L.A. Crows (6) (12-8) -vs- Devil Rays (1) (17-3)
Devil Rays Blaze Late in Victory over Crows
By Scot Sweet / PCBL Staff writer
The second of our three championship games at JetHawk Stadium in Lancaster would be for the American Division Championship between the #6 seed L.A. Crows and the #1 seed Devil Rays. With a 2:30pm start in the desert, it was a foregone conclusion that it would be a hot and sticky one in the Hangar between these two highly competative teams.
The Crows would start the top of the 1st inning with consecutive singles from Matt Horn
, Donovan Wallace and Kris Landeen; producing 1 run to take the early 1-0 lead. The Devil Rays would go down in order in the bottom of the inning, bringing the Crows up in the top of the 2nd with a chance to extend their early lead. The Crows' 1st 2 batters would be retired in the bottom of the 2nd inning, bringing up Cesar Jimenez who would draw the 2 out walk. Leadoff hitter Luis Alcaraz would follow with a single to put 2 on with 2 out for Matt Horn. Horn gets an RBI single to go 2-2 on the day and put his L.A. Crows up 2-0 through an inning and a half.
The Devil Rays start the bottom of the 2nd inning with their cleanup hitter, Chris Oliver; who doubles to start things off. The next 2 batters would be retired, bringing up Jay Wilson who triples home Chris Oliver to put the D Rays on the board. The next batter is Darren Tanabe, who follows with an RBI double of his own to tie the game at 2. The Devil Rays would settle for 2 runs in the inning, making the score a 2-2 tie through 2 complete.
The game would go scoreless until the bottom of the 4th inning, when the Devil Rays would add a run by way of singles by Chris Oliver and Brian Rich; as well as costly fielding error. Devil Rays take a 3-2 lead through 4 complete innings of play.
The L.A. Crows strike back immediately in the top of the 5th inning. With 1 out, Kris Landeen doubles. The next batter would ground out, bringing up 3rd baseman Eddie Herrera who singles to put 2 on and 2 out for Mike Rosenberg. He connects for an RBI single to tie the game at 3.
The scoring would stop once again until the top of the 7th inning. The Crows' Eddie Herrera, who singled in his last at bat, draws a 2-out walk; bringing up Warren Porche who gets on by way of a fielding error. With 2 on and 2 out, the next batter is right fielder is Ari Shandling; who singles home Eddie Herrera. The Crows settle for 1 run in the top of the 7th inning and now lead this American Division Championship, 4-3 through 6 1/2 innings of play.
Here come the #1 seed Devil Rays in the bottom of the 7th inning, trailing by a single run. They send up Darren Tanabe to start things off. Tanabe gets on due to a fielding error and promptly steals 2nd base. The next batter is pinch-hitter Giovanni Smith, who draws a walk to send up left fielder Chris McCloud with 2 on and nobody out. With the count full, he singles home Darren Tanabe. The next batter is leadoff hitter David Decker, who gets on base by way of a fielding error; with a run scoring in the process. Next up is Nick Robideau who is looking for his first hit of the game. He comes up big with an RBI single, scoring a pair. The next batter would fly out, bringing up Chris Oliver with 1 out and 1 on. Oliver, with a single and a double to his credit so far, gets one step closer to the cycle with a 2-run blast to give the Devil Rays a whopping 6-run inning; now leading the stunned L.A. Crows by a tally of 9-4.
The Crows' were able to muster up 1 more run in the top of the 8th; courtesy of base hits by Luis Alcaraz and Donovan Wallace, combined with a sacrifice fly RBI by Kris Landeen. However, that would complete the Crows' offense for the day as they would end the game as victims of a 6-4-3 double play in the 9th inning to seal the victory for the Devil Rays; who win the PCBL American Division Championship in grand fashion by a final score of 9-5.
Congratulations to both teams for a well played championship; and to our 2006 American Division Champion Devil Rays for the dramatic 6-run 7th inning which inevitably sealed their fate as the 2006 Champs!
Game Time: 2:30pm-5:35pm (3 hrs, 5 min)
Umpires: (Home) Phil Detro
(1st) Ryan Goodman
(2nd) Chris Chegwin
(3rd) Peter Sakajian
Game MVP: D-Ray's catcher - Chris Oliver
3 for 4, single, double, homerun, 2 RBI's
Inning Breakdown: R H E
L.A. Crows 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 1 0 5 13 2
Devil Rays 0 2 0 1 0 0 6 0 - 9 12 4
