2009 SANTA FE SPRINGS IV

It's really is "like deja vu all over again", the Long Beach Black Sox win their fifth championship of the year and second in a row at Santa Fe Springs.

The Long Beach Black Sox finished second in their pool going 2-1 in the round robin to setup their first game of the day against Palm Springs Express winning 13-4.  In the semi-final they faced the number one seed from Pool B Caribbeans.  Todd Budke shut them out earning the 4-0 win and set up the championship game against Flor de Cana. 

Ronnie Rupp was in the circle for the Black Sox against Doug Rooney of Flor de Cana and for some reason, Ronnie completed the championship game in record time.  Both pitchers were throwing strikes and the game was completed in one hour and twenty minutes.  Not sure if either of them had a hot date later in the afternoon but it was nice have the game moving along at a quick pace.

The Black Sox scored in the bottom of the first as they capitalized on two fielding errors, a walk and a double by manager Fred Hanker for an early two run lead. 

Flor de Cana came back and tied the game in the top of the third on three singles and an error. 

In the bottom of the fourth, the Black Sox scored two more times to take their final lead of the game with Chris Minogue opening the inning with a double and then scoring on a base hit by Matt Shaw for go ahead run.  Matt also scored later in the inning. 

With the lead, Ronnie shut down Flor de Cana and retired the last nine batters in a row for the victory.  Doug also pitched a good game but came out with a tough loss. 

Flor de Cana also finished second in their pool and faced Panteras II in the first round and beat them 7-0 which placed them against the senior Panteras team and they scored 11 runs in the game for the victory.  Doug picked up the win in the first game and Darrin McCall earned the win in the second game.