Portage South Announces 2011 Wall of Fame Class

The 2011 Portage South Baseball Wall of Fame class was selected in August with four former Black Squirrels being honored.  Nick Dean, Brandon Fedor, Jason Hensley and Dannon Svab were chosen by the PS Wall of Fame committee.

Nick Dean began his 9-year PS career in 2001.  He played his high school baseball at Southeast High School.  Dean played in 194 games for Portage South in his career, which is 5th best in team history.  He is in the top ten in almost every career offensive category.  Dean struck out 14 batters in a game against Manchester in 2001, which a PS game record.  He was an All Star in 2001, 04, 06, 07, 08.  Dean was also named to 1st Team All AA League in 2006 and Honorable Mention in 2005 and 2008.  He won the PS Stan Musial Batting Title in 2005 with a .442 average.

Brandon Fedor started with Portage South in 2005 and played 4 seasons.  He played baseball at Crestwood High School and the University of Mount Union.  Fedor was a finalist for the Frank Garcia MVP award in 2005.  He was 1st Team All AA League in 2005 at 1B and Honorable Mention in 2006 and 2008.  Fedor was selected as an All Star in 2005, 06 and 08.  His 51 hits in 2005 is still tied for 3rd most in a season and .373 career batting average ranks him in the top 5.

Jason Hensley was a member of the inaugural team in 1997 through 1999.  He returned for the 2002 season.  Hensley played his high school baseball at Rootstown High School.  He was a finalist for League MVP in 1998, hitting .491 (3rd best in a season) with a then record 3 homeruns along with 24 RBI.  Hensley won the 1998 Stan Musial Batting Title.  His career was cut short due to a knee injury and still ranks in the top 10 for career homeruns.

Dannon Svab played for PS during the 2001, 2002 and 2004 seasons.  He played his high school baseball at Streetsboro High School.  Svab was the PS MVP in 2001 and was a finalist for NEO AAA League MVP.  He hit .417 with 7 2B, 2 HR and 23 RBI.  His 40 hits in the 2001 season was only the second time in team history of a player having at least 40 hits in a season to that point.  Svab left baseball to pursue his professional boxing career and then on to promotions for MMA Akron.

2011 Portage South Team Awards

With the 2011 season coming to end, Portage South announces the annual team awards.  The PS MVP was presented to Phil Smith.  Smith had 31 hits, 25 runs scored, 6 doubles, 5 triples, a homerun and drove in 23 runs.  He also finished the season with a .431 average.  Tyler Rost hit .437 this season to win the Stan Musial Batting Title.  The team's Cy Young was awarded to Walt Samson.  Samson went 8-3 with a 1.74 ERA in a PS record, 76.1 innings pitched.  He also struck out 73 batters.  The fourth and final award given out is known as "The Herb".  The 2011 Herb went to Kyle Campfield.

Portage South Shows Big in 2011 AA League Awards

Coming off a season winning the regular season title, Portage South individuals were rewarded for their efforts.  Phil Smith was named Frank Garcia MVP and Walt Samson earned the Dave Young Pitcher of the Year Award in 2011.

Smith hit .489 for the year, which also earned him the league batting title, with 5 doubles, 3 triples and a homerun.  He led the league in Slugging percentage (.800) and triples.  His 22 hits were good enough for third in the league and was 4th with 18 RBI.  Smith won the award by 1 point over teammate, Jimmy Jamieson.

Samson was 5-1 in 6 starts this season with a 1.58 ERA.  He led the league in wins and strikeouts with 41.  He walked only 5 batters in 40 innings of work.  This was Samson second Dave Young Award, he also won in 2005 while playing with the Akron Storm.

Greater Akron AA All Stars Top the Akron Roy Hobbs All Stars

The Greater Akron AA League All Star team hosted the Roy Hobbs All Stars Tuesday night at the Ballpark at Hudson.  Brad Thomas of Alliance White PT got the start on the mound for the Akron AA All Stars.  He threw 2 scoreless innings allowing no hits.  The AA All Stars got on the board early with 2 runs in the bottom of the first inning.  After a Kevin Brown (Akron Lasiks) walk, Phil Smith tripled to score Brown.  Rob Beahn of the Akron Lasiks followed with a single that scored Smith.  Eric Schaffer and Dave Krusinski (Akron Lasiks) followed Thomas' lead on the mound with back-to-back scoreless innings.

In the top of the fifth, the Roy Hobbs All Stars tied the game with a 2 run frame.  Brit Williams of the Horned Frogs and Dan Zust of the Hurricanes each had a RBI single in the inning.  The game would remain tied 2-2 through 7 innings.  In the bottom of the eighth, the AA All Stars would manufacture a run to take a 3-2 lead.  After back-to-back walks, Phil Smith hit a groundball to third.  The thirdbaseman stepped on third for the force, but threw the ball away at first.  This allowed the runner from second to move up to third base.  Smith also tried to advance to second on the errant throw, but was caught in a rundown.  He stayed in it long enough to get the runner home from third.  Dave Ford (Canton Crew), who came on in the 8th inning, threw 2 scoreless innings for the win.

Phil Smith, who had a part in all 3 of the AA All Stars runs, had a triple, a run scored and a RBI to earn All Star Game MVP honors.