2022 65+ Cactus

Chicago Central Northstars 12, Inland Angels 4

The #7-seeded Chicago Central Northstars finished an impressive 65s Cactus Division playoff run with a win over the #3-seeded Inland Angels. This was after beating the #2-seeded Paladin and #1-seeded Red Deer Legends on the turf Friday at Bell Bank Park, scoring a total of 38 runs in the playoffs while yielding 17. 

Youngstown Ohio vicinity pitchers Dave Fairman, Bill Geisel, and Jack Hay each had a playoff win and Chicago Central’s Tom Howell closed out most of our games.  Chicago Central’s Larry Burger had some key hits throughout the week, including RBI’s in the last pool game to get us into the playoffs and a key double against Paladin to finally get the offense untracked.

In the Championship game, Pittsburg’s Dennis Fisher (MVP) and the Skipper, Glenn Gaffney each had three hits. Jerry Uzas, Bill Geisel, Tom Howell, and Ron Thomas also had multiple hits as the Northstars scored four runs in the third, two in the fourth, and three in the sixth to take a commanding 9 – 0 lead with starting pitcher Jack Hay and some solid defense holding the Angels to only 21 plate appearances in the first six innings.

Rich Williams and others came off the bench with some significant RBI hits to keep the momentum rolling.  Northstars cruised to its third straight win scoring 12 or more runs with the Angels scoring their three runs in the last three innings. Credit Ed Derrick for being our Eastern General Manager bringing the team over half the players from the Ohio/Pennsylvania leagues and playing solid shortstop all week.  

“This team not only played ball well, but also enjoyed dinner and drinks together along with some of the spouses after every game,” said skipper Glenn Gaffney.  “It was a great week in Arizona and it’s great to be going home with our Championship Rings on order.”