2015 Father/Son Cactus

Salt Lake City Dodgers 5, San Antonio Reds 3

‘A Krueger Family Affair Downs the Reds’

By Russ Christ, special to MSBL

November 1, 2015, Maryvale Stadium, Phoenix, AZ – Freddy Krueger is the main antagonist of the ‘A Nightmare on Elm Street’ film series.

Appropriately, two other Kruegers, Mason, the son, and Mark, his father, seemed to frighten their opponent with advanced baseball skills the day after Halloween.

The Kruegers pitched, hit line drives and stole bases in the Father/Son Cactus division championship game to lead the Salt Lake City Dodgers past the San Antonio Reds5-3 at the 28th MSBL World Series at Maryvale Park in Phoenix.

Mason Krueger, 20, the winning pitcher, threw the final five innings for the Dodgers in relief of Gary Bowman, who shut out the Reds through four. The lead-off hitter, Mason, was 2-5 also scoring three times and stealing six bases. Mason’s father, Mark , 49, was 3-3 with an RBI.

The Dodgers went up 2-0 in the first. Mason singled, JoeO’Brien walked and Mark drove his son home with a single. O’Brien scored on an outfield error. “It was fun to come out with the old guys and have a little fun,” Mason Krueger said. “We just wanted to do our job today,” Mark Krueger said. “We wanted to focus on hitting. This was fun.”

O’Brien, 39, Bowman’s son-in-law, was 3-4 with two RBI and scored twice. “I’ve been blessed with seeing the ball well all week,” O’Brien said. “Most of my hits were to right, right center field, then I got my groove mid-week and started pulling the ball. (Mason) Krueger was in front of me all week stealing bases. But it’s always fun to play with you father-in-law. His daughter is rooting for both of us.”

Ian Allen took the loss for the Reds, who finished 6-1. Phil Galloway, the Reds manager, pitched four innings and gave up three runs. The Dodgers avenged an earlier loss to the Reds and also finished the week 6-1.

In the fifth, the Dodgers took a 3-0 lead when Mason Krueger reached on an error, stole second and third and scored on O’Brien’s single to right field. Kim Furness doubled home Allen in the sixth to score the Reds first run. Furness later scored on a throwing error to make it 3-2, but the Reds couldn’t get any closer. The Dodgers added two more runs in the seventh. Back-to-back singles by Mason Krueger and O’Brien started the rally and Spencer Profit added a run-scoring single to increase their lead to 5-2. The Reds, who managed only one hit after the second inning, scored a run in the eighth when Galloway walked and later scored on Funess’s ground out.

Marty Hoelscher, the Dodgers skipper, was all smiles after the game. “The key was great pitching from Gary and Mason,” Hoelscher said. “We just played great defense and hit the ball when we needed to…they beat us 15-7 in the first game and we won every game since. We knew we were going to beat them. I feel great. I’ve been coming down here for nine years and this is the first one (championship).

Dodgers   2 0 0 0 1 0 2 0 0 — 5  14  4

Reds         0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 – 3   4   2

WP: Mason Krueger

LP: Ian Allen

2B: Reds: K. Furness

RBI: Dodgers: O’Brien (2), S. Profit (1), Mark Krueger (1); Reds: Furness (2)

DP: Reds (2); Dodgers (1)

HBP: Dodgers: J. Maughn; Reds: I. Allen

SB: Dodgers: Mason Krueger (6), S. Profit (1)

Time: 2:34