The game had Rob Davis of Rude-Pac facing off against Mitch Mendenhal of Primetime.  Primetime scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning on a Mike York double.  ude-Pac came right back in the top of the second with Ruben Lopez opening the inning up with a triple and scoring on a single by Jose “Paco” Hernandez.  Paco then came around to score on a signal by Javier Fierro to tie the game.

The score remained scoreless for the next eight innings with both pitchers and defenses getting out of jams, including three innings of using the International Tie Breaker.  Some of the highlights during this time:

In the top of the 9th, with Ron Mizner at third and two outs, Scott Pulcifer hit a line drive shot to short about head high which was snagged by Primetime’s Mike “Spanky” Thomas.  When I say shot, the ball was to Spank almost immediately.

In the bottom of the ninth, Primetime loaded the bases with no outs and Ronnie was able to get out of the jam with a strike out and two ground outs.

Top of the 11th the two teams traded runs to take the score to 3 – 3.  In the bottom of the 12th, Primetime tried a suicide squeeze and Rude-Pac’s third basemen Ruben Lopez charged the ball all the way and made the tag himself as there was no time to get the ball to the catcher. 

In the 13th the teams traded runs again with Rude-Pac executing the sacrifice bunt to score in their half, while Mike York of Primetime went old school and hit a shot past Ruben at third to tie the game in the bottom of the inning on what many thought was a bunting situation. 

Also in the 13th, Primetime had the bases loaded with no outs and once again Ronnie was able to get out of the jam with a fly out to short center and double play to end the inning.  Score now 4 – 4.

Finally in the bottom of the 14th, Primetime loaded the bases and on a ball hit to short, Terry Brightwell scored the game winning run on an error. 

This was a great game to watch and the players all looked like they played 14 innings of a very close game.  Mitch picked up the win and in the last seven innings (or second half of the game) pitched a no-hitter with Ronnie taking a tough loss. 

In the tournament, Rude-Pac got their money worth as 4 of their 5 games went extra innings.   Joking with the scorekeeper I mentioned that if the game went any longer we might have to go to a coin flip to decide the game but it would probably land on its side the way the game went. 

Latin Heat – 3, So Cal Hustlers – 2

The Championship game had Cecillo Smalling in the circle against Joe Salcido of the Hustlers. This was the Hustlers fifth consecutive appearance in the Championship game and Flor de Cana second, both times facing the Hustlers.  The Hustlers struck first with Matt Shaw hitting a home run for a quick 1 – 0 lead.  Both pitchers then limited the other team to two hits going into the top of the fourth when David Carrillo of Flor de Cana scored two runs on a single which then got past the glove of the Hustlers left fielder to score both himself and a runner. 

Flor de Cana added another run in the fifth on two singles and a passed ball to take a 3 – 1 lead.  In the bottom of the fifth, with Luis Garcia at third, Kasey Shaw hit a slow grounder to third and Luis was tagged out on a bang-bang play at the plate by Mario Ramirez.  The Hustlers threaten again in the bottom of the sixth with Ken Shaw showing he has power by ripping a triple to the right-center gap and then scoring on a Dave Hess single

Going into the bottom of the seventh, Cecillo and Flor de Cana were holding on to a one-run lead.  Doug Shaw opened the inning up with a double and was then sacrificed to third.  With one out, Flor de Cana managers went to the pen for Gilbert Joiner to come in and close the game.  He got the second out of the inning on a called third strike and the final out of the game on a fly to right.  Cecillo Smalling took the win, Gilbert the save and “Papa Joe” Salcido taking the loss.  A tight game to the end.