St. John's Dartball Team
A Season of Ups and Downs
A Managers Prospective
The 2024-25 dartball season was an unusual season. Alan Weickert retired. Larry Elliott was on
medical leave. Jim Krieger was unable to commit to weekly play. Fortunately, Larry returned
midseason and Jim was a star substitute filling the roster when we needed him. On
tournament day, Loren Bryant was unable to attend due to family commitments and decorating
a birthday cake. Also, on that day Dick Fastzkie left early to host granddaughter Nikki’s wedding
reception. The season started off well enough, we stood at eight wins and four losses, after
four weeks of play, we fell right in the thick of things. During the next four weeks the wheels
fell off, we won only three games and lost nine. We steadied the ship the last few weeks of the
season by winning nine and losing nine, but it was not enough to put us in the top three. We
were in 7 th place. The team finished the season with 20 wins and 22 losses, this record was 10
games behind Elliston Trinity who was in first place. During tournament all regular season play
records are thrown out and each team starts from scratch. This year the league decided to try a
new tournament format. Typical tournament play was a best two games out of three against a
team. The winner moved on and the loser went home. This year we used a winner’s bracket
and a loser’s bracket, and only played one game instead of best of three. Our first game of the
tournament was against Millbury St. Peters, a team that finished four games ahead of us in
regular season. We were hot from the start, I hit second, Kevin Mylander brought me in with a
home run. Brian Warnke followed with a double and Jim Krieger brought Brian in with another
double for a quick 3 – 0 lead. In the 3 rd inning Scott Schimming singled and Jim Krieger hit a
home run, now it is 5 – 0! Scott and Jim again in the 7 th hitting and scoring ending the game 7 –
3, another win for Rocky Ridge. Our second game was against Elmore Methodist. They finished
regular season in 2 nd place, eight games ahead of us. Fred Geldien got us going in 3 rd inning with
a triple. I brought him in with a single for a 1 – 0 lead. The 4 th inning
Brian Warnke hit a double and Jim brought him in with his 3 rd HOMERUN of the day, we now
lead 3 – 1. Going into the 8 th inning its 3 - 2, Doug Opfer hits a home run, Bill Brackett singles,
Scott hits a triple and Kevin singled, now a score of 6 – 2, Rocky Ridge WINS. This win put us in
the semi finals against Mt. Carmel who took all three games from us in regular season play. Jim
hit the first of his three homeruns in this semifinal game in the 2 nd inning. Larry scored a
homerun in the 3 rd inning. Jim hit his second homer scoring Scott in the 6 th inning. Fred hits
home in the 7 th , Jim hit ANOTHER homerun in the 8 th . I hit a triple and scored Bill for a 7 – 1 win.
This put us in the finals and a guaranteed trophy! Jim Krieger was 9 for 13 with six homeruns in
three games, absolutely unbelievable, he won all three games for us! We are now in the finals
against Mt. Carmel who made their way into the finals via the loser’s bracket. To secure 1 st
place Mt. Carmel would have to beat us twice. At the start of the game both teams are
nervous, stressed and worrying about other afternoon plans because they NEVER expected to
be in the finals! Bill started the game off with a homerun, we then fell behind. We had hits but
could not string them together for a run. We lost the first game 2 – 1. Our least favorite
scenario is now a reality. We must play Mt. Carmel again. Emotions are big and tight. Scott,
Larry and I had hits as did Bill and Kevin, but still no score. Top of the 8 th 0 – 0 score. Doug hit
error to put himself on 1 st . Bill singled and I doubled to give us a 1 – 0 lead. Bottom of the 9 th
Mt. Carmel tied 1 – 1. Top of tenth Bill singled and Scott hit a homerun to give us the lead 3 –
1. In the bottom of the 10 th Mt. Carmel’s first batter made an out, 2 nd batter hits a triple, the
next batter gets a double making it 3 – 2. They have two more chances, fortunately both make
outs!! Rocky Ridge WINS THE TOURNAMENT!!
What a fun day for everyone. It has been a few
years since Rocky Ridge has brought home a trophy which makes the win even more special.
A special thank you to Ann Schimming and Brad Perry for filling in when needed this season.
Thank you to our church for allowing us to represent St. John Rocky Ridge through our dartball
league.
Tournament Champion Manager
Steve Florio
Dartball Archive