Arizona Scorpions had no trouble getting the wood on the ball at the MSBL World Series

2013 Men's Senior Baseball League World Series

70-and-over Arizona Scorpions


The final MSBL World Series batting statistics for the 70-and-over Arizona Scorpions, which were released today by Scorpions' manager Jerry Hamelin, show the team, despite its 2-4 record at the senior world series last week, did hit the ball with authority.

In the six games, the Scorpions banged out 83 hits in 224 official at bats for a team batting average of .371. That's an average of a shade under 14 hits a game. Not too shabby. The Scorpions averaged a shade under eight runs a game as well. Unfortunately, time and time again, the Scorpions couldn't get the key hit, or the key run, when they needed it.

"We could have won this thing (the World Series)," Hamelin said, in retrospect during an interview this afternoon. "There wasn't much difference between all the teams. In our case, it wasn't the pitching or the hitting that led to our 2-4 record (and a tie for fifth place), but it was a combination of too many mental errors and the fact too many umpiring calls went against us."

The Scorpions did make the playoffs, despite the three losses during pool play and Hamelin was proud of the team for their efforts -- especially on Friday when they qualified for the playoffs by beating the San Diego Mudcats, 12-11.

"The Mudcats' game was stressful. It came down to the wire. We were up one run with just one out and a runner on third in the bottom of the ninth and we got out of there with a win and knocked the Mudcuts out, Hamelin said. "Our opening game win over Australia was a another nail-biter. We held on for an 11-8 win, the only team to beat the Aussies (4-2) during round-robin play."

As for the individual batting statistics among the Tucson players at the MSBL World Series last week, it was Arnie White leading the way with an 8 for 11 performance for a .727 batting average, while Ed Rife had a great tournament as well, going 6 for 14 and a .429 average). Other top performances included Pigpen Price ( 7 for 18, a .389 average), Eddie Eckert (8 for 19, a .421 average), Jeff Helzel (6 for 15, a 400 average), Ron Petersen (7 for 22, a .318 average), Chico Bigham (6 for 21, a .286 average), and Hamelin, who batted just four times during the week and collected three hits for a .750 average. The lone player on the Scorpions' roster from south Tucson, Tony Bonilla (a member of the 60-and-over Arizona Rattlers), went 6 for 20 in the six games for a .300 average.

The eight members of the Scorpions, who also play for the Tucson Old Timers (TOTS),  are back home, resting their tired muscles. Three of the players, Petersen, White and Price will return to Phoenix next Monday (Oct. 28) to play for the 60-and-over Tucson Aces. The Aces 14-man roster includes 13 players from the TOTS and one player from the cross-town 60-and-over team, the Arizona Rattlers.

The Rattlers' player is Jerry Wessels. The 13 members of the TOTS include Bob Daliege, Dennis Crowley, Ted Davis, Pete Peters (player-manager), Tim Tolson, Dave Rhoades, Lloyd Barzell, Jeff Rein, Mike Taylor, Billy Heiny, along with Petersen, Price and White.