FL River City Rascals

Parker, Three Rascals Earn Postseason Honors

Published on September 4, 2009 under Frontier League (FL)
River City Rascals News Release


O'FALLON, MO - The Frontier League announced today this year's post-season award winners and three Rascals were named to the All-Star team while Chad Parker garnered the Manager of the Year award. Ernie Banks, Chad Maddox and Jason Lowey were all selected for the post-season All-Star team.

Parker takes home the Rogers Hanners Manager of the Year Award in his first season with the Rascals and in the Frontier League. Parker has guided River City to 54 win this season, the most in franchise's 11 years in the league. In addition to having three players on the post-season All-Star team, Parker helped the Rascals land a franchise high seven players to the Mid-Summer Classic in Rockford. The Rascals skipper also had the honor of managing the West Division All-Star team, courtesy of River City's 30-17 record at the break. The Rascals are currently percentage points ahead of Southern Illinois for first place with three games remaining in the regular season.

Ernie Banks was selected as the first baseman on the post-season All-Star team. Banks started the season with Washington and was traded to the Rascals on August 9th for Ryan Groth and Chris Ingoglia. Since coming over to River City, Banks is hitting .385 with five home runs and 19 RBI in 20 games. Overall, Banks is first in the league in slugging percentage (.677), second in the league in batting average (.355) and on-base percentage (.432), and fourth in home runs (24). The Rascals have compiled a 15-5 record since the acquisition of Banks from Washington.

Chad Maddox was recognized as one of the three outfielders on the squad, joining Rockford's Jason James and Southern Illinois' Joey Metropoulos. Maddox leads the Rascals in numerous offensive categories including: hits (103), doubles (29), and triples (five) and extra-base hits (48). The Cookeville, TN native leads the league with the 29 doubles, which is a new team record and is tied for the team single season record with five triples. Maddox's 48 extra-base hits is third best in the Frontier League, five shy of Jacob Dempsey's 53. The former Braves' farmhand is hitting .312 with 14 home runs and 66 runs batted in.

Jason Lowey was named the lone relief pitcher on the team, joining Pitcher of the Year Paul Fagan from Lake Erie. Lowey has racked up a league high 22 saves, eight ahead of Kalamazoo's Tommy Mejia. The 22 saves is a new Rascals record, topping Mike Benacka's 20 in 2007. The Ft. Walton Beach resident has struck out an impressive 56 hitters in 40 innings pitched this season. His 39 appearances out of the bullpen is only three shy of tying Pat Evers' 42. Lowey is currently 3-2 with a 3.38 ERA this season.

Other post-season award winners included Joey Metropoulos, who took home the Morgan Burkhart Most Valuable Player Award. Fagan was named the Brian Tollberg Most Valuable Pitcher while Windy City's Vinnie Scarduzio was tabbed as the Jason Simontacchi Rookie of the Year. Lake Erie's Gordon Gronkowski was honored with the Fran Riordan Citizenship Award. The full list of award winners can be seen below.

The 2009 post-season All-Star Team is:

1B - Ernie Banks - Washington/River City
2B - Gilberto Mejia - Windy City
SS - Tony Roth - Southern Illinois
3B - Andrew Davis - Lake Erie
OF - Jason James - Rockford
OF - Joey Metropoulos - Southern Illinois
OF - Chad Maddox - River City
C - Charlie Lisk - Gateway
DH - Jacob Dempsey - Washington
SP - Paul Fagan - Lake Erie
RP - Jason Lowey - River City

Assistant Coach - Joe Rosenhagen - Kalamazoo
Trainer - Pam MacNett - Midwest
Groundskeeper - Craig Kuhl - Gateway
Broadcaster - Tim Calderwood - Traverse City
Newspaper of the Year - The Southern (Southern Illinois)
Reporter of the Year - Chris Dugan, The Observer-Reporter (Washington)

Check out the River City Rascals Statistics

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Frontier League Stories from September 4, 2009


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