2015 35+ Cactus

Team Las Vegas 5, Murietta Mutiny 4

‘Godman Does the Damage at the Plate’

By Jason Skoda, special to MSBL

October 24, 2015, HoHoKam Stadium, Mesa, AZ – The celebration matched the effort as Team Vegas converged in the middle of the diamond after winning the 35 Cactus Division of the MSBL World Series championship. All teams react differently, but this one was pretty raucous after Vegas held off the Murietta Mutiny for a 5-4 win at HoHoKam Stadium.

“There are guys on this team who have won four or three (World Series) rings, but there are 12 guys on this team don’t have one,” James Godman said. “This week has been all about fighting for them to get their first ring. That’s all the veterans wanted to do and it took a total team effort to get it done.”

It didn’t come easy as the Mutiny, who went 7-2 on the week including a seven-game win streak to get to the finals, grabbed and early 3-1 lead and then plated a run in the ninth while putting the tying run on third and the winning run on first.

“This is how you want to win it – with the tying run on third and getting pushed until the very end,” Vegas manager Mauricio Molina said. “That’s the kind of game you will always remember.”

Vegas reliever Josh Turnes pitched the final five innings to pick up the win. He had to battle through the ninth while the Mutiny started a two-out rally. Lester Reynoso tripled, and Steve Prader’s fourth hit of the game pulled them within one, but with runner’s on the corners Turnes induced a long fly ball to left to set off the celebration.

“It was a well played game,” Mutiny manager Brad Allinson said. “We had a couple of errors, but we had 18 guys play well. We lost our first game and went straight through. It was a total team effort.”

Murietta, which is based out of the San Diego area, took a 3-1 when Ray Roberts hit a two-run single to take advantage of some defensive lapses by Vegas in the fifth. It was short lived as Godman had an RBI double and Kurt Cullen had a RBI single to tie it. Then in the seventh the left-handed Godman had a two-run triple off left-handed reliever Hutch Humphrey. Not bad for a guy who was called out of semi-retirement to play for the team after some of Vegas’ top players moved on to another team or weren’t available this week.

“He played maybe five or six fall ball games, but he just kept getting better and better,” Molina said.

Godman, who played linebacker in NFL Europe one year, was named the team’s co-MVP with shortstop Chris Lerma, who played well defensively had and bases-clearing hit in the semifinals.

“This was a total team effort,” Godman said. “We cam in loose and it helps having guys who’ve been there before showing the way. We weren’t down even when we were losing. It was a great weekend.”

Team                                 1      2      3      4      5      6      7      8      9              R     H     E

Murietta Mutiny              0      0      0      0      3      0      0      0      1              4      12   6

Team Vegas                       0      0      1      0      0      2      2      0      –              5      8      4

Dewey, Humphrey (6) and Mowad. McIntosh, Turnes (5), and Dewreede.

WP: Turnes LP: Humphrey.

3B: Godman (TV), Reynoso (MM).

2B: Godman (TV); Ortlieb (MM), Remington (MM),

Leading Hitters: Mutiny – Prader 4×4, R, RBI; Roberts 2×3, 2 RBI; Remington 3×3. Vegas – Godman 2×4, 3 RBI, Cullen 2×4, RBI.

SAC: Piowarsy (TV)

LOB: Mutiny 15; Vegas 7

Total game time: 2:47