2011 Summer Season
2011 PCBL Summer Wood Bat Championship Wed. August 17th @ 7pm / El Cariso Park Dragons (5-5) -vs- Los Animales (6-4)
Los Animales Slay Dragons in Wood Bat Final By Scot Sweet / PCBL Staff Writer
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Welcome back to El Cariso Park in the beautiful Sylmar foothills for this years' Summer Wood Bat Championship between the Dragons and Los Animales! Before we even saw the first pitch in this championship game, these two teams showed that they belonged here in this wood bat final. The Dragons defeated the Spring wood bat champion SCV Raiders 6-3 to advance; and Los Animales beat the top-seeded Reds by a score of 8-5. With both teams riding high into this championship night, let's get right to the action!
The Dragons fail to score in the top half of the 1st inning; sending Los Animales up in the bottom of the inning to try and get on the board first. The first two batters walk, followed by Josh Miranda who gets an infield hit to load the bases for Victor Reyes. He walks to force in a run. A wild pitch results in another run scoring soon after. The next batter is Brian "La Flama Blanca" Marine who grounds out, but gets an RBI as a run scores on the play. Los Animales score 3 runs in the inning to take the early 3-0 lead. The Dragons would come to bat in the top half of the 5th inning; still trailing 3-0. Juan Salas leads off with a base on balls. Two batters later, Josh Garcia reaches base due to a fielding error. Johnny Valenzuela singles home a run. Tony Margolis reaches base on an error with a run scoring on the play. Alonzo Jackson follows with a single; as does Tim Kim. In the end, the Dragons score 3 runs in the inning to tie this game at 3 apiece. But Los Animales get more breaks in the bottom of the 5th. Chuy De La Rosa is hit by a pitch; then steals second shortly thereafter. Josh Miranda follows with a walk and then Victor Reyes singles to load the bases. Two batters later, Walter Rios walks to force home a run. Luis Gonzales follows with an RBI walk of his own. Los Animales settle for 2 runs in the inning to take a 5-3 lead through 5 complete innings of play. The game remained 5-3 Los Animales as we entered the bottom of the 8th inning. Walter Rios started things off for Los Animales with a single. Two batters later, Alberta Medina stepped to the plate. He was 0 for 3 on the day .. all flyouts to center field. The center fielder would not catch up with this one ... as Medina drives one deep to right center field for a 2-run homer! They would settle for the 2 runs in the inning and now lead by a score of 7-3 as we entered the top of the 9th inning. The Dragons had one more shot to make something happen in this contest. Rommy Jiminez draws a walk to keep the dream alive for the Dragons. Robert Marcial follows with a double; sending up Juan Salas with 2 on and nobody out. He rips a single hard in the gap to score 2. The Dragons felt an immediate sense of new life; but it would not last .. as it was too little too late. They end up with two runs in the inning and they fall to a tough Los Animales squad by a final score of 7-5. Congratulations to both teams for making it into this years summer championship; and a very special congratulations to this years' Summer Wood Bat Champions ... Los Animales! They were out-hit in this contest; yet they did what they had to do to hold on for victory. And the MVP of this contest was a very deserving one. Starting pitcher Eddie Urquiza of Los Animales was superb. He pitched 7 1/3 innings; allowing only 1 earned run on 6 hits while walking 3 and striking out 9. It was his solid pitching performance that gave Los Animales the victory in this championship! BOX SCORES Pitching Stats: Game MVP: SP Eddie Urquiza (Los Animales) Offensive contributors for Los Animales: Game Time: 7:05pm - 10:15 (3 hrs, 10 min) Umpires: |