2018 45+ American Las Vegas Open
D’Bat Angels 8, Central Coast Tigers 7 (12 innings)
‘Angels Win with Ten Able Bodies’
Submitted By: Kevin Cole, Manager, D-Bat Angels Baseball Club
The D-Bat Angels, consisting of players from the Arizona and California MSBL defeated the Central Coast Tigers 8-7 in a 12 inning Championship Game nail biter to capture the 45+ American Division Las Vegas Open.
D-Bat went undefeated through pool play by dispatching the Central Coast Tigers 12-4 and the Great Lakes Tigers 10-1 on Saturday and winning the Sunday morning game 6-5 against the gallant LS Warriors team to secure the top playoff seed. The Angels then beat the Las Vegas 55’s 17-1 on Sunday afternoon and when the Central Coast Tigers knocked off the OC Dodgers for the second straight game, the championship game matchup was set for Monday morning at Sierra Vista High School.
The Angels had a strong roster of 15 players to begin play on Saturday but by Monday morning, the dugout was down to 10 able bodies and each player would be tested by the time this game ended. Both teams started quickly trading runs back and forth and after six innings the game was tied at six. Starting pitchers John Parado for the Angels and Javier Ricardo for the Tigers continued to battle knowing that the next run could decide things. Each met the challenge as Parado got a strikeout to end the eighth inning with the bases loaded and the Angels threw a runner out at the plate to end the top of the ninth. Ricardo matched those heroics by getting strikeouts to end the seventh, eighth and ninth innings with the go ahead run on second base.
D-Bat loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the tenth but Ricardo got a
strikeout and an inning ending double play to escape. The Tigers scratched across a run in the top of the 11th but the Angels responded when with two outs and nobody on base, consecutive hits by Teddy Peterson, Moe Hawkins and Dave Uliberri again tied it. At that point, after throwing 11 strong innings, Parado had to leave to catch a flight and Mark Flatten came on to throw a scoreless 12th.
In the bottom of the 12th the Angels again loaded the bases with none down and after having to take an automatic out for the pitcher’s spot in the batting order, Flatten was hit by a pitch that scored Garey Simmonds who had started the game winning rally with a single with the tournament winning run for the D-Bat Angels.
The tournament victory for the D-Bat Angels was truly a team effort led by Flatten’s ten hits (seven that went for extra bases), Hawkins with nine, and Alex Cordova with eight. The Angels starting pitching was solid all weekend as Parado started twice, Garey Simmonds, Andy Miranda and Craig Gudgeon once each and the bullpen was required to throw only two innings.
Monday May 28, 2018 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Final
Central Coast Tigers 1 1 2 – 1 1 0 – 0 0 0 – 0 1 0 7
D-Bat Angels 1 0 2 – 0 2 1 – 0 0 0 – 0 1 1* 8
*1 out when winning run scored
Win – Flatten
Loss – Ricardo
Hitters:
M. Flatten 1-5 Double, 2 RBI, 2 HBP
A. Cordova 4-6 Double, 3 Runs Scored
T. Peterson 2-6 2 Runs Scored
M. Hawkins 3-4 Double, 2 RBI, 2 BB
D. Uliberri 2-5 3 RBI
G. Simmonds 2-6
S. Pepi 3-5