The Alabama-Florida Baseball League All Time Stars Fantasy Replay Week 1

The first week (actually week and a half) of the AFL fantasy
season began on April 5th in Pensacola where the Dons hosted the
Crestview Braves. Both teams play in the Panhandle division, which
features four of the five Florida teams (Graceville is in the
Wiregrass Division of the league). The first pitch in the fantasy
league’s history was thrown by Dons’ ace, Jim Lehew to
Braves shortstop, Vince Brocato. The fans at Admiral Mason
Park were not disappointed as the Dons scraped together 7 runs
on only 6 hits (all singles) to claim the first victory of the
season. Crestivew made five errors leading to five unearned runs,
which spoiled a fine pitching performance by Heliodoro Moreno.
In other opening day games, Max Peterson of the Greenville
Lions threw the league’s first shutout against the powerful Tallassee
Indians, winning by a score of 9-0. Only Cotton Goodell, Forrest
Austin, Ray Knowles, and Red Borom connected off Peterson,
and all four hits were weak singles. Peterson struckout 11 in
a masterful performance. The first few games of the season gave
cause to think that pitching might dominate the league. When Virgil
Trucks finally made his debut for Andalusia on April 8th,
he reinforced that notion by throwing a masterful 3-hitter against
the Brewton Millers, striking out 12 in 8innings of work. Dave
Hattaway pitched the ninth for his first save of the year.
As it turns out, there were more masterful hitting performances
than pitching performances, and one of the best ones was the given
on April 6th by Crestview’s Van Howell, who tatooed Panama
City pitchers for five hits (in 5 at bats) and 6 RBI’s, and hit
for the league’s first cycle. Howell also stole a base and scored
2 runs. On the same day, over at Peanut Stadium in Headland, Ozark’s
Chase Riddle banged out 5 hits to lead the Eagles past
the Dixie Runners, 14 to 1. Riddle was only a triple shy of the
cycle himself, and he drove in 5 runs. On April 11th, Brewton’s
Ben Catchings treated the home town fans to a 5 for 5 hitting
performance too. The fleet-flooted Catchings also stole his 5th
base of the year in that game.
The long ball was also featured during the week. League star,
Neb Wilson, demonstrated his power with a 3-homer performance
against Panama City on April 9th. Wilson drove in 5 runs for Crestview,
which features not only Wilson and Howell, but also star hitter,
Neal Cobb. Whole teams got into the act of pounding pitchers
as the Geneva Red Birds banged out 22 hits in a losing efforts
against the Graceville Oilers. The Ozark Eagles broke the 20-hit
level twice in the first week, slapping out 23 against Headland
in the first game of their series, and then pelting the Dixie
Runners hurlers with 25 more three days later. That 25-hit performance
produced 21 runs, as the Dixie Runners pitching staff found their
team ERA soar above 8 runs per game. By the end of the week, 5
teams ( Enterprise, Ozark, Geneva, Tallassee, and Brewton) had
team batting averages above .300, and 3 teams (Andalusia, Geneva,
and Headland), had ERA’s above 6.00. The league’s ERA was a high
4.95. Even Virgil Trucks fell victim to the power surge,
losing his second appearance of the season to the Panama City
Pelicans, 4 to 2. At week’s end, Panama City was on top of the
Panhandle Division, Dothan lead the Wiregrass Division, and Tallassee
was on top in the Central Division. Neb Wilson leads the
league in homers (4) and is tied for the lead in RBI’s with Graceville’s
Chuck Quimby (11). Forrest Austin of Tallassee is
the league’s top hitter, batting .593. Virgil Trucks leads
the league in strikeouts with 22, Max Peterson of Greenville
and Dick York of Dothan both have thrown shutouts, and
Fred Lasher of Fort Walton leads the league with 3 saves.