2010 Team Awards

As is the tradition, the Resurrection Life Warriors completed their post-season team voting for the following awards:
MVP
Infield Gold Glove
Outfield Gold Glove
Surprise Player of the Year
Favorite Player of the Year

Each team member gets one vote, Ron Loven gets a vote and as Manager, Austin Colby gets a second vote for a total of 13 possible ballots. Everyone is allowed to vote for as many as three people for each category. 1st place votes are worth five points, 2nd place votes are three points and 3rd place votes are one point. With all the votes counted, the results are in:

Surprise Player of the Year:
Winner: Adam Hey - 34 points & 10 votes (5 firsts, 2 seconds, 3 thirds)
Runner-up: Logan Brincefield - 26 points & 8 votes (3 firsts, 3 seconds, 2 thirds)
3rd place: Lee Valle - 23 points & 7 votes (2 firsts, 4 seconds, 1 third)
Always a fun category to vote on because of the variety of reasoning behind the vote. There are parameters so each person can choose what 'surprise' means to them. In some years, it's because underperformed beyond belief. In others, it's because they outperformed. In this year's case, the overwhelming majority felt like Adam's continued improvement from 2008 to 2009 to 2010 was outstanding and that garnered him enough votes to take the 2010 Surprise Player of the Year honor. Adam smoked the ball early in the year and held on to finish with solid stats across the board. If you compare some numbers from 2008 to now, you'll see why many still give him the Surprise nod: batting average (2008: .273 2010: .534) extra-base-hits (2008: 2 2010: 9) runs produced per game played (2008: 1.14 2010: 3.22). Great year for Adam, and he continues to turn heads.

Favorite Player of the Year:
Winner: Austin Colby - 20 points & 6 votes (1 first, 5 seconds)
Runner-up: Logan Brincefield - 17 points & 5 votes (2 firsts, 2 seconds, 1 third)
3rd place: Jeff Tenney - 15 points & 5 votes (2 firsts, 1 second, 2 thirds)
This was a new award for the season. Every single player received votes with 9 of the 10 eligible players receiving first-place votes and multiple votes. The only player to not receive a first place vote received five total votes between second and third. Great to see such a spread amongst all the teammates. With a humble heart, this sportswriter accepts the award on behalf of Manager Colby. What a surpirse and a blessing. Thank you!

Infield Gold Glove:
Winner: Lee Valle - 49 points & 11 votes (8 firsts, 3 seconds)
Runner-up: Jeff Johnson - 20 points & 6 votes (3 firsts, 1 second, 2 thirds)
3rd place: Austin Colby - 18 points & 8 votes (1 first, 3 seconds, 4 thirds)
No real surprise here. Lee Valle continues his dominance over this award. He won it in 2008 and probably would have won it in 2009 had he been able to play the season. He received 8 first place votes and appeared on 11 of the 13 ballots. Great season from Lee at the hot corner. Well deserved honor. Six players received all the available votes with each one receiving three or more votes.

Outfield Gold Glove:
Winner: Logan Brincefield - 56 points & 12 votes (10 firsts, 2 seconds)
Runner-up: Tim Jandro - 25 points & 11 votes (1 first, 5 seconds, 5 thirds)
3rd place: Austin Colby - 21 points & 7 votes (2 firsts, 3 seconds, 2 thirds)
This one was just about as easy as the infield one as Logan ran away with the votes. He received 10 of 13 first-place votes with Austin and Tim picking up the final three. Logan played a solid left-field in a down outfield year for the Warriors. But, his very good defense was a bright spot out there for the team. Great job Logan.

MVP:
Winner: Austin Colby - 51 points & 11 votes (10 firsts, 1 third)
Runner-up: Jeff Tenney - 32 points & 12 votes (1 first, 8 seconds, 3 thirds)
3rd place: Eric Johnson - 10 points & 4 votes (3 seconds, 1 third)
Austin captures his fourth MVP award in the past five seasons for the Warriors. He had another solid season offensively and played a good pitcher's mound too. Tenney had a slower start than expected but finished with massive stats and had he played in two or three more games, I'm betting he would have won this category hands-down. Steady-as-he-goes Eric Johnson (2005 MVP) snuck in for third place and still says he'll challenge for the award in the upcoming seasons.

All-League honors should be released later this week. Stay tuned.

Warriors Fall in Season Finale

The 2010 regular season came to a screeching halt as the Resurrection Life Warriors lost via 10-run rule against Redeemer last week, 13-3. The defeat gave Rez its worst ever record in the Eden Prairie Round Lake league, dropping the team to 11-6-1 on the season, good for 5th place.

While the team finished in just 5th place, it was only two games out of first as five teams finished within two games of each other. Wooddale Classic took the league title at 13-4-1, while Mercy Rules finished second at 13-5. Redeemer swept its final evening of games to finish in third, 13-5, while EPAG took fourth place, 12-6.

The Warriors were sluggish in the first inning and could never shake out of the rut. The team didn't score in the first or second innings, leaving singles from Eric Johnson, Logan Brincefield, and Aaron Beintema on the bases.

Redeemer took advantage of this and scored twice in the first and five times in the second to take a 7-0 lead. Dan Powers ripped an inside-the-park homerun in the second as a part of the big inning.

In the third inning, substitute Charlie Steingas lined a triple to center and jogged home on Austin Colby's double off the wall. Three flyouts sandwiched around a walk ended the inning with no more runs. Redeemer had another big inning with five runs to take a commanding 12-1 lead after three innings. Andy Briggs lofted a two-run homerun into the trees in left with two outs to spark the big inning.

Rez scored its final runs of league play with two runners coming across the plate in the fourth. With one out, Aaron doubled to left-center and scored on Jeff Johnson's laser-beam double. Bryan Christensen walked and Charlie singled to score Jeff. With two on and Austin and Eric Johnson coming up, things looked good. But, both men grounded out and the rally stalled.

Redeemer didn't score and Rez came up in the fifth with a chance to shrink the 12-3 deficit. The team managed two hits but no runs and Chris Burr quickly ended the game with a lead-off solo homer to center to finish the season, 13-3 Redeemer.

Aaron Beintema captured Player of the Game with two hits, including a double and a run scored.

The EP League will have its All-League teams announced in the coming week or so along with Resurrection Life's annual team awards. Stay tuned.