Rain Delay Doesn’t Damper Team Orange In Capturing The Title In The Final Game Of The Annual Fall Classic

TEAM ORANGE rules supreme, and has been Crowned the  Champions of the Annual Fall Classic. Both sides continued to struggle with the bats, striking out a record  21 times on 11 hits through 7 innings. Both sides had opportunities to score. Only Green took the opportunity with a couple of runs in the 5th shutting out Orange that showed nothing but zeros across the scoreboard. Orange’s hitting was so bad that in the final 4 innings recorded a total of 11 strikeouts. Team Orange with all its adversity striking out and without scoring managed to hold on taking it to the tiebreaker earning them the title. Cumulative points 5-5. Tiebreaker: 10-8.

Alex Giroux in place of Brian Walters started for Green to open the final game of the World Series with Green trailing by a point in the running total. Alex pitched three scoreless innings opening to what would be the defensive play of the day. Brandon DeGoti leading off for the Orange hits a stinging ball down the 3rd base line. Jake Ogden retrieves the ball deep behind the bag and throws to first reaching Hudson on a bounce who was not able to scoop up. The scorekeeper probably would have ruled it a hit, but the inexperienced Hudson was unable to finalize the out. It was a great play to start today’s festivities. Michael Torres next to bat doubles putting runners on 2nd and 3rd with no outs and Daniel Cuvet to the plate. Infield playing in short-circuited Daniel with a 6-3 groundout holding the runner at third. Renzo Gonzalez, also with the infield playing in, struck out, the first of many we would be seeing throughout the morning. A FO to center would not only end the threat but it would be the only real threat for the remainder of the game. Every time they would put runners on base, which was not often, they would be plagued striking out. 14 total throughout the game. In the second inning, Bobby Marsh opened the inning with a single, but Alex shut the door striking out Gaby Gutierrez, Amaury De Jesus, and Jake Kulikowski one, two, three. Alex’s final inning, for the third time, allowed the lead-off batter to reach first base (HP), but a ground out (6-4) and a pair of strikeouts ended his rotation with a trio of zeros on the scoreboard.

Griffin Hugus who was supposed to be Brian’s opposition which is what the scouts expected was not disappointed in what they saw from Giroux as they would be from Hugus. Not as compelling as Alex with the strikeouts but still got the job done. Like Alex, he gave up a single to the leadoff batter ((Edgardo Villegas) which Jake Ogden SAC Eddie to second. Dorian walked putting runners on 1st and 2nd. Green’s threat to earn the coveted point with a score failed with Max Galvin hitting into a 4-6-3 DP. The second inning was without a baserunner as almost was the 3rd except for hitting Evan Taveras. In Hugus’s final inning, Jake Ogden led off with a single. A one-out single by Max Galvin advanced Jake to second. Orange shifted with Todd Hudson stepping to the plate. Jake seeing 3B unattended because of the shit to the right walked into third without breaking a wind. Hugus wasn’t even paying attention when Galvin stole second without even a look from Griffin. Griffin was more concerned with Hudson at the plate. Taking care of business he struck out Todd for the second time. End of 4 neither side had picked up a point or a run.

Will Smith came to pitch for Green relieving Giroux in the 4th. Will got off to a shaky start after recording his first out, hitting Tanner Smith and a single to Bobby Marsh. Smith advanced to third on the hit. Runners on the corners, WP advanced Marsh to second. What followed was a string of strikeouts to Orange which from the batting coach (if we have one) is unforgivable. 10 strikeouts in a row only to be interrupted with a one-out single in the 5th by Elijah Hurt. Sad.Sad.Sad. Hats off to Will Smith and Brixton Lofgren who came in to pitch the final inning picking up three Ks, two before the string was broken.

Reese Lumpkin, for Orange, came in to pitch in the 5th after 4 innings of shutout ball. In the 5th, the run of zeros would be broken with a one-out double from Fabio Peralta going opposite field (half-swing) followed by a single from Evan Taveras. Runners on 2nd and 3rd Adrian Areizaga takes the ball to center (SF) for the initial run of the game earning Green the point and tying the series at 5-5. Edgardo followed for a bit of icing on the cake with a double for the second run adding to the tiebreaker score 10-8. That would be the end of the road for Green. Reese shut Green down for the final two innings 6up/6down.

Once again the pitching far outweighed the hitting. The World Series did not go particularly well for our two-star hitters: Daniel Cuvet was 1-13 with 8 Ks, the hit being for a HR and Todd Hudson was 2-13 with 9 Ks. His two hits coming in game 2, one for a double. All his bats today were for Ks while 2 of the 3 were Ks for Daniel. Overall, the team is striking out way too much. It is either the pitching is that great or our hitting has been that poor. Whatever the problem is whoever our batting coach is has better come up with a solution before the start of the regular season. Today we had two with multiple hits Edgardo Villegas 2-3 (double,RBI) and Bobby Marsh 2-3. Additionally, Fabio Peralta and Michael Torres each picked up a double.

The final week of the preseason is next week ending with Scout Day next Saturday. Due to the election on Tuesday, the first scrimmage has been moved to Wednesday followed on Friday, and ending with Scout Day on Saturday. The times have yet to be determined.