardner | Eagles- 21 | 43 |
| Thomas Belman | Patriots-17 | 41 |
| Ethan Holland | Thunder – 21 | 40 |
| Michael Lee | Eagles – 21 | 39 |
| RBI’s | ||
| Ethan Holland | Thunder – 21 | 46 |
| Andes Chai | Eagles -21 | 45 |
| Michael Lee | Eagles -21 | 44 |
| Wyatt Mastteson | Cardinals -16 | 38 |
| Evan Wu | Patriots -17 | 38 |
The Juniors teams have also watched a lot of records fall in 2021
| Juniors Records | ||
| Strikeouts | ||
| Vince Krembs | Eagles -16 | 60 |
| Zach Seahafer | Eagles -18 | 49 |
| Wyatt Matheson | Eagles – 17 | 47 |
| Vince Krembs | Thunder -15 | 37 |
| Evan Wu | Eagles -18 | 28 |
| Hits | ||
| Zach Barney | Eagles -16 | 33 |
| Thomas Belman | Eagles -19 | 29 |
| Thomas Belman | Eagles -18 | 28 |
| Evan Wu | Typhoons -20 | 27 |
| Vince Krembs | Eagles -16 | 27 |
| Woo chan Nam | Eagles – 20 | 24 |
| Evan Wu | Eagles -18 | 23 |
| Thomas Cernosia | Eagles -16 | 23 |
| RBI’s | ||
| Mark Gikas | Eagles -18 | 28 |
| Mark Gikas | Eagles -19 | 26 |
| Evan Wu | Typhoons -20 | 24 |
| Liam Barney | Eagles – 17 | 24 |
| Woo chan Nam | Eagles – 20 | 24 |
| Vince Krembs | Eagles -16 | 23 |
| Vince Krembs | Thunder -15 | 21 |
| Thomas Cernosia | Eagles -16 | 21 |
Some of the career stats have also been eclipsed this year by some of the players in the Majors
| Career Stats | ||
| Career Strikeouts | ||
| Jojo Mann | Eagles | 255 |
| Ethan Holland | Thunder | 238 |
| Tyler Tom | Eagles | 225 |
| Vincent Krembs | Eagles | 196 |
| Max Barney | Eagles | 190 |
| Chris Tung | Eagles | 188 |
| Zach Barney | Eagles | 187 |
| Career Hits |
| |
| Zach Barney | Eagles | 218 |
| Tommy Belman | Cardinals | 217 |
| Vince Krembs | Eagles | 156 |
| Evan Wu | Typhoons | 122 |
| Jacob Lee | Eagles | 118 |
| Career RBI’s | ||
| Zach Barney | Eagles | 165 |
| Tommy Belman | Cardinals | 150 |
| Mark Gikas | Eagles | 131 |
| Evan Wu | Typhoons | 130 |
| Vincent Krembs | Eagles | 115 |
Let’s cheer these kids on as they vie for some of TTBC’s most hallowed records…..
A little more drama to come.
STAY HEALTHY
COACH BARNEY