2017 Reds Handle Bears for 55+ Division Championship in Southern Wisconsin MSBL

Madison (WI) MSBL, 55+ Division

Reds 11, Bears 8

‘Championship Dedicated to Matt Varney’

Submitted by Dave Barbian, Reds Manager

When we first started to put the Reds together we were simply looking for ball players that were available to play on Wednesday evenings. Once we filled our roster and had a practice, we realized we had a pretty darn good team. Quite a few of us had never met before. However, we bonded as a team pretty quickly. We lost a couple of guys to injury during the season, but also gained a couple of great player from a nearby league in Milwaukee. Thank you Peter and Mark Holzwart for joining us mid-season.

Our season continued successfully thanks to a NO HITTER by our pitching ace Randy Gaber. We also had excellent relief pitching all year long thanks to Terry Kieffer, Dan Ketter and Mark Holzwart. We played some terrific defensive baseball, particularly from Lowell Ruef in Randy’s no-hitter, as well as great play from our shortstop Tug Thompson, utility infielders Matt McClenaghan and Terry Boucher and Matt Varney, our forever strong and solid catcher.

As a team we hit for a .357 average, with Tug Thompson leading the team with a .536 average. Mike McClenaghan batted .520 and Randy Gaber batting .448 to round out the top three.

It is with much sadness that we must dedicate this championship season to our great catcher Matt Varney who passed away after this season concluded. We will miss him terribly and always remember him as a great ambassador of baseball and our local Southern Wisconsin league. But most importantly we’ll remember him as a true, good friend. We miss you already Matty!