August 18, 2009

N. California outlasts Canada in 12, 6-3

Knight wriggles out of two bases-loaded jams in extras

Tonight’s epic battle between Northern California and Canada may forever be known around Mansfield Stadium as the game that would never end. That Northern California came out on top, 6-3, won’t be at the forefront of recollections.

People will remember a pitchers’ duel, as the two teams traded eight zeroes and three ones through 11 innings before Casey Jennings launched a bases-loaded and clearing double to deep left-center field to finally break the deadlock for good. They will remember not that Canada failed to bring a winning run home with the bases loaded in the ninth and tenth innings with no outs and one out. Instead, they will remember that Northern California reliever Matt Knight somehow escaped what seemed both times to be a hopeless situation.

Northern California’s infield and outfield had no choice in those situations but to play in – way in for the infield, which sought to defend against a bunt. After all, it was a sacrifice bunt with one out in the bottom of the seventh that tied the game at 2-all for Canada.

All it would have taken for Canada against Knight in those two tense innings was a blooper over an infielder’s head and reach or a routine fly ball to the outfield.

But the small, 5-foot-8, 140-pound lefty got two strikeouts and a ground out back to the mound in the ninth to escape and two pop outs in the tenth that would have made Harry Houdini envious if Houdini had been a pitcher.

“In hardball, probably the hardest thing to do in the world is to hit a single. That’s just the way the game goes,” Canada manager Mack St. Denis said. “They did the same. We had them in the same clutch position and we got out of it, and there’s not much you can say. I don’t know. It’s tough. You have to remember these are 15-, 16-year-olds going up there and they’re under pressure also. I thought they did a great job.”

After the game, Knight said he wasn’t really thinking too much about the jams when they happened.

“To be honest, I wasn’t really thinking about it,” he said. “I was kind of singing to myself. It calmed me down, the songs they were playing [between innings]. I just started singing on the mound and it worked out.”

Northern California scored first, in the first inning, when lead-off batter Marc Wik singled, went to third on a single by Billy Nevin, and then scored when Canada center fielder Aarron Seguin bobbled the ball for an error.

Canada tied it in the bottom of the second with an unearned run of its own. Jay Flannigan led off the inning with an infield single to third, went to second on a sacrifice bunt by Nolan St. Denis, advanced to third on an errant pick-off throw by California catcher Jennings, and scored on a Ryan Daigle single to center with two outs.

Northern California retook the lead in the fifth on an RBI single down the left field line by Cody Lebon that scored Knight. Knight had led off with a bunt single before being sacrificed to second by Brandon Ridge.

Down 2-1 entering the bottom of the seventh and facing the prospect of falling to 0-2 in the series, Canada relied on small-ball to send the game into extra innings. Lead-off hitter St. Denis got some help getting on base from Wik, who hit him with a 2-1 pitch. With Leo Maclean hitting, St. Denis stole second on a 2-1 pitch. Next, Maclean hit a bunt single on a 2-2 pitch to put runners on the corners. After Daigle popped out to reliever Knight, Seguin put down a successful squeeze bunt, with St. Denis beating the throw home.

Maclean was now standing on third with one out. Knight kept his composure and struck the next two batters out to preserve the tie.

Both teams went down in order in the eighth and Canada reliever James Amelote got the California side in order in the top of the ninth.

In the bottom of the inning, Canada loaded the bases with nobody out on a lead-off walk and two bunt singles. Knight bore down, striking Seguin and Cam Shaw out on four pitches each. He induced a harmless grounder halfway to the mound from Amelotte to end the inning.

In the tenth, Northern California broke the 2-2 tie when Ridge led off with a walk and later scored on a throwing error by catcher St. Denis. Canada came right back in the bottom of the inning on an RBI double by Flannigan that scored Dylan Prendergast, who had drawn a one-out walk. A fielding error by third baseman Ridge on a grounder by St. Denis and an intentional walk to Maclean loaded the bases with one out.

Northern California reliever Knight, already having escaped a bases-loaded jam in the ninth, became his own reliever again, getting two quick strikes on Daigle before Daigle popped out in foul territory to third baseman Ridge for the second out. Knight then took the count to 1-2 against Seguin before getting Seguin to pop out harmlessly to shortstop Nevin for the third out.

“My kids, I’m so proud of them,” Northern California manager Perry Romero said. “Like Matt, I went out to the hill and I talked to him in the last inning. He had the bases loaded and I think he had one out at the time. And he told me he was tired. And I didn’t have anybody warmed up, so I asked him to give me everything that he had, and he did. And we got out of it somehow.”

Amelotte, who had relieved starter Dylan Casselman for Canada to start the eighth inning, practiced some magic of his own in the top of the eleventh after Northern California put the potential go-ahead run on second with one out. He fielded a pop up for the second out and got a fly out to right field to strand the runner.

In the twelfth, though, Amelotte ran out of energy, hitting lead-off batter Knight, walking Ridge on a 3-2 count, and giving up a bunt single by Wik. He got Cody Lebon to swing at the first pitch for a fly out to right, but Jennings hit the first pitch he saw all the way to the warning track in left-center to clear the bases and break the 3-3 tie.

“I was going 0-2 on every count, every at-bat, so I had to do something to change that,” Jennings said. “I even changed bats that last at-bat so I could get something different.”

Northern California post-game comments
Canada post-game comments

Bernardo 2-out, 2-run single gives Philippines walk-off win

Poised to win, South Carolina drops to 0-2

Down 3-2 with two outs and nobody on, it looked bleak for the Philippines. The Asia-Pacific champ had been behind all day to South Carolina’s Brett Tompkins. The 6-foot-5, 235-pound right-hander had kept the Filipino hitters off-balance through 6 2/3 innings, allowing only one hit, walking only one, and striking out eight. Five of his strikeouts were on called third strikes.

But when Tompkins hit pinch-hitter Lorenzo Ramos with a pitch, the Asia-Pacific representative seized opportunity, with Sebastian Martinez-Miranda getting just enough bat on the ball to slice a double down the right-field line to put the tying and winning runs in scoring position.

Philippines manager Luis Habana quickly lifted Martinez-Miranda, the pitcher of record, for special pinch-runner Leandro Banzon.

It was then up to Adriane Bernardo at the plate. With a compact, spark-plug physique, Bernardo took a ball and a strike. He expected a fastball for the next pitch but got a curveball instead. No matter, he hit the ball just enough to get it by shortstop Alan Suchy and into short left field. Ramos raced home with the tying run and Banzon followed on his heels. Just like that, it was over and the Philippines had won 4-3, shocking the South Carolina fans, as their team was now 0-2 in the series while the Philippines, celebrating in a mob near home plate, was 2-1 in Pool A.

“I was looking for a fastball, but a curveball just went in,” Bernardo said. “I was lucky that it hit my bat, and I just put it in play, so I’m just happy to do it.”

“I started him off with a fastball, I think,” Tompkins said. “And I was just trying to break that curveball in there to get it 0-2, I guess, and couldn’t do it. He got a piece of it.”

“Ever since the regionals these kids haven’t been giving up, even if the lead was quite big,” Philippines manager Luis Habana said. In the Asia-Pacific regional championship game, the Philippines came back from a 5-2 deficit to Guam to win and advance to Bangor.

Tompkins had been in control the whole way on the mound for South Carolina while Filipino starter Charles Catangui struggled through four innings before leaving down 2-1. It could have been a lot worse for Catangui, as the right-hander walked five in only four innings while throwing only 42 strikes out of 76 pitches (55 percent). He stranded six runners on base – three in the bottom of the fourth.

“I think our starter wasn’t really in his stride,” Habana said. “I could feel that he was a little bit tentative when he was pitching. And he was also bothered by sliding off the mound a couple of times.”

South Carolina, the U.S. Southeast champ, got on Catangui early, scoring one run in the first inning, using a single by Austin Letrell, a balk that put Letrell on second, and a single by Tompkins. In the fourth, South Carolina took advantage of Catangui’s wildness to make it 2-0, as Catangui issued three walks and delivered a run-scoring wild pitch couched around an infield single, the U.S. Southeast champ’s only hit of the inning.

Catangui induced a bases loaded pop up and a ground out to get out of the bases loaded jam without any further damage.

The Philippines countered by scoring a single run in the bottom of the fourth thanks to some error-prone play by the South Carolina infield. A throwing error by third baseman Austin Mason enabled Catangui, leading off the inning, to reach first and make it to second base. From there, Catangui advanced to third on a passed ball by catcher Letrell and scored when Letrell’s throw to third skipped into left field to make it 2-1 in favor of South Carolina.

In the sixth, the Philippines tied the game with another unearned run when Niklas Sarda reached on a throwing error by shortstop Suchy to start the inning, advanced to second on a passed ball, stole third, and scored on a ground out by Julian Habana.

South Carolina broke the 2-2 tie in the top of the seventh with a two-out, RBI double by Thomas Spencer that drove in Brooks Yeager from first. Yeager had reached on a fielder’s choice when Gray Thomas, who had led off with a double, was caught in a rundown and thrown out.

“We just couldn’t string anything together,” South Carolina manager Ken Yeager said. “It’s been the story of the tournament. A run here, a run there. We got the bases loaded, one out. Pop up, strike out or whatever.”

Philippines post-game comments
South Carolina post-game comments

Resnick leads Texas East to 7-4 win over Aruba

U.S. Southwest now 5-3 overall against Latin America

Texas East starting pitcher Michael Resnick labored through four innings in searing Maine August heat and went 3-for-4 at the plate with two home runs and a triple to lead the U.S. Southwest champ to a solid 7-4 win over Aruba in today’s 1 o’clock game. The 5-foot-11, 200-pound right-hander almost became the first player in World Series play at Mansfield Stadium to have three home runs in a game, as his triple went all the way to the fence on the fly, to the right of the 375-foot marker in left-center.

Resnick’s two home runs tied a single-game record set in 2005 by Agana, Guam’s Alejandro Diaz, who holds the single series record of three home runs.

The U.S. Southeast’s win over the Latin America champ gives the region a 5-3 advantage in Bangor World Series play. No other region has a winning record against Latin America, which has now lost three straight to the Southwest.

The bottom of the Texas East lineup got things going with two outs in the top of the second inning, with No. 8 hitter Samuel Reid drawing a walk and No. 9 hitter Luke Cone singling to center off Aruba starting pitcher Lynell Koolman. John Williamson doubled both home on a 1-0 pitch that he took to left-center field. Travis Gauntt doubled almost to the same spot to make it 3-0.

Texas East added another run in the third when Resnick tripled to the fence in left-center leading off and scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Ryan Farney.

With Resnick’s pitch count mounting in the fourth, Aruba broke through for only one run on three walks and a single. Resnick’s day on the mound ended when he struck out Signarf Loopstok to end the inning on his 98th pitch of the day. Only 52 of Resnick’s pitches were strikes, as he walked five, allowed five hits, and struck out six.

His day on the mound done, Resnick hit his first home run of the day in the top of the fifth off a 2-1 pitch he sent an estimated 400 feet between the 375- and 400-foot markers in left field. It was one of the longest home runs in World Series play at Mansfield.

“When I hit that, I thought it was going to be gone because I hit it pretty well,” Resnick said of his first home run.

Matt Luna replaced Resnick on the mound in the bottom of the fifth and quickly found himself in trouble, giving up a lead-off single to Koolman before issuing a walk to Jair Bogaerts. He got Cedrik Sint Jago to bounce to third for a force on Koolman and a ground out to second by Shurman Marlin, but then he balked Bogaerts home and Sint Jago to third when he hesitated while coming to the set position with Edson Thiel batting. Luna proceeded to walk Thiel and Darl Quandus to load the bases. Jiandido Tromp, however, hit a grounder to third resulting in an inning ending force.

Aruba threatened again in the sixth against the shaky Luna, but again came out with only two runs after Luna walked two batters, gave up an RBI single by Sint Jago that cut Aruba’s deficit to 5-3, walked Marlin to load the bases and then walked Thiel to force in another run that got Aruba to within one, 5-4.

Texas East manager Trey Cornelius then summoned reliever Kevin Roy, who struck out Quandus on four pitches to leave the bases loaded. Roy then retired the side in order in the seventh.

Watching most of the game from the dugout made for a tense afternoon for Roy, who got his second save of the series.

“I would go out there, I’d get warm, but our pitcher would get out of the situation pretty quick, so I’d come back in, and I’d go back out and he’d get out of the situation,” Roy said. “I finally got the call. It was nervous, but you just have to overcome it.”

In the seventh, Lendl Dirksz took over on the mound for Koolman, who had reached his pitch count limit with 97 pitches after six innings. Dirksz gave up a one-out single to Gauntt and then lost Resnick two batters and one out later on the first pitch he delivered to the slugger. Resnick put the ball some 350 feet from home plate, over the left field fence between the 330-foot marker at the foul pole and the 375-foot marker in the power alley.

“I thought, actually, that was going to hit the wall in left-center,” Resnick said. “I thought it was going to die down and then I saw the left fielder just kind of give up on it.”

Roy retired the side in order in the bottom of the seventh for the save.

Texas East post-game comments
Aruba post-game comments

Italy snaps EMEA’s 14-game skid, 11-8 over Wisconsin

Italy scored three runs in the first inning, four in the fifth, and four in the sixth and survived a Wisconsin rally in the bottom of the seventh to win 11-8 in today’s morning game. The win snapped the Europe-Middle East-Africa region’s 14-game losing streak in the World Series that dated back to 2006. Before today, EMEA’s last win was against Latin America in 2005.

Italy was leading 11-4 entering the bottom of the seventh before Chris Anderson hit a 390-foot home run to right field with the bases loaded and two outs on a 3-2 pitch.

The Italians were in control for most of the game, jumping out to a 3-0 lead in the first inning without the benefit of a hit while taking advantage of poor pitching and defense by the U.S. Central champ. Wisconsin starting pitcher Chris Anderson walked two batters and hit another and his fielders committed three errors in the inning.

Meanwhile, Italy starter Gabriele Orso cruised through the first three innings, retiring the first nine Wisconsin batters in a row before allowing a lead-off single to Kody Parman to start the fourth inning. Orso quickly retired the next two batters on foul pop outs after Parman’s single, but then he gave up three consecutive singles and threw a wild pitch as the U.S. Central champ from Madison, Wis., tied the game 3-3.

In the fifth, Italy answered all three of Wisconsin’s runs, then added another to retake the lead, 7-3. Federico Ugrin singled home Andrea Berini from third base to break the tie after Berini had led off by being hit by a pitch from Wisconsin reliever Austin Rice and advanced all the way to third on a bunt single by Marco Gheno.

Luca Ainger doubled home Gheno and Ugrin to make it 6-3 in the Italians’ favor. Hitting behind Ainger, Alberto Varin snuck a double down the left field line off reliever Nate Hall to make it 7-3.

Hall then stopped the bleeding, striking the next two batters out looking to end the inning.

Italy batted around in the sixth inning while scoring what proved to be the decisive runs. Hall walked Francesco Olivieri leading off. After Berini sacrificed Olivieri to second on a bunt, Hall ended up walking Marco Gheno after getting ahead 1-2. Wisconsin manager Frank Lenoch brought in Parman to replace Hall on the mound and face Ugrin, who was 2-for-2 with a walk. Ugrin hit a 3-2 pitch to left for a double that scored Marco Gheno. Pietro Gheno followed with a single. An Ainger ground out to Parman on the mound moved Pietro Gheno to second while Ugrin held at third.

Alberto Varin brought both runners home with a single to left that made it 11-3.

Two singles, a walk, and a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the sixth got one run back for Wisconsin.

In the bottom of the seventh, Thomas Marusig took over on the mound for Olivieri. He was shaky, though, surrendering a single to Nate Thill on a 3-2 pitch to start the inning and hitting Gary King with a 1-2 pitch after King fouled off three pitches. Marusig struck out Stefan Schiltz on three straight pitches but then walked Parman on a 3-2 pitch to load the bases. Abe Lenoch then struck out looking for the second out. Up came Anderson, who took the first two pitches for balls before seeing two strikes followed by a third ball that filled the count.

Anderson lifted the 3-2 pitch high over the right field wall for the second grand slam in World Series play at Mansfield Stadium since 2002. Marusig struck out Zack Addamo swinging to end the game.

Italy vs. Wisconsin photos copyright and courtesy Monty Rand.