2015 65+ American
San Diego Mudcats 10, Lehigh Valley Moondogs 6
‘Boehm, Cripe and Encoe Lead the Mudcats at the Plate’
By Wes Thomas, special to MSBL
October 30, 2015, Tempe Diablo Stadium – The San Diego Mudcats held off a stubborn Lehigh Valley Moondogs team and captured the 65+ American Championship contest at Tempe Diablo Stadium, 10 to 6.
The Moondogs led after two complete innings of play, two to one, as Brent Phelts drove home two runs with a single to push the Dogs ahead. That lead was short lived as the Mudcats erupted for four runs in the top of the fourth inning when Jack Valentine singled home Hugh Gaskins whule Ken McAtee followed with another single plating Jim Teeter. Teeter and Gaskins had reached base with back to back walks. Bobby Boehm delivered the big blow of the inning following with another single to left field scoring both Valentine and McAtee and taking the lead five to one.
The Mudcats weren’t finished scoring runs and pushed two more runs across in the sixth inning extending the lead to seven to one. Bobby Boehm drove home his third RBI of the game with a sacrifice fly to left scoring Jack Valentine who reached base on an earlier error. The Mudcats added another run from some sloppy Moondog defense.
In the bottom of the sixth inning the Moondogs rallied and scored four runs of their own. Key hits by John Enwhistle, a rbi single, and Del Buss, a two run double, brought the Moondogs within a run and brought the game back to life.
In the Mudcats seventh, Jim Craig delivered with a key double scoring Gordon Bennett all the way from first base and adding to the Mudcat lead, now eight to six. The Moondogs couldn’t cool the hot bats of the Mudcats as they pounded out four more hits in the top of the eighth inning while Dave Cripe and Jerry Encoe had rbi singles.
The Mudcats pounded out 16 hits, three apiece by Bobby Boehm and Jerry Encoe. Jim Craig, Jack Valentine and Ken McAtee added to the offense with two hits each. The winning pitcher for the Mudcats was Steve Heard, as he entered the game in the fourth inning and went the distance. John Hopkins started for the Mudcats lasting three innings allowing only two runs.
The Moondogs Tom Casey and John Enwhistle had two hits apiece leading the Dog offense as starting pitcher Don Robertson suffered the loss.
Mike Mallow, San Diego Skipper credited the victory to good health and conditioning of his players, all his starting pitchers were “in line and ready to go… our reliever, Steve Heard, and his rubber arm had thrown 27 innings. I gave him the ball and he went out there and did it. Also, our top three hitters, Bobby Boehm, Dave Cripe and Jerry Encoe just got on base and we were fortunate enough to get them around to score. We played very well as a team and had great defense all week. A total team effort.”