2014 WK5 SFS 3

SANTA FE SPRINGS III

HITMEN GET THE HAT TRICK

The final Alliance tournament of the season was held the weekend of July 26-27 at Little Lake Park in Santa Fe Springs, CA. Once again the Hitmen from Morongo took first place in a field of 8 teams.

Also on Saturday, Maccabi USA held a memorial for Dave Blackburn who passed away in June. It was a nice to see a lot of the old-timers there and the stories they had of him.

The weather was hot over the two days but that did not stop some good ball playing and the Hitmen went 5-1 over the weekend and take the number 2 seed from Saturday’s round robin. It was very strange that no teams went undefeated in the round robin with 6 teams going 2-1.

As the number 2 seed they faced the Colton Dirt Bags in the first game of the single elimination. Ant Lozi was in the circle for the Hitmen against Jesse Martinez. The Hitmen scored in the first inning with Lozi scoring on an error for a quick 1-0 lead. Lou Enrinquez got the Dirt Bags on the board with a solo home run to open the second inning to tie the game. The Hitmen scored two more in the bottom of the second with Fernie Ramirez hitting a 2-run home run. The Dirt Bags scored a run in the 4th with Jesse Martinez doubling and scoring on a base hit. However the Hitmen held them off and won the game 3-2 to face Maccabi USA.

Rob Schweyer was in the circle for the Hitmen against Jason Gluckmen. The Hitmen once again scored first with Sal leading off with a walk. After stealing two bases he scored on a passed ball. That would be pretty much all Schweyer would need as he held Maccabi to one hit and had 11 strikeouts. The Hitmen did score 2 more runs in the 3rd once again taking advantage of two walks. An additional run was added in the 5th with Sal scoring his third run of the game and the Hitmen advancing to their third straight championship game.

Schweyer kept the ball for the Hitmen against Danny Zupp of Rude-Pac. For the second straight tournament the championship games was excellent. Both pitchers were hitting their marks and could rely on the defense when they needed to. It wasn’t until the 6th inning that the only runs of the game scored for the Hitmen. Sal opened the inning up with a single and scored on a single when the Hitmen strung together 4 straight hits including a double by Rudy. In the top of the 7th, Schweyer allowed a hit but struck out two to end the inning and take home the third straight championship for the Hitmen. Schweyer finished with 17 strikeouts in the game.

Rude-Pac earned the number 4 seed out of the round robin and their morning game was against the Long Beach Wolfpack. Ron Mizner was in the circle for Rude-Pac against Debby Day of the Wolfpack. The Wolfpack opened the game scoring two runs in the first inning on a single hit. They were able to hold the 2-0 lead into the bottom of the 3rd when Rude-Pac scored five runs with two outs in the inning, including a Chris Pavia grand slam home run. Rude-Pac added two more runs in the 4th inning for a 7-2 lead. In the final inning the Wolfpack scored two runs and with one out Zupp came in relief of Mizner and get the final two outs to advance.

Rude-Pac faced the So Cal Bandits in the semi-finals who upset the number one seed to advance. Zupp kept the ball for Rude-Pac against Robert Sanchez of the Bandits. Rude-Pac took advantage of early walks and base hits to score 7 runs in the first inning. Another run was scored in the second and 4 more runs in the third inning completed the game to advance to the championship game. Andy Martinez and Ruben Lopez both had home runs in the third.

Good luck to all the teams going to championship play in August and September.