EMERSON,
Ga. – In a battle to earn a bid in the 2015 WWBA World Championship
in Jupiter, Fla. at the end of October, the GBSA Rays American and
the Chattanooga Cyclones faced off in the Southeast Qualifier No. 1.
For the second straight year, the Cyclones trumped the field and
earned their spot in Jupiter, this time with a 9-8 win over GBSA.
The
game started off quickly with the Cyclones jumping out to a quick 2-0
lead in the top of the first thanks to a pair of walks by Cade Evans
and Noah Hill. Evans came around to score on a wild pitch, while Hill
was plated on a sacrifice fly by Joseph Hill.
GBSA
rallied quickly with a two-run double down the right field line by
Anthony Carrera that energized their dugout and tied the score at
two.
When
GBSA came back up to the plate in the top of the second they were
primed to take the lead. They loaded the bases on a single and a pair
of errors and took the lead on a Chandler Powell single. With the
bases still loaded that set the stage for a towering grand slam home
run to right field from leadoff hitter Akil Baddoo that registered
98.7 mph off the bat and made the score 7-2.
The
back-and-forth game continued in the top of the third. After a
leadoff single from Noah Hill, Hunter Oliver smashed a 377-foot,
two-run homer to left center cutting the Rays’ lead to three runs.
Not satisfied with two runs, Logan Haga delivered his own 350-foot
homer that narrowed the deficit to two.
Adding
to his tournament MVP resume, Oliver came up to the plate after Hill
tripled and delivered an RBI single through a drawn in infield to
make the score 7-6. The Rays called on their bullpen and sent in
Jarred Morgan who turned an impressive barehanded 1-2-3 double play
to escape the inning.
Down
by one run heading to the top of the sixth Oliver once again helped
ignite the Cyclones’ offense with a leadoff single and came around
to score on a Caleb Collins RBI base hit to tie the game.
Cade
Evans worked five scoreless innings of relief allowing just three
hits and striking out two batters. Morgan countered with 3 2/3
innings of his own to force the game to extras.
In
the top of the eighth Hill earned his third hit of the game and
Oliver doubled to deep left field, barely missing his second homer of
the game. The Rays elected to intentionally walk Haga to load the
bases, which backfired when Collins earned a walk to bring in the
go-ahead run. Alex Tucker delivered a big pinch hit at-bat with a
hard groundball single through the left side to add a much needed
insurance run.
The
Cyclones brought in Noah Hill to close out the game and he did
allowing a run to score on a sac fly, but preserving their victory
and spot in Jupiter with a 9-8 win.
As
noted, Hunter Oliver earned MVP honors for the Cyclones. He went
12-for-20 (.600) at the plate with eight extra-base hits, 10 RBI and
seven runs scored. Most Valuable Pitcher honors went to Hunter Gaddis
who tossed eight total innings, earned two wins, and struck out eight
batters.
“Honestly
it’s unbelievable.” Cyclones Head Coach George Koontz said after
the game about heading back to Jupiter. “We have a couple of our
frontline pitchers that were dinged up and we had a bunch of guys
step up.”
Koontz
specifically noted the efforts of Cade Evans who tossed five innings
of scoreless relief in the Championship game but didn't want that
praise to take anything away from the team as a whole.
“Everybody
contributed somewhere significantly during the tournament and
everybody on the roster did something great.”
A
team that could win together and come up with great play after great
play helped lead the Cyclones back to Jupiter.
2015
WWBA Southeast Qualifier #1 runner-up: GBSA Rays American
2015
WWBA Southeast Qualifier #1 MVP: Hunter Oliver
