2014WK4SFS2

SANTA FE SPRINGS II

HITMEN TAKE TWO IN A ROW

The SCIFL Alliance was back at Santa Fe Springs the weekend of May 16-17. With temperatures in the 100’s most of the week, it was nice to play in the low 80’s. 9 teams were entered and games went through the evening on Saturday to complete the round robin.

The Hitmen from Morongo took their second championship in as many tournaments. This one took a little longer to win, 11 innings to be exact in the championship game, as they won 1-0 over the Long Beach Wolfpack. The Hitmen finished 3rd in the standings posting a 2-1 record and started single elimination on Sunday against Balboa. Rob Schweyer was in the circle and won 9-1.

In the semi-finals they faced Rude-Pac, who finished the round robin as the 2nd seed. Once again Schweyer was in the circle against Meredith Cervenka, who gave the Hitmen their only lost in 2 tournaments the previous day in the round robin. The Hitmen scored 4 runs in the first 2 innings, 3 of the runs coming on an Ant Loza home run, but were then held hitless for the remainder of the game. Schweyer in the meantime held Rude-Pac hitless through 3 2/3 innings before Chad Landers was able to single for Rude-Pac’s 1st hit. In the 5th Rude-Pac scored 3 runs, 2 on an Andy Martinez single and then Martinez scoring on a David Carrillo triple. Schweyer shut down Rude-Pac after that and held on to the 1 run win and another trip to the championship game.

Schweyer kept the ball and faced Debby Day of the Long Beach Wolfpack. Both pitchers were on their game allowing no runs through 7 innings. The closest to scoring was the Hitmen got runners to second twice and another to third, but the last was tagged out at the plate.

In the ITB starting in the 8th, the first batter for the Hitmen must have tried to hit one past the infield who were set up for the bunt but popped up to second base and the next two batters were retired. Neither team was able to move their runners off second and Wolfpack first basemen Bobby Cole, thinking he was back in the 90’s, made a great diving catch on a bunt to prevent the runner from advancing in the 9th. The Wolfpack tried a gutsy steal in their half of the 9th inning and were successful. Sitting behind the plate I was looking for a suicide squeeze but Schweyer turned it up a notch and struck 2 of the next 3 batters and fielded a comebacker in between to end the inning.

In the top of the 10th, the Hitmen got their runner to third on a sacrifice bunt but Day struck out the next batter and then got the next batter to hit a lazy fly ball to shortstop to end the threat. In the bottom of the inning the Wolfpack had runners on second and third with 2 outs when Schweyer let go of a wild pitch. Joe Janicke was off and running from third as soon as the ball went high and made a dive to the plate. Catcher Hank Schelb got a good bounce off the fence and rather than toss the ball to Schweyer also dove back into the plate to meet Janicke glove to hand at the plate. As the dirt was settling the umpire called for the ball and Schelb with his face in dirt raised his glove in the air to show he had the ball and got the out to end the inning.

In the 11th inning the Hitmen finally scored with Layvis Gabriel hitting the ball to right field and then taking a wide turn to draw the throw back to him and allow the runner to score as he was Layvis was being tagged. Schweyer then struck out the last 3 batters (for a total of 25 in the game) to finally put it to an end, 3 hours later. It was one of the best and exciting championship game in a long time.

The Long Beach Wolfpack entered the single elimination with a perfect 3-0 record and the number 1 seed from the round robin, only allowing 3 runs to score on Saturday. In their first game of the day the faced the Pala Braves, who had earlier beat the Colton Dirtbags to advance, with Day in the circle against Sonny Perkins. The Wolfpack got on the board early with Aaron Breslow doubling home Janicke for the game’s first run. The Braves tied it in the top of the third on a Preston Torres homer, but it was short lived as the Wolfpack manufactured a run to take the lead and hold on for a 2-1 victory.

In the semi-finals they faced Maccabi USA. Anthony Martinez was in the circle for the Wolfpack against Russ Snow of Maccabi USA. The Wolfpack scored 2 in the first inning and added 3 more in the 3rd to take a 5-0 lead. Tom McDougal tripled in the inning. Maccabi USA scored a run in the 4th on 3 hits, but the Wolfpack countered with another one of their own in the 5th. Maccabi threaten again in the bottom of the 6th but were only able to score 1 run before the Wolfpack got the final out of the game and head to the championship game.

The next tournament will be held on June 28-29, once again at Little Lake Park.