For many reasons, Saturday's Dyersville Tournament championship game was a memorable one for the Key West Ramblers. Tournament MVP Andrew Redman equaled a team record with three home runs in the contest, lifting Key West to an 18-3 demolition of a loaded up Balltown team. Redman and company roughed up former Major League Baseball draft pick Alec Rash on the way to their second-straight title in Dyersville.
Now 33-14 overall this season, the Ramblers have improved to 400-224-1 since John Knabel rebooted Key West semi-pro baseball in 2004. Gradually, the Ramblers became one of the areas most dominant teams, posting records of 40-12 in 2012, 44-14-1 in 2015 and an almost spotless 49-7 mark in 2016.
Said Redman in an interview with the Telegraph Herald, "Coming in as a high school player 11 years ago, I understand what it took to become a legit team. There are a lot of really good teams in this area, and it's not easy to win games. It took a lot of hard work from guys like John Knabel and Paul Carty and a lot of great players to get to the point where we can have this kind of success."
Not since Michael Jimenez versus Placid on May 15, 2011, had any Rambler drilled three home runs in a single game. On Saturday, Redman struck for his eighth, ninth and 10th home runs on the year. That effort came three days after he mashed a pair of homers in an 8-4 loss at Rickardsville. Redman is now knocking on the door of the team single-season home run record of 11, a total recorded by Chris Briggs in 2012.
Matt Stevens joined Redman (also the Farley Tournament MVP) with three hits in support of pitcher Nick Woltkamp. Anthony Razo and Lake Rosson both went 2-for-4 as part of the 19-hit explosion. The Ramblers greeted Rash rudely, just like they did to University of Iowa pitcher Drake Robison, who went up against Key West as a member of Cascade on June 10 at the Farley Tournament.
Key West has now won three championships at Dyersville (2012, 2016 and 2017) and has captured two town titles this season. In team history, the Ramblers have claimed 20 tournament championships.
Key West's road through the Dyersville Tournament included wins over Cascade, 11-6, the Dubuque Buds, 5-4, Bernard, 10-0 (six innings) and Balltown.
All-time tournament titles
Bellevue (2016)
Dyersville (2012, 2016, 2017)
EIHL postseason (2014, 2015)
EIHL preseason (2011, 2015)
Farley (2011, 2014, 2016, 2017)
Peosta (2016)
Prairie League (2008, 2011, 2012, 2016)
Rickardsville (2015)
Worthington (2012)
Zwingle Fest (2007)
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