LANCASTER – PART II
The City of Lancaster played host to the Alliance Tournament Series the weekend of June 24 – 25. Seven “B” teams and nine “C” teams participated with Taylor Farms from Northern California winning the B portion of the tournament and Latin Heat taking the C portion of the tournament
“B” ALLIANCE
After playing four games on Saturday, as a result of a team dropping out of the tournament, Taylor Farms posted a 2 – 2 record and came into the single elimination portion of the tournament as the second seed in their pool. In their first game of the morning they faced the So Cal Masters who were preparing for their annual appearance at the 50 & Over Nationals. Never to be taken lightly, the Masters scored five runs in the first inning, but Taylor Farms shut them down for the remainder of the game. Scoring six runs to take the lead Taylor Farms earned the win when their right fielder made a diving catch, with the Masters having a runner in scoring position, to end the game.
Their next opponent was the Savala Rounders who earned the top seed in the bracket, with two wins over Taylor Farms in the round robin. Taylor Farms stepped up and shut down the Rounders to win the game by a score of 6 – 2 to send them into the Championship game to face San Diego Primetime.
In the Championship game, Primetime scored three runs early and led 3 – 0 going into the bottom of the fourth inning. Taylor Farms kept chipping away at the lead scoring a run in the fourth, sixth and seventh inning to tie the game and send it to the International Tie Breaker. On the first pitch of extra innings, a quick throw by Taylor Farms catcher Jeff Twist picked off Primetime’s runner at second and pretty much ending the inning. In Taylor’s half, Manager Ron Guzman was the runner on second and Primetime was able to get the first two outs of the inning. With third basemen Dustin Carpreso at bat, he hit a shot into left center out of the reach of Primetime’s outfield and Guzman was able to walk home with the win and end a great played game The win went to “Dude” Ybarra in relief of Leland Grisby, Jr.
San Diego Primetime entered the single elimination in a rough way going 0 – 3 in the round robin and the low seed in their bracket. In their first game of the day they held Rude-Pac to one run and took the win 3 – 1. In the semi-finals they faced the Panteras and held them off with a 4 – 3 victory to get into the Championship game.