CENTRAL CALIFORNIA MEMORIAL DAY CHALLENGE
Maui “Da Bruddah’s” Lose 1, Then Win 7 in a Row, and $1,000
Results:
Maui “Da Bruddah’s†Hayward 7-1
Mixed Company Fresno 3-2
KHT Pumpers Visalia 2-2
Santa Rosa Fastpitch Santa Rosa 2-2
Rez Dawgs Hanford 2-2
Silverhawks Bakersfield 1-2
Deadbolts Clovis 1-3
North Coast Bears Willets, CA 1-3
Big Three Painters Fresno 1-3
The Maui “Da Bruddah’s†lost their first game 9-5 to the Silverhawks and then went on to win 7 games (5 in a row on the final day) to win the $1,000 first place prize. Mixed Company moved into the championship game with an 8-4 victory over the KHT Pumpers.
The final day started with Maui getting revenge on the Silverhawks by the score of 15-4. Maui was led by the hard hitting of Shawn Ching who went 4/4 while Bryan Villanueva added a two run home run. Joe Given got the win allowing 4 runs (3 earned) nine hits and struck out 4.
Santa Rosa won their game against the Rez Dawgs in 5 innings by the score of 8-0 as Tony Lopez threw a two hitter. The hitting star was Dustin Green who was 2/3 with a 3 run homer.
Maui & Santa Rosa then played to see who would move on in the tournament. Maui jumped out to an early 7-0 led on the hitting of Scott Tomasello who had a 2 run home run with Jason Porto add a two run double in the 3rd. In the bottom of the 7th Santa Rosa started to get to Rich Rivera who had allowed only two hits going into the 7th. Santa Rosa got 5 hits in the 7th with the big one being a two out bases loaded triple by Preston Boswell and the final score was 7-4 Maui.
In the game of undefeated the Mixed Company broke open a 4-4 tie by scoring 4 runs in the bottom of the 6th taking advantage of two key errors by the Pumpers. Final score here was Mixed Company 8, KHT Pumpers 4.
The KHT Pumpers then took on the hot Maui boys and took a 4-2 led into the 4th were Maui was able to tie the score 4-4 on a 300+ foot home run off the bat of Shawn Ching. In the Maui 5th Scott Tomasello singled, Jabari Wimbs tripled and Bryan Villanueva homered and that was the game as the Pumpers were able to only get two hits the rest of the way of Joe Given.
In the must win game for Maui, they found the going tough and a feisty Mixed Company. Maui score 6 in the bottom of the 1st by getting 6 hits off Mixed Company’s pitcher Forrest Dean as they took advantage of a key error with one out that should have been an inning ending double play and no runs in. In the top of the 2nd Mixed Company came out strong as Leland Grigsby homer to lift the emotions of Mixed Company who then took advantage of a hits batman, three errors to plate 7 runs and take a 7-6 led into the bottom of the 2nd. Maui then got the first two batters on and used a wild pitch, sacrifice fly and a single to take the led once again at 8-7. Mixed Company then tied the game once again by scoring a run in the 5th. Maui leadoff batter Jabari Wimbs was hit by the pitch, stole second moved to third on a throwing error by the catcher and scored on a ground out to shortstop which gave Maui the lead at 9-8 and the game stayed there until the bottom of the 6th. In the 6th for Maui it was a walk, single, fielder choice a sacrifice and then 4 straight hits with the key being a 2 run triple by Scott Tomasello invoked the 8 run rule and sent the tournament to the if game.
The hot hitting continued in the if game as Maui scored 2 in the first and added 6 in the second on home runs by Scott Tomasello and Joshua Woodmansee. Maui went on to invoke the run rule and win the game 10-1 and take the $1,000 first prize money while Mixed Company finished 2nd and received $400 with KHT Pumpers getting a check for $150.
Tournament MVP player went to Jabari Wimbs with a .522 batting average, scored 16 runs and had 7 RBI’s. The MVP pitcher went to Joe Given who won all 4 starts struck out 18, walked 4 and had an ERA of 2.80 in 20 innings of pitching.