It was a beautiful morning on this last day of Spring for the battle between the Laguna Beach Cardinals and the division champion Athletics. University High School in Irvine was the setting for this Single A Championship .... and the stage was now set for some PCBL Championship baseball. With that being said, let's get right to the action ...

 

The Cards send up their leadoff hitter, Pat Befort; who promptly doubles. He moves over to 3rd on a ground out and scores on a sac fly by John Fendler. The Cardinals get 1 run in the inning to take the early 1-0 lead.

 

The score would remain 1-0 as the Cards would come up in the top of the 5th inning to try to extend their lead. Starting pitcher Bruce Hamill, who's only allowed one hit thus far in the ballgame; helps his cause with a leadoff single. The next batter is Justin Cruz, who is hit by a pitch. The next batter grounds out to 1st; sending up first baseman Andrew Vialpando with 1 out and 2 runners on base. He singles home a run. The next batter is Andy Dale; who walks to load the bases for leadoff hitter Pat Befort. He grounds into a fielder's choice, with a run scoring on the play. Another run scores on a pass ball to the catcher. The Cardinals end up with 3 runs in the inning; now leading by a score of 4-0 through 4 1/2 innings of play.

 

The Athletics come up in the bottom half of the 5th inning; down 4 runs and starting to feel a sense of urgency. They lead off with 3rd baseman Jason Martin who walks. Two batters later, Mark Deitz singles to score Martin. They settle for a single run in the inning; now trailing 4-1.

 

The Athletics came up in the bottom of the 8th inning; still trailing 4-1. With one out, Mark Deitz singles and then advances to second on a pass ball. Cody Donaldson comes up with 2 out and he reaches base safely due to a fielding error; with a run scoring on the play. The Athletics can only muster 1 run in the inning; still trailing by a 4-2 margin.

With the Cards failing to score in the top of the 9th inning; the Athletics had one more opportunity to find at least 2 runs to tie up this game. They send up catcher Chris Hadley who is hit by a pitch. The next batter is Matt Deitz, who walks. With no outs and runners on 1st and 2nd; leadoff hitter Matt Parker walks to load the bases for left fielder Andrew Garrison. At this time, John Fendler is relieved on the mound by Mike Santillo. He will come in to face Garrison with the tying run at 2nd and the winning run standing over at 1st.

Much to the dismay of Andrew Garrison and the Athletics, he would end up lining back to the pitcher for the 1st out; afterwhich Santillo flipped the ball to 3rd to double up Chris Hadley. That took the wind out of the Athletics' sails .... as the last batter would pop out to the pitcher to end the ballgame. An exciting finish; but it was just not in the Cards for the Athletics today, as the Cardinals claim the title by a final score of 4-2.

 

Congratulations to the 2010 A-Division Spring Champion Cardinals for pulling out this narrow championship victory! Once again, MVP honors will go to a starting pitcher. Bruce Hamill of the Cards did just enough to hold the Athletics down offensively. He pitched 7 innings; allowing 1 run on only 1 hit, while walking 5 and striking out 4. Congratulations, Bruce ... on a solid effort! It should also be noted that his relievers did a good job of closing things out in the last 2 innings. John Fendler allowed 1 run on 1 hit in the 8th; and Mike Santillo only needed to face 2 batters in the ninth to seal the victory.

 

L.B. Cardinals    1 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0    4  4  2

         Athletics    0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1 0    2  2  3

 

(WP) Bruce Hamill (Cards) 7 IP; Allowed 1 run on 1 hit, with 5 walks and 4 K's

(LP) Ryan Gobrogge (A's) CG; Allowed 4 runs on 4 hits, with 2 walks and 5 K's

 

10:15am - 12:50pm (2 hours, 35 min)

 

John Visciglia (Plate)

Frank Pflugratt (1st Base)

Sarge Sharp (3rd base)

 

 

Marv Keller (Photographer)