2010 Santa Fe Springs V

PANTERAS WIN THEIR THIRD CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE SEASON!!

The Panteras used their number two seed to advance to the championship game for the fourth time this season and took home their third championship of the year.  Behind the pitching of Sebastian Gervasutti and Gerald Pyle, the Panteras rolled to a perfect 6-0 weekend. Their offense wasn't too shabby either as they put up 43 runs over the six games, including 8 in the championship game against J&B Painting.

The Panteras open the single elimination portion of the tournament with a 14-4 victory over the Palm Springs Express with Pyle earning the win and striking out 9 batters.  Tony Acedo tripled in the game for the Panteras.  The win put them into the semi-finals against a team they have seen too often on Sunday, Liberty FP.  Pyle was in the circle to start the game and pitched the first 4 innings striking out 4 and allowing only 4 hits. "Sebass" came in for the final two innings, striking out 3 and allowing 1 hit to send the Panteras to the championship game against J&B Painting. The Panteras Robert Aragon double in the Liberty FP game.

Sebass continued in the circle for the Panteras against J&B Painting's Kia Fennell in the Championship game and was staked to an early 2-0 lead. J&B came on strong in their half of the inning with 3 singles but Sebass struck out the next 3 to end the inning and leave the bases loaded.  In the second inning the Panteras scored 2 more on a Rob Romos home run. The Panteras scored an additional 2 runs in the third on three hits and an error.  J&B got on the board in their half of the inning with Bob Berger opening the inning with a double and later scoring.

In the fourth inning Jeremy Rogers can in for relief of Fennell and the Panteras Acedo scored after hitting a double in the inning.  No runs scored again until the top of sixth when Fernie Ramirez, Jr, opened the inning with a home run off Herlen Yeomas who came in of relief of Rogers.  J&B got 2 runners on base in their half of the inning but could not score and the game ended 8-1 with the Panteras securing their third championship of the season.  Sebass went the distance allowing 7 hits while striking out 12.

J&B showing that they are no cinderella story once again finished with a high seed in the round robin and placed as the fifth seed.  This gave them a first round game against Balboa and Ricardo Miyoso shut down their free swinging bats allowing only 1 hit and striking out 7.  Chino Riviera had a double and home run in the game. 

The win set them up with the number four seed Colton Dirt Bags and with Fennell in the circle, J&B scored 8 runs again including a Cory Werth triple.  In the semi-finals they faced the number one seed Maccabi USA with Hector Riviera in the circle.  In the game Hector struck out 14 of the 28 batters he faced and allowed only 6 hits.  J&B posted a 6-2 victory and a slot in their first SCIFL championship game. This was their fourth SCIFL event and after being knocked out in the first round of the first two events, they made it to the semi-finals in their last tournament and the finals in this one.  Not too shabby for a first year team.  With the San Fernando/Mexi-Cali connection, teams next year better be on the lookout for the black and gold of J&B Painting.

This tournament wraps up the season for the SCIFL and it was once again a very successful season.  With 7 tournaments , we lost one due to rain, and averaging 11 teams per tournament and 27 for the Las Vegas Road Trip, things were very good in a down year which hit a lot of players and their families.  Hopefully things get better for everyone soon and everyone can get back to playing ball all of next season. 

Good luck to the Southern California teams and players going to championship play.