A pair of international fastball teams entertained about 500 people here on June 20 – with a local mural project the big winner.
The New Zealand Black Sox swept the doubleheader against the Argentina national team at the newly-refurbished ball diamond, but both teams had a good tune-up for the Legends fastball tournament that ran over the weekend in Kitchener.
That tournament is operated by Mapleton Township’s public works director Larry Lynch, who is also the field boss for the New York Gremlins, one of the teams in the Legends tournament.
Several of the New Zealand players play for that New York team and Lynch considers them friends as well, and arranged the exhibition series with Argentina to help raise funds for a mural project for Moorefield.
That mural has been commissioned and will feature historic scenes of the town, including fastball players.
The first game was close for three innings, then Black Sox Penese Iosefo hit a triple on a shot to the opposite field that eluded the Argentina fielder and started a rally for New Zealand. He later homered, over the left field fence this time, to make it 5-0.
Argentina then came to life and scored several runs, only to have the Black Sox come right back and increase its lead. The final score in that seven inning game was 7-5.
In the second game, New Zealand won easily, 7-1.
Trends in fastball tend to move in cycles, with pitching dominating for several years, and then batters getting better.
Lynch said there might be a couple of reasons for high scores against very fast pitchers who had a lot of movement on the ball.
First, he said, the hot humid weather was a factor. “I think all the pitchers lost some of their velocity after a couple of innings,” he said.
Second, neither team had its aces present. In Argentina’s case, its top two pitchers were unavailable for the tour. That meant the clubs were able to test some of their lesser pitching staff, staggering the workload over a few innings for each of them.
Finally, Lynch said, technology is getting much better and balls tend to rocket off the bat quickly, and bats are not only several ounces lighter than the standard bats of a decade ago, they have better compression.
That would explain some of the shots that were hit over the eight foot high fence, located 250 feet from home plate in the corners.
It also might explain runners failing to score from second base on hard hit singles to left field – with the ball reaching the field so quickly there was no chance to come around third and try for home.
“The balls really fly out of the park,” Lynch said of the improved bats.
He said the New Zealand players had nothing but praise for the refurbished ball park in Moorefield, with its fence moved back and its new lights now installed.
“When they came in, they were impressed,” he said. “They said it was a beautiful park to play in. They said we should have more events there.”
Lynch said he will be working with a number of different groups to see more events at the park.
The New Zealanders also performed The Haka, a Maori war dance, prior to the game. It is designed to intimidate the opposition, but while the crowd was entertained, Argentina players glared right back at them during the entire ceremony.
Lynch said the financial picture of the event is still not yet clear, but there were between 400 and 500 fans and he believes, “I think we’re close to [the goal of $3,000].”
There were also food and refreshment booths, plus raffles tickets.
Former catcher Bruce Whale, who is also Mayor of Mapleton, welcomed the crowd to Moorefield.
Hetty Meulenbelt, a volunteer for minor ball in Moorefield for over 30 years, threw out the ceremonial first pitch to Whale, called by honorary umpire Dennis Craven.
Bat boys and girls and game bat keepers were provided by Drayton-Moorefield Minor Softball players Zack Newmaster, Brent Ellison, and Erica and Daphne Culp.
Dozens of businesses and organizations were thanked in the event’s official program.
