August 17, 2009

Philippines thumps Maine 11-3

Asia-Pacific champ avenges ’08 loss to host in rematch

Last year when Illam Central L.L. from Makati City, Philippines, and Maine District 3 host Bangor faced off, Maine District 3 made quick work of the Asia-Pacific champion, scoring early and often on the way to the host’s only 10-run rule win in a Bangor World Series, a 14-1 affair that ended in the fifth inning.

But a day can make a big difference in baseball, and in this case a whole year.

The Philippines scored three two-out runs in the top of the first inning to take the early lead and exploded for five more runs in the fourth on its way to an 11-3 win on Day 2 of the series.

“We got a lot of feedback from the team that went here last year,” Philippines manager Luis Habana said. “We really practiced hard as far as our hitting was concerned. I know the field is huge compared to our field back home, so we weren’t really aiming for the fences. We were just aiming for the line drives.”

The Asia-Pacific champ essentially did to Maine District 3 what Maine District 3 had done to it last year, stringing together three straight hits and stealing two bases in the three-run first inning. In the second inning, Maine’s battery faltered mechanically, enabling the Philippines to score another run to make it 4-0.

“I was throwing strikes, and that’s all I can do, and my defense got a little shaky in the beginning, but you can’t really do anything about it,” Maine starting pitcher Cody Savage said. “You just got to keep moving on and be positive. If you be negative about it, it’s just going to be worse.”

Maine starting pitcher Cody Savage issued a one-out walk to Sebastian Martinez-Miranda after throwing three straight balls and coming back with two strikes. A passed ball by catcher Adam King on the first pitch to Adriane Bernardino enabled Martinez-Miranda to reach second. A wild pitch put Martinez-Miranda on third base. Savage struck out Bernardo on his second wild pitch of the inning. Martinez-Miranda scored on the wild-pitch strikeout and Bernardo was thrown out trying to reach second on the play.

In the fourth, Tyler Desjardins took to the mound in relief of Curtis Worcester, who had replaced Savage after Savage’s second wild pitch in the second. Five consecutive batters in the Philippines lineup reached base to start the inning, using a walk, a bunt single, a routine single, a double, and a triple. All five of the batters scored as 10 batters went to the plate in the inning.

Maine, which had been one-hit in its 1-0 win over Canada Sunday, didn’t get its first hit of the game off Tsuyoshi Horibata until Joe Stanevicz, who had Maine’s only hit the day before, singled between the shortstop and second base with one out in the fourth. Josiah Hartley followed with his own single to put runners on first and second and give the host its first threat.

“They’re a good team. They played very well yesterday. I was concerned about their bats,” Maine manager Ron St. Pierre said, referring to the Philippines lineup. “I was more concerned about our bats because we got on hit yesterday. We didn’t get a lot of hits today, but we didn’t strike out, either. We were hitting the ball pretty hard, but right at people.”

Nicholas Cota grounded to third baseman Bernardino, who threw wild to first after forcing out Stanevicz. Hartley took advantage of the error by racing to third. He scored Maine’s first run on a wild pitch to Worcester.

Maine wasted a lead-off walk in the fifth and a leadoff single in the six, going down in order each inning.

Two RBI singles in the seventh for the Philippines made it 11-1 before Maine tried to mount a comeback in the bottom of the inning after receiving two walks. A Jesse Wood single with one out scored Christian Corneil, who had started the inning with a walk after working the count full. Horibata’s second error of the game, on a throw to first, enabled Maine to score a second run in the inning. Stanevivz fouled off four two-strike pitches before striking out swinging to end the game.

Philippines post-game comments
Maine District 3 post-game comments

Wisconsin tops New Jersey in a wild one

In a game of dramatic momentum changes, Wisconsin won the battle for fifth-inning supremacy for a messy 8-6 win over New Jersey in Pool B action.

Down 4-3 entering the top of the fifth inning, New Jersey scored three times to take a 6-4 lead after nipping at Wisconsin’s heels with single runs in the third and fourth innings. Wisconsin had scored three runs in the second to erase the U.S. East champ’s early 1-0 lead. The momentum barely had time to shift New Jersey’s way before Wisconsin answered with four runs of its own in the bottom of the inning.

New Jersey starting pitcher Chris Bell labored through the first three innings in a sweltering mid-August heat at Mansfield Stadium that cast a bluish haze throughout Hayford Park in Bangor. On the mound, he lasted only three innings, issuing four walks and four hits and, more importantly, four runs.

On the field, Bell’s teammates committed four more errors after committing five Sunday.

“I’m surprised that we’re committing so many errors,” New Jersey manager Carlos Negron said. “We’ve been living by our pitching and our defense up to the last two games. Our pitching is struggling and our defense is not to par like it has been since we started the all-stars.”

Although Bell may have wilted on the mound, he did manage to do in one game what many players in a Bangor World Series had failed to do in one week – hit three triples in a series.

In the first inning, Bell hit a two-out triple to drive in Holvin Figueroa, who had drawn a walk with two outs. In the third, Bell dropped a two-out base hit down the right-field line near the foul pole for his second triple. He subsequently scored on a wild pitch. In the pivotal fifth inning, he collected his third triple of the game and the series. Entering the game, 10 players in a Bangor World Series had hit two triples in a series. No one had hit more.

After stealing eight bases against Italy Sunday, New Jersey stole seven more bases against Wisconsin, with four coming on double-steals. With 15 steals, New Jersey is only three away from tying a Bangor series record of 18, shared by 2002 World Series champion Curacao, 2004 series champion Freehold Township, N.J., and 2004 runner-up Southern California.

As New Jersey scored three runs to re-take the lead, 6-4, in the fifth, Wisconsin players hung their heads in frustration. Things looked bleak after the U.S. Central’s first two batters in the bottom of the inning grounded out. Then came a walk, a single, another walk, a hit batsman, yet another walk, and a two-run single from Abe Lenoch that broke a 6-6 tie and turned out to be the game winning hit.

“I just really wanted to put the ball in play, because I knew if I put it in play anything could happen,” Lenoch said. “And I got lucky. It was a slow roller up the middle and it went through. We forced them to make a good play at home, and they didn’t make it.”

Just like that, New Jersey’s offense appeared to wither in the heat with Wisconsin reliever Sean Blythe retiring six of the last seven batters for New Jersey to seal the win. The only runner to reach for New Jersey in the last two innings was Holvin Figueroa, who benefitted from an error.

“He’s just been composed,” Wisconsin manager Frank Lenoch said of Blythe’s relief performance. “That’s why we like him in the closer position. He’s always composed.”

Lenoch had considered taking Blythe out before Blythe threw too many pitches to be eligible to return to pitch in the U.S. Central champ’s next game.

“He didn’t want to come out,” Lenoch said. “We decided to stay with him and in the end he got the job done.”

Wisconsin post-game comments
New Jersey post-game comments

N. California rolls to 5-1 win over South Carolina

Pivotal 5th inning gives U.S. West champ its 2nd win

In the nightcap, U.S. South champion South Carolina, from Northwood L.L. in Greenville, S.C., just could not seem to wear off the rust as the boys from Greenville fell to U.S. West champion Northern California 5-1.

South Carolina came within inches on offense and defense from changing the game’s look in the fifth inning.

Down 2-0 entering the inning, South Carolina mounted a threat with a lead-off single by Austin Mason and follow-up single by Alan Suchy. Suchy’s single, off a 2-1 pitch, brought Mason home after Mason had taken second on a wild pitch from California starter Jack Veronin. Suchy proceeded to steal second before Veronin got Andrew Carper to strike out swinging for the first out. Brooks Yeager lined the first pitch he saw, the contact having all the makings of a double down the left-field line. But California third baseman Marc Wik stabbed the drive and threw a strike to second baseman Justin Dhanda to double Suchy off for the inning-ending double play.

There would be no tie game or, at the very least, two outs with the tying run still on second.

The defensive play seemed to spark the California bench as the U.S. West champ prepared to bat in the bottom of the inning.

“I thought that hurt us right there,” South Carolina manager Ken Yeager said. “I felt like if we could have tied that game up we’d have been OK.”

Bryce Fryan walked leading off and Dhanda singled to left. Pierce Romero then put down a sacrifice bunt to put both Fryan and Dhanda in scoring position for Matt Knight. Knight came through with a single to left that scored Fryan to make it 3-1 California and advanced Dhanda to third. Knight stole second with Veronin batting and scored behind Dhanda when Veronin laced a double that landed right on the foul line a couple of dozen feet onto the outfield grass beyond first base.

“He threw me two fastballs and got me twice on them,” Veronin said of South Carolina pitcher Brett Tompkins. “And it looked like he was going to throw me another one, and he got more plate than the last two and I drove it down the line.”

On the mound, Veronin got the complete game win for Northern California after coming back from a 3-0 count to get the last out of the game. His pitch count had stood at 93 pitches through 6 2/3 innings. The Senior League pitch count limit is 95. Pitchers are allowed to finish pitching to the current batter if they reach the limit in the middle of a plate appearance.

Veronin gave up five hits and walked one.

“These guys came out swinging at the first pitch,” Veronin said. “That always works to my advantage. So once I saw that I got in the groove about the second inning and I felt great from then on.”

Northern California post-game comments
South Carolina post-game comments

Texas East opens its run with 6-3 victory over Italy

U.S. Southwest champ Texas East sent nine hitters to the plate in the fifth inning to break open its series opener against Europe-Middle East-Africa champ Italy in today’s morning game. Leading 1-0, the team, from Houston, pounded out four hits and took advantage of two walks and an error to score five times en route to a 6-3 win.

First baseman Matt Luna had the big blow in the uprising, driving in two runs with a triple to center field. Earlier in the inning catcher Cole Lankford drove in a run with a triple of his own to the right-field power alley.

Italy starting pitcher Carlos Avancini had flirted with danger through the first four innings, allowing four hits, walking four, and hitting one before being lifted with two outs in the fifth. Reliever Thomas Marusig ended up faring worse, as the right-hander promptly gave up a run-scoring triple to the first batter he faced in the fifth, Lankford. A walk and an error later, Luna tagged Marusig with his two-run triple.

Texas East scored all five of its runs in the inning with two outs after scoring its first run of the game, on a sacrifice fly in the first inning, with two outs.

The Italians batted around themselves in the sixth as they scored three times on four singles, a fielder’s choice, and two walks. But they left the bases loaded. They then squandered two straight walks leading off the seventh against closer Kevin Roy, who then struck out the third batter he faced and got the fourth to ground into the game-ending double play.

Print this