Defending champion hand All-Stars 12-6 setback
Published 8:15 pm Monday, August 13, 2007
By By RYAN ROBBINS / Special to the Niles Daily Star
BANGOR, Maine – Falcon, Venezuela, jumped out to a commanding lead early against Niles Sunday night in opening day action and coasted to an easy 12-6 win over the U.S. Central champ.
Venezuela, seeking to become the first team to win consecutive Senior League Baseball World Series titles since the tournament moved to Bangor in 2002, has now won seven consecutive series games. The team went 6-0 last year in winning the title.
The loss for Michigan means the U.S. Central has yet to win a game against the Latin America champion in Bangor in six tries.
Michigan scored first, getting two runs in the first inning while taking advantage of three walks issued by Venezuela starting pitcher Hugo Yedra and a base hit by Dominique Pompey, but Yedra struck out Andrew Brawley swinging with the bases loaded to escape further damage.
The defending world champs then took advantage of early jitters by Michigan starter Tyler Knisely, who walked the first batter he faced and then promptly balked the runner to second. The 5-foot-9 lefty ended up walking his second batter and giving up three straight singles. By the time the first inning ended, Venezuela had staked itself to a 5-2 lead.
The Latin Americans added four more runs in the bottom of the second inning after Michigan managed to cut the margin to 5-3 with a two-out run that came after a walk, wild pitch, and an error. Yedra settled down, but Knisely continued to struggle in the bottom of the inning, allowing two more runs. In only 1 2/3 innings, Knisely gave up six runs on five hits and four walks.
With Venezuela leading 9-3 after two innings, it seemed as though local baseball fans would see a near-repeat of last year's 28-0 drubbing the world champs gave U.S. Central champ Madison, Wis., on opening day. Yedra, a hard-throwing 5-foot-11 right-hander, didn't surrender another hit before leaving the mound in the fifth inning. Michigan seemed relieved to be rid of Yedra. After reliever Oswar Murillo set the side down in the fifth, giving up only a walk, Jesse McCombs led off the sixth inning with a hard double to right-center field. He ended up being stranded at third after Cody Udell singled him there, Will Coar hit into a double play, and Tyler Jackson grounded out to the second baseman.
Venezuela had extended its lead to 11-3 by that point, getting single runs in the third and fourth innings. The team threatened to end the game in the bottom of the sixth inning via the 10-run rule, scoring one run to make it 12-3 but stranding a runner at first.
Michigan added three runs of its own in the bottom of the inning with two outs before running out of options on an Udell fly out to center.
For Venezuela, Marcos Pina, Johan Luque, and Jose Alvarado each went 2-for-3 at the plate. Yedra got the win on the mound, pitching four innings, giving up three runs on one hit and five walks. One of the runs was unearned. He struck out six.
For Michigan, Gross, Pompey, Justin Stroud, McCombs, and Udell had one hit apiece. Knisely was charged with the loss on the mound.
Venezuela's next game is scheduled for 1 p.m. Tuesday, against U.S. Southwestern champ Tyler, Texas. Michigan plays U.S. East champion Freehold Township, N.J., at 1 p.m. Monday. Freehold defeated Europe-Middle East-Africa champ Vilnius, Lithuania, 4-1 in Sunday's third game. Freehold won the World Series in 2004. Latin America teams are 3-2 against Southwestern teams since 2002 while Central teams are 3-2 against the East champion since 2002. Texas had Sunday off.
Niles is back in action today at 1 p.m. as it takes on New Jersey.
Games on the web
You can follow the All-Stars via the internet by going to http://worldseries.bangorinfo.com