March 23, 2015

Irish Recap

With March temperatures in the 90s, it was a perfect weekend for Orange County baseball.

10-Under:
The 9-Under Los Al Combat stayed close to home by playing up to the 10-Under division.  After a 1-1 record in Pool Play, they would have to win three straight games in the Playoffs to upset their 10-Under opponents.

After a convincing 12-1 quarterfinal victory, they moved on to the Semifinal game against in the 10-Under Corona Reds.  The Reds had overwhelmed the 9-Under Combat in Saturday's Pool Play game 12-8.  The Combat were not going to let that happen again.  Combat pitcher Derek Valdez took the team on his back, and delivered 5 innings of shutout pitching to give the Combat a 8-0 semifinal victory.

Now in the Championship game, and facing their toughest competition of the day, the Combat would need to be firing on all cylinders to win their third game of the day.  Though their bats may have cooled off, their pitching and defense was as tough as ever, holding the 2nd Seed to just 2 runs.  The Combat put four of their own across the plate and took a 4-2 victory to a 1st Place finish.

12-Under:
In San Clemente, some of the top 12-Under teams we battling it out.  Rampage BBC finished Saturday atop their Pool.  Looking to continue their undefeated streak, the Rampage found themselves against Team Phenom for the second time in two days.  Though Rampage handled Phenom easily on Saturday, they found themselves in a 3-0 hole going into the bottom of the last inning.  But a few base hits loaded the bases.  Most teams would have been happy to keep the rally going, with more base hits.  This time however, it only took one swing of the bat.  A poorly located pitch was jumped on, and put over the fence for a walk off grand slam to send the Rampage to the Championship game.

Moving on to the Championship game against the other 1st Seed, the Rampage were looking for a more comfortable game.  They would not get that however.  The two 1st Seeds battled hard, but the Rampage were able to cash in on their last minute magic again, giving them a 5-4 Championship victory, and a hard earn 1st Place finish.

Thank you to all the teams that played in the 2015 Irish.  Here are your Champions and Runner Ups.


See you on the fields

-AC

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