The 2010 regular season winds to a close this week but don't fret as the post-season begins this Saturday July 31!  On Saturday, the 8th and 9th place teams in Division A will play a one game playoff to see who gets the #8 seed in the double-elimination tournament.  This makes Wednesdays game between Chapel Hill and Peninsula Lutheran very interesting as the loser of that game will have to play in the 8/9 eliminator!  There will also be 3 Division B games on the 31st.  The Division B tournament is single-elimination so every game counts!  On Sunday the 1st, all 8 Division A teams will have a 1st round game and the rest of the Division B teams will play.  Then the meat of the tournament is Saturday August 7 where every team remaining will play 1-3 games.  Finally on Sunday the 8th we will have 3rd place games and the two championship contests, with Division B at 3:30 and Division A at 5:30.  Mark your calendars now and do not miss these two fantastic games. 

In Division A, the Believers Fellowship Halos have the #1 seed locked up for the third year in a row.  Hopefully the 3rd time will be the charm in terms of winning the tournament!  Defending champs Harborview and 07/08 champs Harbor Covenant will be the #2 and #3 seeds, to be determined later this week.  In Division B, there is a fantastic 3 way battle for the #1 seed.  The vastly improved GH Nazarene Wailers sit atop the heap at 11-2, but Harbor Christian and Agnus Dei are lurking right behind at 10-2 with one game to play.  This will certainly come down to the tie-breaker which is average runs against.  The 2010 tournament is shaping up to be a classic!

We have reached the half-way point in the 2010 season and it's been a great one so far.  In Division A play, the BF Halos took down the BF Bombers right before the break to take a 1/2 game lead in the division at 5-2.  But 7 of 9 teams are within a game and a half of the lead!  It's going to be a wild finish as so many teams are so evenly matched.  In Division B play, a few teams have set themselves apart to this point.  Agnus Dei beat Harbor Christian to even up with them at 6-1.  Right behind are the most improved team from 2009, the GH Nazarene Wailers at 5-1.  Get ready for some hot weather ahead, bring lots of fluids to avoid dehydration.  Have a blast out there!

The 2010 season opened with a bang on Thursday the 10th with two close games at the beautiful new Homestead park.  Agnus Dei outlasted the Chapel Hill Warriors 16-11, while the Division A game between Peninsula Lutheran and Burley Bible was a thriller.  The game was full of sharp line drive hitting, with many runs scored.  The score went back and forth throughout and Burley took a 24-22 lead into the 7th inning.  Peninsula Lutheran took the lead for good in the top of the 7th though capped off by coach Joe's bases clearing triple, and held on for a wild 29-24 victory.  Follow scores and standings all season here on the website and provide commentary of your own in the league message forum.  Play ball!

We are now a little over a week away from the start of the 2010 softball season!  As if that wasn't exciting enough, today we received some great news, that PenMet Parks has partnered with GHCSL for use of the brand new Sehmel Homestead Park.  If you haven't been out to the new park yet, it will take your breath away.  It is beautiful, a dream come true for our league.  We will be able to play more than half of our regular season games at the new park.  We will also hold our season ending tournament and all-star game at the new facility.  To kick off the season, Agnus Dei will play the Chapel Hill Warriors while Penisula Lutheran will face the Burley Blue Angels at Homestead Park on Thursday June 10 at 6:15pm.  This season opener will certainly be a special occasion so please come out to celebrate with us, tour the new park, and watch some softball.  See you there!

Registration for the 2010 softball season will close on Thursday May 20.  Response has been tremendous as we will have at least 20 teams and likely more.  Don't miss out on your chance to join the league for fun and fellowship this summer!

We will use a division format similar to last season, with Division A co-ed competitive and Division B family/rec.  There will be 10-12 teams in each division.  Looking forward to a great season!

GHCSL is now accepting team reservations through the pre-registration process for the Summer 2010 season.  Team reservations can be made without payment, and will hold your team a spot based on a first come first serve basis.  Once payment is made, your registration is locked in and cannot be bumped.  There will be 10 spots in the open division and 10 spots in the family/rec division.  Contact the Commish at rfloberg@comcast.net to pre-register.

Congratulations to Harborview Fellowship on a dominating run through the GHCSL Division A tournament!  S.C. won all 4 of their games without a close call, and playing amazing defense.  First they beat the Chapel Hill Titans 11-4.  Next they took down Harbor Covenant 9-5.  They upset the undefeated BF Halos in the finals of the winners bracket by a score of 10-5.  And in the Championship Game, they jumped on the two-time defending champs Harbor Covenant early and it was never close, with a final score of 16-7.  Truly a remarkable series of games!  Harborview was a team on a mission this postseason, with avid fans, a full squad of players, and a sense of team unity that the other teams could not match.  Congratulations to the new Champions of the Gig Harbor Church League!

Champions:  Harborview Fellowship S.C.

Runner-up:  Harbor Covenant Kangaroos

3rd place:  Believers Fellowship Halos

4th place:  Burley Bible Blue Angels

5th place:  Chapel Hill Thumpers

The Fox Island Firefoxes are the first ever GHCSL Division B champions after on of the most remarkable runs through the tournament in history.  In the semi-finals, they beat the Harbor Covenant Cubs 16-15.  In the final game of the winners bracket, they defeated the Peninsula Lutheran God Squad 15-14 in 8 innings.  And finally in the Championship Game, they again beat Peninsula Lutheran by one run, 13-12.  All three games by one!  The Championship Game was a thriller, with Fox Island jumping out ahead early 7-1.  Peninsula Lutheran fought back with a max 7 run inning to take the lead 8-7.  The lead changed hands twice more with the God Squad holding a 12-11 lead after the top of the 7th inning.  The Firefoxes were down to their final out, and hit a 2 run game winning triple to win the game!  Fabulous tournament all around in the B Division.  Congrats to the Fox Island Firefoxes on a fine season!

Champions:  Fox Island Firefoxes

Runner-up:  Peninsula Lutheran God Squad

3rd place:  Chapel Hill Hilltoppers

4th place:  Harbor Covenant Cubs

5th place:  Believers Fellowship Bombers

5th place:  Harbor Christian Center Bombers

It was a great day of softball all day Saturday the 8th as teams battled it out to survive the double elimination bracket.  In Division A Harborview S.C. pulled two upsets to sit atop the winners bracket.  The #1 seed BF Halos and #2 seed HC Kangaroos will battle it out in the 3rd place game to see who gets a shot at payback with Harborview.

In Division B there are 4 teams left.  Fox Island and Peninsula Lutheran will meet in the finals of the winners bracket, while CH Hilltoppers and HC Cubs will play in the 4th place game.  Both division championships will be played tomorrow the 9th.  BUT, if the winner of the comeback bracket wins the game, a 2nd championship game will need to be scheduled sometime next week.  Join us at the fields on Sunday for some thrilling tournament games!

Starting this Saturday the 1st, the 2009 GHCSL Tournament is set to begin.  This year is a first as we have two tournaments running at the same time.  One for each division.  The tournament brackets are now complete and available to view from the website.  Look at the bottom right for downloadable files and you will see the three bracket pages.  Looking forward to a great event and tournament weekend on the 8th and 9th at Volunteer Park!

There have been many hotly contested games over the last couple weeks including a number of one run or extra inning games, proving that our new division system is working wonders.  But the close games do not mean that the standing are all jumbled up.  Some teams are setting themselves up for a high tournament seed.  In division A, the BF Halos have survived 4 one run games to stay undefeated and have locked up the #1 seed for the tournament.  Close behind are HC Kangaroos and HVF S.C.  In division B, 6 teams are fighting it out at the top!  Fox Island, BF Bombers, Peninsula Lutheran, Agnus Dei, HC Cubs, and CH Hilltoppers are all very close.  Both tournaments should be fantastic!

Starting on Friday 7/25, many of the remaining games will be the first interleague games that we have had in the GHCSL.  As a reminder, the Division B team is always the home team in these games, and Division A teams must follow the fielding requirements of Division B.  If the Division A team only has 2 female players, they may only field 9 players and must take the auto-out at the end of the lineup each time through.  Which Division B team is going to pull the upset??

We had some great action on Sunday 7/5, with all three Division A games being decided by a single run!  You can find updates about these great games, as well as important league updates at our message forum.  From the website main page, click on the "Forum" tab near the top.  Then create your free account and password so that you can use the message forum.  It's a great way to stay in touch about game results, comments or questions, league rules and umpires, and lots more.  I'll look forward to reading your posts there!

In our 2nd weekend of action in the 2009 season there was plenty of excitement, in more ways than one!  A stong thunderstorm cell brought rain, thunder, and lightning which unfortunately cancelled all of the 2pm games.  We are in the process of re-scheduling those games.  The games that were completed though were fantastic. 

The Wailers from GH Nazarene endured a tough welcome to the league Sunday with a double-header, and both games went to extra innings!  Unfortunately they dropped both games, 19-14 to Agnus Dei who delivered some thunder of their own with 6 runs in the top of the 8th inning.  The second game ended 17-15 when Aaron from the CH Hilltoppers hit a game winning home run in the bottom of the 8th inning.

Fox Island and Peninsula Lutheran did not go into extra innings, but still played to a one-run decision, with the God Squad of PL coming back from a 13-5 deficit to win 16-15.  And in Division A, the old Believers Fellowship-Burley Bible rivalry was renewed with another classic game.  In a game with great defense on both sides, the Halos and Blue Angels battled to a 9-9 tie in the 7th inning.  Burley could not score in the 7th and it looked like the Halos would win in the bottom of the inning with runners on 2nd and 3rd with only 1 out.  But a line-out and fly-out ended the inning and sent the game into extras.  The tough Halo D again held the Blue Angels scoreless and this time they were able to win the game in the bottom of the 8th with a run-scoring double by OF Jason.

The 2009 season started with a bang on Sunday.  The very first game on the schedule between the BF Bombers and PL God Squad was a nail-biter to the end, when Bill from the Bombers knocked in 2 runs in the bottom of the 7th inning for the comeback 12-11 win.  There were 2 other games decided by a single run, with Agnus Dei holding off Harbor Life 10-9, and the Blue Angels from Burley nipping the Titans from Chapel Hill 8-7 in a game with awesome defense on both sides.  It's gonna be another great season!

Less than 2 weeks until the start of the 2009 season!  In the next week there will be numerous updates to the website such as division and team information as well as the schedule posted.   Current updates include the 2009 rules available for download in the files section at the bottom right.  Remember that team fees, insurance information, and coach endorsements are due June 1.  You will not be able to pick up your equipement package from PAA until these items are complete.  See you on the field soon!

Spring is here!  That means softball is oh so close.  Registration is now open for the 2009 season, and you can find the registration form and coach endorsement template on the webpage in the downloadable files section.  New for 2009 is division play.  There will be 2 or 3 divisions depending on response.  When you register, be sure to indicate your preference:  open competitive, co-ed competitive, or co-ed recreational.  Realize that the division you wish to play in may be consolidated but there will be at least one co-ed division either way.  Register early as there is certainly the possibility I will have to close registration like last year based on demand.

During the off-season, the website will go into a freeze mode.  I won't be able to make any changes or updates until next spring.  Enjoy your fall and winter, and we'll see you next spring!  Contact me by e-mail if you need anything.

The All-Star festivities were held today and what a great time it was! Thank you to our musicians for their enthusiasm and time dedicated. Thanks to all who brought food for the potluck. Here is a recap of the events:

Pitching Competition:
Champion- Steve Roddy, Believers Fellowship Halos, 5/8 round 1, 4/5 final round
Runner up- Randy Stearnes, Chapel Hill Hilltoppers, 5/8 round 1, 3/5 final round

Home Run Derby:
Champion- Mike Stelle, Harbor Covenant Kangaroos, 1 HR round 1, 3 HR final round
Runner up- Scott Ginnis, Harbor Covenant Kangaroos, 4 HR round 1, 2 HR final round

All-Star Game:
Red team coached by Rob Floberg, BF Halos defeats Blue team coached by Chris Johnson, HC Kangaroos by a score of 15-13. The game started off lop-sided with the Red team jumping out to a 10-0 and later 14-1 lead! But the Blue team decided that they did not want to be embarrassed on this day and fought back hard by holding the Red team to only 1 more run over the final 5 innings. In the bottom of the 9th, the Blue team was down by 3 with 2 outs and it appeared the game would end with an out at home plate but yours truly could not hold on to the great throw from the outfield. Now down 2 with 2 runners on, a hard liner was hit towards 3rd base and Dan from Fox Island Alliance dove for the game winning catch! It was a great game.

Red team: Rob, Jesse, Dawn, Matt- Believers Fellowship
Greg, Tom, Brittani- Agnus Dei
Aaron, TJ- Harbor Life
Kenneth, Willie- Discovery Baptist
Dan, Sarah- Fox Island

Blue team: Bruce, Cheryl, Kevin, Dale, Norm, Willie, Jen, Kalynda, Blake- Chapel Hill
Will, Scott, Josh, Kristen- Harbor Covenant
Aaron- United Methodist

Champions:  Harbor Covenant Kangaroos

2nd Place:  Harborview Fellowship Fire Hose

3rd Place:  Believers Fellowship Halos

4th Place:  Harbor Covenant Cubs

5th Place:  Chapel Hill Titans, Agnus Dei Wool Sox

7th Place:  Believers Fellowship Bombers, Peninsula Lutheran God Squad

Best of luck to the 12 teams remaining as we conclude our season this weekend.  The games are sure to be exciting, well played, and I surely believe that sportsmanship will remain first priority during these games which can get so competitive and tense.  See you at the park!

The tournament is underway with Round 1 completed on Friday evening.  Only one lower seed was able to pull the "upset" as #9 Peninsula Lutheran held off #8 Fox Island 11-8 in an exciting game.

Sunday the 27th was a huge day as all of Round 2 was played.  Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to 4 teams but the remaining 12 will meet up on August 9 when we start Tournament Weekend.  We have 2 great games coming up in the top bracket, where #5 Harborview takes on #1 Believers Fellowship Halos and #3 Chapel Hill Titans take on #2 Harbor Covenant Kangaroos.  In win or go home action, two games stand out with #7 Agnus Dei playing #8 Fox Island and #9 Peninsula Lutheran playing #10 CH Crusaders.  Can't wait for all the great games to come!

You can view the round 1 tournament schedule by clicking on "Schedule/Results"  Also, look in the downloadable files section at the bottom right.  You will see "2008 Tourney Bracket" Page 1 and 2.  Those should open up in your browser to show the bracket with game times so you will know what your future game times will be.  I'll update this as games are completed so it should always be up to date.

Now on the standings tab, you can switch between regular season standings and tournament standings.  Remember that the final regular season standings on the website are not accurate in terms of seeding as we use "run differential" as the tie-breaker and not "runs for" like the website standings use.  I have sent out an e-mail with the correct seeding.  Also, in the tournament the lower seed (closer to #1) is ALWAYS the home team.  Good luck this week in round 1!

This Sunday July 20 is the final day of the regular season.  I will need all line scores for Sunday games on Sunday night so that the tournament can be seeded!  If you don't have e-mail access on Sunday evening, fell free to call in your line score before 1030pm.  Good luck in the games.

The new GHCSL message forum is ready for chatter!  Look up top in the header bar for the "Forum" tab to get there.  Finally you don't just have to listen to me talk all the time!  This forum should make our growing online community much more diverse and interesting.  There are categories for players, coaches, umpires, community events, and even a garage sale to buy or sell stuff.  Be sure to register an account for free when you first visit the forum, and have fun with it.  Any questions just let me know.