2024 60+

Mustangs Baseball Club 6, Alabama Bandits 2 

‘Mustangs Baseball Club Goes Undefeated to Win 60+ Division Title at MSBL Sunshine Classic’

Submitted by Mike LaComb, Mustangs’ manager

The Mustangs’ hitters and defense rallied behind the awesome pitching performance of their pitching staff to win all six games that the team played to get the Mustang’s first win in three trips to the MSBL Sunshine Classic.

Pitchers Kai Schjang, Jeff ‘Catfish’ Hunter, Steve Kleinpeter, Gary D’ambrisi, and John Denney only gave up five earned runs over six games. Kai and Catfish both pitched two games with Catfish pitching the semis, and Kai winning the finals. Steve and Gary both pitched complete game wins in their starts.

A special memory moment happened when Dave Raskin got to catch some innings from pitcher Gary D’Ambrisi. Both of them started out together in MSBL in Long Island thirty years ago as teammates on MSBL National President Steve Sigler’s team. They hadn’t had a chance to play together since way back when until this tournament. Thanks to MSBL, a lot of 60+ players can still have the opportunity to play the game that we loved when we were younger.

The infield defense was on sparkling display with ‘forever young’ 60+ Dan Cassidy at short, Steve Kleinpeter at third base, Tom Rosati and Dave Raskin at second, and Rich Wiser and Rob Di Rosario at first base. Catchers Joe Walsh and Mike Settles handled the pitching staff and held down the running game with their strong performances behind the plate. The outfield was captained by Sean Cohan in center, with Fred Lewis, Terry Lewis, Tim Higgins, and Doug Megill filling in the corners.

The Mustangs’ bats were on full display, as the team averaged over ten runs per game. Fred Lewis led the team with a .783 OBP, and Terry Lewis led the team in hits and received the tournament MVP for the weekend. Jerry Guerra and JP Tambourine added some pop to the lineup by belting out some long game-winning doubles.