Welcome to the 2024 season! I was away for the first part of the season, so did not get a chance to set up this year's divisions and games. It will be fully set up before the May 19th games, so thanks for your patience!

There are two divisions, with Division A having 4 teams and Division B having 7 teams. We have already had one rained out week, so let our hard working commissioner know if you can work out make up games, so he can check with the County for available fields. Please include me in your reports of game scores, so I can update the site as soon as possible each week. My email is b.eaton@comcast .net , phone 301-514-3609. Good luck to all teams!

The humidity was low, but the temps were hot for the 2023 Frederick County Church Softball League end of season tournament at Pinecliff Park.

In the A Division, congratulations to tournament undefeated winner Holy Family, who defeated MUMC twice along the way! Regular season champs and number one seed Cedarbrook took a surprisingly early exit, losing their first two games to New Beginning and MUMC. They had lost only one game all season.

In the B Division, no team went undefeated. Damascus Road took the eventual win, but not until they were defeated by FCOB in the first championship game. FCOB lost their first game of the day, then worked its way through the loser bracket. They played a total of six games, falling to Damascus Road in the second championship game.

Thanks to all the managers and players for a successful season! Special thanks to Andrew for his leadership as Commissioner. Looking forward to next season. Hopefully more teams can be found to join and expand our league.

Four sweeps were recorded out of five double headers on the last day of the regular season, with the Division B championship and tournament seedings on the line. New Beginning swept their double header with Frederick Presbyterian to retain 4th place. New Beginning had three home runs. Holy Family  and MUMC split their games, resulting in a tie for second place in the A Division. A record 16 home runs were reported in this double header at home run friendly Middletown field #1. Cedarbrook, the A Division winner, had a bye. Frederick Presbyterian finished in 5th place.

Damascus Road swept St Tims to win the B Division championship over St Johns. FCOB thwarted St John’s efforts to win the B Division by sweeping them, with a walk off in the first game and surviving a walk off effort in the second. They finished the season in 3rd place. Mike Belcher hit two more homers, both in the second game. He will end the regular season second on the leaderboard, three behind the league leader Jay Walls of Cedarbrook, who had 14. Meanwhile, Special Olympics doubled up Zion to finish out their season in 4th place. St Tims and Zion rounded out the final standings in that order.

Thus ends the 2023 regular season, with only one week rained out and very few forfeits. See the "HR LEADERBOARD" tab above for the final regular season home run tally. Tournament seedings and schedule will be sent out as soon as they are finalized for next week’s end of season tournament. Thanks to all the players for a very successful season, and for Andrew Derr’s leadership in keeping us organized!

Rain threatened to interfere with games this past weekend, but all games were able to be played. Urbana Park area got deluged right about 5pm, but fortunately no games were scheduled there.

Cedarbrook and New Beginning played four 5 inning games, to make up for their rained-out games from the second week of the season. Cedarbrook won all 4 games, but three were by only one run.  Meanwhile, Holy Family swept Frederick Presbyterian. MUMC was idle. Only seven homers were reported by these teams, with Jay Walls of Cedarbrook extending his league leading season total to 14 with two homers.  Our illustrious Commissioner Andrew Derr hit his first of the season! The leaderboard is shown below.

In the battle for first place in the B division, St John split their games with St Tim, while Damascus Road swept their double header against Zion. The B Division title will be determined in the final weekend of the season! FCOB split their games with Special Olympics to round out the action for the week. Mike Belcher from FCOB hit two more homers, taking his season to total to nine, good for second place on the home run leaderboard.

Only one more week remains in the regular season. It is very important that scores be reported Sunday evening to Andrew and Bob, so that tournament seedings can be determined as soon as possible. The tournament is currently scheduled for Sunday August 20^th, with the rain date the following Sunday.

Cedarbrook clinched first place in the A Division with just two weeks to go in the regular season, taking two games from MUMC. Holy Family forfeited their games to New Beginning. Frederick Presbyterian had a bye this week. Only four home runs were reported this past weekend.

St John's swept Special Olympics, squeaking by 6-4 in the first game.  St Tim's split their doubleheader with Zion. In the meantime, Damascus Road and FCOB played to a tie in their first game, before Damascus Road won the second game. As a result, St John's extended their lead in Division B, but Damascus Road is still in the running. This was the second tie for Damascus Road this year.

Week 10 was played in typically hot July temps, and three Division A teams lived up to the heat. MUMC swept St Timothy, Holy Family took two from Frederick Presbyterian, and Cedarbrook doubled up FCOB.  FCOB came close to upsetting Cedarbrook in their second game, losing only by two runs. Cedarbrook remains at the top of their division, though MUCM and Holy Family  kept pace.

The other Division A team, New Beginning, split their games with Damascus Road in two low scoring games, 7-8 and 12-2.

Zion couldn’t get enough players, resulting in St John’s winning two games by forfeit.  As a result, St Johns takes sole position of first place in the B Division, a half game ahead of Damascus Road. FCOB is in third place, a game and a half behind Damascus Road.

Only four home runs were reported, compared to the 26 the previous week. There were no games scheduled at Ballenger Creek, which contributed to this decline, based on the results from the rest of the season.

Preparations are being made for the end of season tournament, scheduled for August 19-20. Be sure to keep an eye out for any information to be sent out by Commish Andrew, and respond promptly to his contacts so that these plans can be finalized sooner rather than later. Send him and Bob results from your weekly games as soon as possible in order to get the website updated as early as it can!

Week 9 saw a tie for the most home runs hit across the 5 doubleheaders, with 26! MUMC had the most with 8, followed by Holy Family and FCOB with 5 each. Jay Walls from Cedarbrook remains at the top with 10. Casey Medairy, also with Cedarbrook, is second with 6, followed by six players with 4 each. Ballenger Creek field #1 has had the most homeruns with 36, followed closely by Middletown #1 with 34, then Middletown #2 with 26. These 3 fields account for 96 out of the 108 total home runs hit this season.

 Cedarbrook used only 4 homeruns to sweep Holy Family to remain 5 games ahead of MUMC, which  swept Zion, in Division A. New Beginning  was the third team with a sweep, taking 2 from Frederick Presbyterian.

 Damascus Road remains at the top of Division B by virtue of having one tied game earlier this season, though they had a bye this week.  St John’s and FCOB split their games to tie Damascus Road in the win column. Special Olympics also split their games with St Tim’s, each gaining one game on the division leader.

 Remember to report scores, homeruns, and special plays to both Bob Eaton and Andrew as early as possible, so that the website and these recaps can be completed sooner!

July 9^th had a variety of results, including one rained out, one forfeited and three completed doubleheaders.

Cedarbrook continued its dominance in the A division, sweeping MUMC in an intra-division matchup. Only two homeruns were reported in these games, a surprising drop from the total of 12 reported by these two teams the previous report. Holy Family  took two games from St Tim’s, though no home runs were reported. New Beginning also won both their games against FCOB, though FCOB had the only two home runs in the games. Frederick Presbyterian won both their games with Damascus Road due to a forfeit. No homeruns were reported in these two games, for some reason!

An earlier rain storm caused the games between Special Olympics and Zion to be postponed due to field conditions. Not a total surprise, since they were scheduled for Pinecliff field #4.

Damascus Road maintained its lead in the B division, despite their forfeited losses, as FCOB lost both their games and St John’s had a bye. Still five more weeks to play, though Damascus Road and Special Olympics still have their byes to not play.

Jay Walls of Cedarbrook has the homerun lead with 10, just ahead of teammate Casey Medairy, who has 6. John Henry from Frederick Presbyterian, Adam Balog from Holy Family, Ty Montgomery from MUMC, and Bret Merson from New Beginning are close behind with 4 each.

Seven weeks of the season are in the books, with only one week having been rained out. There have been many fewer forfeits this year as well, so thanks to all the teams on their success in fielding teams most weeks! Please note, that if you go to the website to look at game results and standings, be sure to select divisions and teams that have the year 2023 attached to the names.  The site doesn’t have an easy way to archive prior year stats, so this was the way to keep each year separate.

Cedarbrook continues to pull away from the rest of the Division A teams, having lost only once thus far. MUMC and Holy Family are not too far behind, with six more weeks to go.

Damascus Road leads the B Division, but FCOB and St Johns are right behind them. There is plenty of time for anyone in the division to make a run, so stay tuned!

With the two Middletown fields opening up after a few years of closure and renovation, we now have more fields on which to play. It looks like several teams really like those two fields, as they have accounted for 42 out of the 78 over the fence home runs hit this year so far!  Ballenger Creek 1 has seen 26, with the remaining 10 spread out across three of the 4 remaining fields. Utica field has not had any reported home runs, though only two double headers have been played there so far this year.

The website is up to date with scores and the schedule for the rest of the season. You will note that the second game of each doubleheader is listed as starting 1:15 minutes after the first game.  This was intended to clarify game time frames as listed in the league rules. Generally, no new inning should start at the 1:05 point.  However, should there be a tie at that point, if both teams agree, they can play it out, as long as there is no other team waiting to use the field. With all the high scoring happening so far, the longer times may be needed in order to get more complete seven inning games! As well as a chance for even more home runs! Remember, after 5 home runs by the same team in a game, all other home runs for that team will be singles in that game! The count restarts at the beginning of the next game.

After a rough start, the league website has finally been updated, with game results through June11th entered.  The schedule for June 25^th has also been entered with the rest of the season schedule soon to come.

The league has two divisions this year, with each having s clear leader.  The A division is led by Cedarbrook, with MUMC 2 games back, and Holy Family one game behind them.  Damascus Road leads the B division by three games, followed by FCOB and St John’s 2 games back in the win column. It is still early in the season, with fewer than half the scheduled games played. 

There has been only one rained out week so far, and far fewer forfeits compared to last year. Thanks to all the teams for getting players on the field more consistently!

The home run leaderboard is being updated, and should be available by next week.  Keep reporting them, as well any unusual plays, walk offs, extra great sportsmanship, and any other item that would be good to note.

The 2023 season started early on April 23rd, but the website was not ready, apologies from Bob. However, the season divisions and teams are now set up with the games scheduled for May 7th and 21st entered on the schedule.  Once I receive all the scores from the first two weeks, the site should be up to date.

This year marks some changes to the league, as some teams did not return, while a new team was born. St Katharine Drexel, St Ignatius, and Mountain View teams did not return, but St John's started a new team. Some of the remnants of the St Katharine Drexel team (which was cosponsored by St John's) joined the new St John's team, as renewed enthusiasm from St John's and its sister parish St Joseph Carrollton Manor resulted in St John's fielding a new and improved team. In addition, the two Middletown fields were finally read for play for the first time is several years.

As a result of having fewer teams over all, the league was divided into two divisions instead of three. The A division has 5 teams, with New Beginning moving up from the B division. The B division has six teams, with St John's joining the league this year.

Hopefully there will be fewer rainy day and forfeits this year.

The 2022 End of Season tournament was played in one day after the initial day was rained out. Few final scores were reported, but congratulations to Cedarbrook and Damascus Road on their championships in their respective tournaments.

In the Division A tournament, 3^rd seeded Cedarbrook first beat 2^nd seeded Holy Family, then defeated top seeded New Beginning in the next round. New Beginning rallied through the loser bracket to meet Cedarbrook in the Championship round. They trailed early, but came back to tie the game late at 10-10. No score in the 8^th inning. New Beginning finally broke through in the bottom of the 9th to win 11-10 and force a winner-take-all title game, which started at 8:45. In front of dedicated spouses, children and friends, New Beginning took command, leading 11-6 by the 5^th inning. However, Cedarbrook took the lead with 11 runs with one out in the 6^th. New Beginning pitcher Andrew Brice took a rocket shot to his glove hand, and went down. He tried to continue to play, but couldn’t. One of Cedarbrook's pastors (and infielder) Ken Jackson led everyone in a prayer for healing, a powerful moment for all who were there.  Both teams agreed that it was time to call the game, and Cedarbrook was declared the champion with a 17-11 victory.

In the Division B tournament, top seeded Damascus Road went undefeated to take the championship. They defeated St Ignatius in their first game, who then went on to beat Zion in the loser bracket. In the meantime, 3^rd seed FCOB defeated St Timothy in their first game, only to lose to Damascus Road. St Timothy ended St Ignatius’ day in the next round of the loser bracket, after trailing earlier in the game. FCOB then beat St Timothy a second time 7-5. Both of the games between these two teams were tight, where a hit here and there could have changed the results. FCOB then faced Damascus Road again in the championship game. But Damascus Road was too much, winning 13-3. The full brackets for both tournaments are shown below.

Thus ends a challenging season. We look forward to next year, and hope we can get more teams and players, so more games can actually get played!  Special thanks to Andrew Derr, who took on a lot of responsibility as Commissioner and defacto Treasurer.  Hopefully, someone will step up to take on the Treasurer role next year.

Here are the Updated brackets, after rain washed out all but 3 innings of the first week.  St Katharine and St Ignatius got 3innings in before the rain really kicked in. Unfortunately, St Kathrine Drexel had to concede the game and forfeit their next game due to not enough players being available. Let Bob Eaton know of any results you want to have reported after the tournament.  Good luck to all teams!

A Division

B Division

Rain came a little earlier and harder than predicted Sunday.  St Katharine Drexel and St Ignatius got through 3 innings in the only 1pm game, some in a light rain, before a heavy downpour resulted in flooded fields. The rest of the schedule got cancelled before any other games got started. At this time, the plan is to play next Sunday, following the current schedule.  However, there may be changes based on the availability of players. Managers were asked to let Andrew Derr, Commissioner extraordinaire, know which teams will still be able to field a team by Tuesday, so any schedule adjustments could be made. So far, the weather forecast is favorable, but we all know how reliable that is!!

Rain stayed away (barely) for the last weekend of the regular season. FCOB swept two games from St Katharine Drexel on Pinecliff Park field #3.  Michael Belcher hit a 2 run homer in the first inning of the first game, as they cruised to an 8-2 win. The second game went into extra innings as FCOB tied it with a run in the bottom of the 7^th. Each team scored three runs in the 8^th. Then, Michael Belcher hit his second homer of the day to tie the game in the bottom of the 9th, before a walk off single won the game for FCOB, 15-14.  In between, FCOB had a powerful foul ball that smashed into a light high atop the left foul line tower, causing a light to explode, ala, Robert Redford in “The Natural”! Fortunately, the lights were not on at the time and no one was hurt, except for the ball.

Holy Family took two from MUMC, 14-2 and 8-5. Cam Farrow hit his 8th homer of the season at his favorite park, Ballenger Creek #1, where he hit 7 of his 8 homers. Cedarbrook got two wins by forfeit from Frederick Presbyterian. This resulted in a tie with Holy Family for the A Division championship.  By virtue of tiebreakers, Holy Family is the champion!

New Beginning finished the season undefeated, which included six victories against A Division teams. They swept St Ignatius 24-4 and 28-0. They hit 7 homers on the day, including the game limit of 5 in the first game. Zach Brice hit two to tie Cam Farrow with 8 homers on the season. Bret Merson tried to catch up but fell one home run short, followed by Stephen Brice with 6. Mike Belcher from FCOB, was next with 5. These home run totals were based on reports made throughout the season, so hopefully, none were missed. If so, let Bob Eaton know!

Zion split their games with Special Olympics, with Zion winning the first game 26-11. Special Olympics came back in the second game, coming away with a 10-8 win.

St Tim’s got two forfeits from Mountain View, and Damascus Road had a bye, so they played each other to prepare for the tournament.  Damascus Road took both games 15-8 and 19-11. These games did not affect the standings.

Thus ends the 2022 regular season. Congratulations to the division winners: Holy Family in A Division; New Beginning, undefeated in B Division; Damascus Road in C Division. For the upcoming tournament, New Beginning will play in the A Division tournament, based on their record. Damascus Road and Zion will join the rest of the B Division in that tournament. Special Olympics and Mountain View will not be playing in the tournament this year. Seedings will be sent out shortly. Best wishes to all teams!

Week 2 of the 2021 Frederick Church Softball League was played on August 29^th under generally cooler, albeit still very humid, conditions at Pinecliff Park.

 In the A Division, Holy Family took on host MUMC for the opportunity to play top seeded Cedarbrook in the Championship game. The score was close throughout, with MUMC prevailing 10-8.  In the Championship game, MUMC stayed close to Cedarbrook and led 5-4 at one point. However, Cedarbrook went on a 16-run rampage to overwhelm MUMC, winning 22-7 in 5 innings, and included one home run over the fence for Cedarbrook. Congratulations to both teams, as the #1 and #2 seeds had made it to the finale.

It took a little longer to determine the B Division tournament champion. Top seeded FCOB was down 11-0 against 3rd seeded St Ignatius, but battled back to 11-5 going in the last inning. With the winning run at the plate in the bottom of the 7^th, St Ignatius held on to take the game 11-8. They then played undefeated 4th seeded Damascus Road in the first game of the Championship, which started as a pitching duel.  St Ignatius ultimately won 9-4 forcing a winner-take-all second Championship game. Damascus Road fought back in the second game, but fell short, with St Ignatius winning 9-6. This game featured a home run over the fence for St Ignatius.

It also featured an inspiring at bat by a Damascus player, who had a badly injured ankle. Rather than taking an automatic 3^rd out in the 6th inning due to not having a sub available to bat, he hobbled up to the plate.  He promptly hit the ball to short right field, and hopped on one leg to first base for a single.  Everyone on the field and in the stands gave him a round of applause. For some reason, he asked for a pinch runner! Seriously, though, this was a great example of the dedication of those who play the game!

The winning teams were awarded highly stylized shirts, designed by our Commissioner, Gidget Gill! Pictures of the winning teams are posted in the Photo section, which can be reached by clicking on the “ABOUT” tab, then “PHOTO ALBUMS”, then “LEAGUE PHOTOS”, then “2021 SEASON”.

Congratulations to all the teams in the league, who made it through another difficult season.  Hopefully, things will be more back to normal next season, so have a safe off-season! And keep checking this page for updates throughout the year.

The first week of the 2021 Frederick County Church Softball Post Season Tournament was played under cloudy skies and high humidity, as former hurricane Henri passed by to the east. The fields had recovered from the significant rainfall from the previous week, though field #3 at Pinecliff barely made it!

In Division A, top seed Cedarbrook won their first two games to make it to the second week of play in the winners bracket. Second seed MUMC and 4^th seed Holy Family worked their way through the loser bracket, and will join them next week.

 In the B Division, 4^th seed Damascus Road won three games in the winners bracket to advance to the second week, including wins against the 2^nd then the 1^st  seeded teams. Top seeded FCOB advanced to the second week in the loser bracket after losing to Damascus Road. They will play 3^rd seeded St Ignatius in the second week for a chance at redemption.

 Second seed St Katharine Drexel lost both their games as well as their left fielder, Kevin Quinlin, who suffered a devastating arm injury early in the second game. He tripped while heading for home and landed awkwardly on his left arm, resulting in him breaking both his forearm bones. He was able to walk to the ambulance under his own power, but will have a very long recovery. We all wish him and his family all the best, and hope to see him next season.

The 2021 regular season came to an end Sunday, with no postponements due to muddy fields! No teams were able to make up any previously postponed games this week, so final standings depended on the regularly scheduled games.

In Division A, Cedarbrook sealed their championship by sweeping Holy Family.  Frederick Presbyterian pulled ahead of Holy Family in the standings by winning both games against New Beginning.  Seventh Day lost both games against MUMC, but that did not affect the standings.

In Division B, FCOB won their two games by forfeit from Mountain View, thus securing the Championship of the division. St Katharine Drexel also won two by forfeit from Zion, to end the season with the second highest win total. St Ignatius swept Damascus Road, thus taking third place based on number of wins. Damascus Road, Mountain View and idle St Timothy tied in the win column with 9, while Zion rounded out the standings in last place.

Due to the wide disparity in number of games played (16 vs 23) as a result of so many postponements, two decisions were made before the last week's games. First, teams that forfeited 8 games or more would normally not be eligible for the post season tournament.  With covid and the number of rain outs, this rule was waived.  They would still start with one loss and start in the loser bracket, just like any other team who forfeited 4 or more games. A total of 3 teams in Division B will be affected by this rule.

Second, seeding in the tournament will have one more tiebreaker than usual. After number of wins, head-to-head records will be considered, then total number of games played will be used to determine seedings. Only if these don't determine seedings will winning percentage be considered. This is because teams with fewer games played may have a higher winning percentage even though they have the same number of wins as another team who played more games.  There would be no guarantee they would have won more games if able to make up postponed games.

Congratulations to all teams for making it though another tough year! The Tournament schedule will be posted shortly and sent to all team Managers as soon as possible so that final preparations can be made.

The weather was the best of the year, and the field conditions were generally good at Pinecliff Park, despite rain a couple of days earlier (aside from the deep batter's boxes for righthanders!). Both Cedarbrook and Seventh Day Adventist went undefeated as they won their respective post season tournaments for 2019.  In the AB Tournament, 4th seeded Cedarbrook blanked 2nd seeded CRUCC for their win, while 1st seeded Seventh Day overpowered 3rd seeded St Katharine Drexel in the CD tournament. Pictures of the winning teams will be posted shortly.  Remember to get team pictures next year so they can be uploaded to the website.  It would be great to utilize more of the features of the website, so look for more information to come.

Congratulations to all the teams in the league for getting though another season!