The Editor’s team, Long Beach Deadwood won both of their pool play games Saturday, 7-4 and 9-6, with pitchers Dan Zupp and Billy Montana picking up the wins. Newcomer Doug Shaw (who plays for the So Cal Hustlers during the regular season) homered in his first plate appearance in the 50+ division, and homered again in the nightcap, to put the game away.
In the first game, Deadwood scored in the first on Shaw’s homer and never surrendered the lead against Hellman, Colorado. Zupp threw a shutout into the 5th inning, when a couple of unearned runs got Colorado on the board. Another newcomer, Mitch Mendenhall added a couple of key hits and played solid defense at third base.
In the nightcap, Deadwood’s catcher, Larry Giese started the offense rolling with a home run in the second, and Deadwood led 3-2 into the 5th inning. Northwest Old Growth, from Portland Oregon rallied back, scoring two in the top of the fifth on a two out, two run single by pitcher Dean. In the bottom half of the inning, Deadwood’s Dean Bettencourt got the squad even with a line drive double to right center field, and set off a four-run scoring outburst capped off by Doug Shaw’s home run. Portland did not go quietly though, scoring two more in the top of the seventh to trim the lead to 9-6, and had the tying run at the plate before the final out was recorded.
Deadwood will start the single elimination bracket this morning at 9:45am against Bay Area Merchants of Northern California, needing two wins to reach the final in the eight team division.
Scores from other age divisions to be posted at the NAFA website, www.nafafastpitch.com