2014 Palm Springs

2014 PALM SPRINGS CLASSIC

J&B PAINTING CLAIMS THE CHAMPIOSHIP

The 2014 season kicked off in Palm Springs, CA over the weekend in fantastic weather. Temperatures were in the 90's and only a slight wind in the afternoon made for a great time at the park. Vicki Oltean and the City of Palm Springs had the fields in great shape for the 9 teams in the tournament.

J&B went 4-0 in the round robin (playing an extra game due to the odd amount of teams) and took the number one seed for Sunday's single elimination. In the round robin they outscored their 31-2 behind the pitching of Rob Schweyer, Deven MCCullough and Jason Gluckman. The J&B pitching staff had a total 87 strikeouts over the 7 games, while the J&B batters combined for 53 hits.

On Sunday morning their first game was against the Long Beach Wolfpack. Gluckman and McCullough combined on a 3 hitter to win 3-2 over Anthony Martinez. This placed them in the semi's against Rude-Pac. McCullough was in the circle again against Danny Zupp. McCullough allowed 2 hits over 5 innings to take the win 7-0 and a trip to the championship game.

Rob Schweyer was in the circle against Sonny Perkins of the Pala Braves in the championship game. The game turned into a pitchers duel as Pala chipped out only two hits in the first 6 innings and Sonny didn't allow a hit. In the seventh Tyson Magginni hit a single and advanced to second on a wild pitch. Schweyer struck the next two batters out to end the inning. In the bottom of the inning, kevin Castillo opened the inning with a infield single between third an short. Gluckman advance him to second with a sacrifice bunt. Schweyer was next to bat and helped himself to the win with 2-1 single to right to score Castillo from second and end the game.

Pala finished the round robin as the #3 seed with a 2-1 record. In their first game on Sunday they faced DM of Beaumont and won 9-0 to face Maccabi USA in the semi's. Perkins who pitched the first game, stayed in the circle. Maccabi tied the score 2-2 in the third, but Pala scored twice in the 5th and hold the lead for the win and the trip the championship game.

Overall it was a good weekend and the next tournament for the Alliance is the Las Vegas Road Trip on April 11-13.