Fall 2013 All-Peninsula 2nd Team

We continue our All-Peninsula announcements with the 2nd Team! Please join me in congratulating the following!

If you ask Boom head coach Phillip Baltzis about his teammate Bailey Brown, he'll have no shortage of praise. "Bailey's got exceptional speed, which allowed us to put her at 3 in the lineup. She's a very good bunter. Always moved the runners," Baltzis went on, "Very positive influence on the team. Feisty competitor. Very sound defensively. Knew what to do and where to go when the ball was kicked to her. 100% effort at all times. A typical Boom lady!"

Without a doubt, The Situation's Blake Kalaikai is one of the best kickball pitchers of all time. Very few pitchers have the lethal combination of speed, power, and break on their balls. The dominant righty has a way of keeping kickers baffled and lead The Situation defense to a league low 0.82 runs allowed and their 2nd Wentworth Trophy®.

When one thinks of the prototypical catcher, they usually think of shorter, skinny guys (Guy Sumrell, Eric Stevens, Roger Jackson, etc). At first glance, The Situation's Matt Coup doesn't seem to fit that mold. However, he's great at reading a kicker, coming out of the box quick, and throwing absolute strikes to first base. In fact, his arm is probably what stands out the most about Coup is that he has a rifle for an arm. No matter how nice the bunt is, if he gets his hands on it, he's got a chance at getting the out.

I had a difficult time finding a picture of Pop Pop's Dani Buchanan to use for her trading card. When I messaged her to see if she had any pics of her I could use, she replied, "No one takes photos of me picking daisies in the outfield."
Well, the reason Dani spends so much time 'picking daisies' is because no one wants to kick it out there to her. With her combination of range and sure hands, anything in the air to her quadrant of the field is an out.

There have been many strong armed chargers that have competed in WAKA VA Peninsula, but perhaps none more powerful than Pop Pop's Dom Smith. The ball literally hisses as leaves his hands on the way to first base. The best comparison is that it looks like the throws from the old Nintendo game, "Super Dodgeball". He uses that arm to gun even the fastest runners down and earn yet another All-Peninsula nod.

 Kick A$$'s Jamel "Juice" Fitzgerald had a breakout year. For a while now the scouting report on Juice noted his elite speed, but what good does that do you if the bunts are popped up? Well, this Fall, Fitz took great strides to eliminate that issue. In improving his technique, he's developed into a high caliber top of the lineup threat for KA and one of the toughest outs in the league.

As a 5 O'Clocker teammate of Nikki LeBlanc, I can't tell you how many times I've seen her make running or diving catches while patrolling right field. She's a veritable human highlight machine out there, always playing hard and coming up with a big out when the 5OC need it most. It's not hard to see why she continues to make the All-Peninsula teams year over year.

Pop Pop's Nick Schmidt suffered a knee injury prior to the start of the Spring 2013 season that had him on the shelf until October. When he finally recovered enough to make his debut, he picked right up where he left off. The steady hands and nice range at first give his infield teammates a nice target to hit and his line drives at the plate did not lack power.

There was a bit of controversy (if you could call it that) when the All-Peninsula ballots were released and JFK's Daniel "The Condor" Shaw was not on the pitchers list. The hard throwing rightie is a dominant presence on the mound. His 7 foot wing span and huge hands allow him to deliver the ball to the plate with precision, speed, and movement. Why wouldn't he be on the pitchers ballot? Well, that would ignore the fine work he did all season at first base for JFK as well. He split time between both positions and provided excellent production with whatever coach Bryan Freed asked him to do. These facts were not lost on the voters, who named Shaw to the All-Peninsula in a very loaded 'utility' category.

Josh Waldrop has made an All-Peninsula team in every season in which the honor has been bestowed. What else is there possibly to write about him? He can place a line drive anywhere on the field, he can paint the line with a bunt, and he covers more ground in the outfield than most outfielders. Waldrop is just an all-around stud.

Kecia Warner is the spark plug that powers the 'Springa engine. The speedy Warner can place a bunt with the best of them. Several middle inning rallies were started with her at the plate. Kecia's coverage in the outfield is also something that turns heads. Perhaps most notably, her running catch deep into foul territory killed a Chubby Gangster comeback effort and secured a Rumspringa win late in the year. It's possible that Kecia may be the most well rounded female kickballer in the league.