August 19, 2009

Spencer blast propels S. Carolina over host in 10th

By Adam Clark

Assistant Information Director

Before the start of Wednesday evening’s contest against Maine District 3 champion Bangor, the U.S. Southeast representative from Greenville, S.C., had already been eliminated from advancing beyond pool play.

After squandering a two-run lead and leaving the bases loaded with one out in the bottom of the eighth inning, the thought of not advancing seemed to settle in the minds of the Southeast team.

With two outs in the bottom of the tenth though, Thomas Spencer gave his team a much-needed jolt of energy as he deposited a two-strike fastball over the left field fence as South Carolina defeated the host team 4-2 at Mansfield Stadium.

“I was nervous,” said Spencer of the extra-inning situation. “I’m glad we could just pull out a team win and am just excited to get a win.”

South Carolina moves to 1-2 in pool play with the win, while Maine District 3 lost for the second straight game, falling to 1-2. Both teams are eliminated from advancing to Friday semifinals.

Maine District 3 tied the game at 2 in the top of the sixth inning when Josiah Hartley knocked in Joe Stanevicz with a single.

South Carolina had a golden opportunity in the bottom of the eighth inning with the bases loaded and one out, but failed to score as Stanevicz struck out the cleanup hitter and got the next batter to ground out to end the threat.

“We decided to put runners on,” said Maine District 3 Manager Ron St. Pierre. “One mistake in that situation would easily cost us the game, but they showed a lot of guts. That’s a pressure cooker right there for these kids. When you bring the infield in and bring the outfield in, the slightest mistake is going to cost you the game.”

In the bottom of the tenth inning, Brooks Yeager started the game-winning rally for South carolina with a two-out walk. After stealing second, Spencer drove home Yeager with the game-winning two-run home run off of Stanevicz. Stanevicz picked up the loss in relief, falling to 1-1 in the tournament.

“As soon as he hit it, I knew he was going to score the run,” said South Carolina Manager Ken Yeager of Yeager’s home run. “He battled. I think he fouled two or three off.”

The game’s extra inning heroics overshadowed the duel by both starting pitchers. South Carolina starter Connell Anderson kept opposing hitters off balance with his array of fastballs, knuckleballs and changeups. The right-hander threw 6 2/3 innings, allowing only four hits and two runs, one of which was earned, while striking out three.

Maine District 3 right-hander Jesse Wood settled down after giving up two runs in the first two innings to pitch seven strong innings, giving up only four hits and two earned runs. He struck out four.

The timely hitting by South Carolina gave the players a taste of winning in the 2009 Senior League World Series after they dropped their first two contests. In regional play, the squad cruised to an 8-0 record while scoring 58 runs.

“Hopefully it will spark the fire,” said Spencer of the win. “In the regionals we were hitting, then we came up here and faced good pitching. Hopefully it will get us going. We decided we didn’t want to go 0-4 here and we just wanted to win our next game.”

Alan Suchy and Anderson contributed lead-off triples in the first and second inning and came around to score to make it 2-0.

A Hartley ground out in the fourth inning brought home Tyler Desjardin to cut the lead to 2-1.

South Carolina wraps up play on Thursday at 10 a.m. when it takes on Canada. Maine District 3 plays at 5 p.m. against Northern California.

South Carolina post-game comments
Maine District 3 post-game comments

5-4 victory puts Philippines on verge of semis

Canada comeback falls short

In a tale of two teams, Wednesday’s 1 o’clock match up between the Philippines and Canada showed just how little margin there is for error in the World Series. The Asia-Pacific champ and Canada battled through five scoreless innings before a fielder’s choice broke the tie and the Philippines took a 5-0 lead, scoring once more in the sixth and three more times in the seventh and held on for a 5-4 win.

The win put the Philippines, which finishes pool play with a 3-1 record, within a hair’s breadth of advancing to the semifinals for an Asia-Pacific team’s first time since the World Series moved to Bangor. The loss dropped Canada, which reached the semifinals last year for the first time, to 0-3, with two losses by one run each and one loss, 6-3, coming in 12 innings less than 24 hours earlier.

If Maine District 3 defeats South Carolina in today’s 5 o’clock game and beats Northern California Thursday, Northern California, the Philippines, and Maine District 3 could finish pool play tied with 3-1 records. Because none of the three teams would have beaten the other two, the tiebreaker would go to runs allowed per defensive innings played to determine the top seed from Pool A. The second seed would be determined using head-to-head.

If South Carolina beats Maine District 3, Northern California and the Philippines will clinch semifinal berths, with Northern California going in as the top seed no matter what happens in its game with Maine District 3 Thursday because it defeated the Philippines 4-2 Sunday.

Philippines starting pitcher Tsuyoshi Horibata and Canada starter Jay Flannigan dueled through five innings before the Philippines lineup broke through in the top of the sixth inning. Heading into the inning, Flannigan had allowed four hits, all singles, without walking anybody. Only two of those base runners had reached second.

But Niklas Sarda hit Flannigan’s first pitch of the inning to center field for a lead-off single and Charles Cantangui followed with another first-pitch single, to left. A sacrifice bunt by Julian Habana moved Sarda to third and Cantangui to second for Jose San Juan, who bounced to second on his second pitch. The ground out was deep enough to score Sarda, as Canada had opted to play the infield back.

Horibata helped himself after falling behind 1-2, singling to right field to score Cantangui and make it 2-0. Horibata stole second on a 2-0 count to pinch-hitter Lorenzo Ramos, hitting for Andrew Tan. But when Ramos hit a grounder to shortstop Dylan Casselman, Horibata ran into Casselman and was called out for interference, ending the inning for the Philippines.

Canada tried to get something going in the bottom of the inning when lead-off hitter Dylan Prendergast walked on four pitches. A fielder’s choice by James Amelotte forced Prendergast out at second. Amelotte tried to steal second with Ryan Daigle batting, but Philippines catcher Cantangui threw him out. Daigle struck out to end the inning.

In the seventh, the Philippines rallied for three more runs to take a seemingly safe 5-0 lead. Lead-off hitter Vincent Ching singled on a 3-1 pitch from James Filion, who had replaced Flannigan at the start of the inning. Ching went to second on a wild pitch. After Gabrielle Malaki popped out to second, Bernardo doubled down the right field line. Ching had to retreat back to third after trying to score. A fielding error by second baseman Daigle on a grounder off the bat of Sarda enabled Ching to score and Bernardo to reach third. Sarda was able to reach second on the play.

Habana delivered the coup de grace with a single up the middle, scoring Bernardo and Sarda to make it 5-0.

Horibata entered the bottom of the seventh at 78 pitches. He had dominated the Canadians through six innings and hadn’t given up the Canadians’ first hit until there was one out in the fourth. He had allowed only one other hit and had walked two. One other batter had reached on a third-strike wild pitch.

He fell behind seventh inning lead-off hitter Flannigan 2-0 before evening the count 2-2. Then he hit Flannigan. Next, Nolan St. Denis singled on a 2-1 pitch, putting runners on first and second. Horibata then got Leo MacLean to fly out to center on his 89th pitch of the game.

“The location today was better than before,” Horibata said of his performance. He pitched 3 2/3 innings against Maine District 3 Monday, allowing two hits, two walks, but one unearned run.

Canada shortstop Dylan Casselman, who was 2-for-3 for the game and 1-for-2 with a strike out against Horibata commended the Filipino pitcher.

“He had good pop on his fastball,” Casselman said. “He had a late-breaking curveball, too, that looked like his fastball, so he’s a good pitcher.”

Philippines manager Luis Habana then had Bernardo, playing third base, take the mound to close the game.

Bernardo proceeded to give up three straight run-scoring hits that brought Canada within two runs, with the score 5-3. The 5-foot-5, 140-pound right-hander struck out Prendergast looking on four pitches, then walked Amelotte on seven pitches to load the bases and put the tying run on second. He delivered two quick strikes to Daigle, but then pitched four straight balls to walk in Canada’s fourth run and put the tying run on third and the winning run on second.

With no margin for error, Bernardo put Flannigan, batting for the second time in the inning, down with three straight strikes to preserve the win.

“We’ve been starting late in the past couple weeks, actually,” Casselman said. “Even back in St. John’s we came back late there in that game. There’s not much you can do except try to pick it up for tomorrow and score runs early and get the lead early and stay on it.”

Philippines post-game comments
Canada post-game comments

Aruba downs Italy 11-0 in mercy-shortened nightcap

By Adam Clark

Assistant Information Director

Before an out was recorded in the top of the first inning Wednesday night, the Latin American representative from San Nicholas, Aruba had already put four runs on the board.

That was more than enough for Latin America, as Nick Perrotte combined with two other pitchers for a two-hit shutout and they piled on six runs in the fifth inning to defeat Italy 11-0 in five innings at Mansfield Stadium.

Aruba moves to 2-1 in pool play, while the Europe-Middle East-Africa representative from Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy, finished pool play with a 1-3 record.

In the top of the first, Aruba took advantage of an error and the Italian starter’s inability to throw strikes to plate four runs. Xander Bogaerts and Lynell Koolman provided the offense in the first, hitting back-to-back RBI doubles.

“We are a hitting team,” said coach Milton Croes. “We need these kind of games to get the bats loosened. From now on, we are going to be very dangerous.”

Right-hander Nick Perrotte stymied the Italian bats, going four innings, allowing just two hits, walking none, and striking out two. He faced the minimum three out of the four innings he pitched.

“My curveball was working very good,” Perrotte said. “My fastball location, first-pitch strikes was also very good.”

After the first inning, Italy held Aruba’s offense in check for three innings, allowing only a second-inning run.

In the fifth inning, however, four walks, including three straight to lead off the inning, and two Italy errors resulted in six Aruba runs to push the score to 11-0.

Boagerts led the hitting attack with three hits and two RBIs. Three other Aruban players recorded multi-hit games. The squad also recorded seven stolen bases in the mercy-rule shortened contest that ended after five innings.

The Italian team was led by Gabriele Volpi and Luca Ainger, who each recorded a single.

Latin America finishes pool play tomorrow afternoon at 2, when it takes on U.S. East representative New Jersey. Italy is finished with pool play and will not advance to Friday’s semifinals.

Aruba post-game comments
Italy post-game comments

New Jersey pounds Texas East 11-4

Jersey’s Bell extends triples record; Texas’s Resnick ties homer mark

New Jersey sent 11 hitters to the plate in a five-run fourth inning as the U.S. East champ rode to an 11-4 win over U.S. Southwest champ Texas East in Wednesday’s morning game.

The U.S. East champ, from Vineland, N.J., pounded three Texas East pitchers for 14 hits, as every starter had at least one hit. Christian Adorno led the way, going 4-for-5 with an RBI. Chris Bell, who had three triples against Wisconsin on Monday to set a Bangor World Series record, added another triple to his ledger. The hit drove in two runs in the fourth.

On the mound, Eli Carter gave up three runs – two of them earned – on six hits in 6 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out four as he limited the Texas East lineup to single runs in the second, third, and six innings.

Texas East was never in the game, as New Jersey took advantage of shaky pitching to score three runs in the top of the first inning before exploding for five more runs in the fourth and adding insurance runs in the fifth and seventh innings.

Joe Arce led the game off by being hit by Texas East starting pitcher Kevin Roy’s first pitch of the game. He advanced to third on a single by Adorno and scored on a sacrifice fly by Holvin Figueroa. A walk, an error, a srike out, and a single later it was already 3-0.

Roy continued to struggle in the second and third innings, but didn’t give up a run despite alowing four hits, hitting a batter, and delivering a wild pitch. His teammates did manage to get single runs in the second and third to cut New Jersey’s lead to 3-2. That was the closest the kids from the Lone Star state would get, though. Michael Resnick scored Texas East’s first run, in the second, after leading off with what should have been a fly out to right fielder Arce but ended up being a two-base error. A ground out advanced him to third and a wild pitch by Carter allowed him to score.

Texas East cut its deficit to one run in the third with a two-out triple by Travis Gauntt and an RBI double by Cole Lankford.

In the five-run fourth, Bell’s triple, to right-center field, scored Adorno and Figueroa to make it 5-2. Adorno had led off the inning with a single. Figueroa had reached on a throwing error by third baseman Samuel Reid when trying to sacrifice himself with a bunt. A wild pitch by Harrison James, who had relieved Roy to start the third, enabled Bell to score to make it 6-2.

A fielding error by shortstop Resnick, a hit batsman to Carlos Lebron, and a walk to Carter loaded the bases. Stewart Cartwright had taken over for James after Ray Reyes reached on Resnick’s error and James had struck out Allen Rivera. Cartwright hit Lebron with the first pitch he delivered. His walk to Carter loaded the bases. A walk to Arce forced in a run. A single up the middle by Adorno brought in yet another run.

Cartwright retired the first two batters in the New Jersey fifth, but then he allowed three consecutive batters to reach in allowing two more runs. He walked Reyes on five pitches, gave up a single up the middle to Rivera, then gave up a triple to deep right-center by Lebron.

The only bright spot for Texas East, down 10-2, was Resnick, who led off the sixth for the U.S. Southwestern champ with a home run to left, his third of the series, tying him for a single Bangor World Series record with Alejandro Diaz, who hit three in 2005 for Agana, Guam.

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