SLSSA President Vern Rodgers (left) presents Gino Fiasche certificates for Rookie-of-the-Year, HR Champ and for setting the all-time HR record.
Larry Wolfe
At last count, the Major League Baseball Glossary listed 47 advanced statistics that are tracked. That’s in addition to traditional stats and the dozens of metrics tracked by entities like Statcast (exit velocity or launch angle, anyone?). I personally don’t think we need more stats than those that have always been on the back of baseball cards. Every baseball player and fan knows the definition of BA, 1B, 2B, 3B, HR, etc. But what about advanced stats like mRC+, ISO, BABIP, PLI and so on? Not many!
There’s also the Elias Sports Bureau that tracks all kinds of minutiae. Have you ever heard a sportscaster say something like the following? “Robbie Ray today was the first pitcher to throw three wild pitches in the seventh inning on a Tuesday since Bobby Bolin in 1966.” Seriously?
Well, our statistician, Jim Entwistle, thankfully just tracks the traditional stuff. So, here’s a rundown of our Sun Lakes Senior Softball statistical leaders for the 2025-2026 season. Each of eleven categories shows the Lakes Division leader, Sun Division leader and the all-time leader. This year, we had new records set in doubles, home runs and slugging percentage.
At Bats: Dan Malachuk (348) and Randy Neumann (296). All-time: Tom Erpelding (394 in 2017/2018).
Walks: Rick Berry (25) and Ron Carmichael (30). All-time: Randy Neumann (45 in 2020/2021).
Singles: Dan Malachuk (141) and Craig Porchardt (135). All-time: Dave Platt (182 in 2024/2025).
Doubles: Dan Malachuk (60) and Marty Hobby (34). Dan topped the previous record of 50, set by Larry Kaufmann in 2015/2016.
Triples: Dan Malachuk (15) and Craig Porchardt (8). All-time: Bill Stanick (20 in 2016/2017).
Home runs: Billy Jacobson (6) and Gino Fiasche (84!). Gino obliterated the previous record of 56 set by Bobby Farmer in 2020/2021.
Four-base hits (inside-the-park homers): Ron Guidi (5) and Rick Ehman (2). Tom Lorgan (2018/2019) and Bob Montelione (2024/2025) share the record of 6.
Total Times on Base: Dan Malachuk (242) & Craig Porchardt (191). All-time: Mike Lebet (278 in 2020/2021).
Sacrifice Flies: Dennis LePore (7) and Mike Aldridge and Mark Kuechler with 12 each. All-time: Kim Whitney (18 in 2020/2021).
Batting Average: Doug Friesen (.770) and George Siegele (.798). All-time: Reyes Gonzales (.873 in 2016/2017).
Slugging Percentage: Bob Molter (.923) and Gino Fiasche (2.158). Again, Gino obliterated the all-time record of 1.634 set by Reyes Gonzales in 2019/2020).
Congrats to all the stat leaders, especially to Gino and Dan for setting new records.
Our summer session is in full swing with early games every Tuesday and Thursday morning. The field is also open every other day except Sundays for BP and rec play.
We were saddened by the recent passing of Billy Maxwell, long-time crafty pitcher, sports blogger and all-around great guy. Billy fought a long battle against serious health issues. Thankfully, his son Frazier was able to spend the final three days with him, which included one last visit to the Field of Dreams. RIP, Billy.