Riding high in the Heartland, the Yellow Springs Nine welcomed Long Beach into town this week and set the scene when opener Edgardo Llauro and four relievers combined to shut the Surfers out. The game’s only scoring came in the fourth inning when Lucas McNeill doubled off Jimmy Greenwood, then came home when Rob Thomas punched a grounder in the hole at first base.
The Surfers got their lead-off hitter on base twice early and failed to score him—then again in the eighth when Momcilo Djuretic hit Carl von Meister with a pitch. Von Meister was erased by a quick 6-4-3 double play off the bat of Michael Best and turned by Miguel Padilla and Brian Sullivan. “When the guy hits it that hard, we’ve got lots of time to turn the DP,” Sullivan said.
Game two was a more raucous affair that saw the lead change several times, but still ended in another 1-run win for the Nine. The Surfers made relatively short work of May’s Pitcher of the Month in Carlos Valle, touching him for four runs in four innings. A John Ginn homer in the fourth made it 4-3, but Long Beach tacked on two more over the next few innings to carry a 6-3 lead into the bottom of the ninth. With two outs in the inning, back-up catcher Nate Wood drilled a triple that scored two runs, and shortstop Padilla followed with a ground ball single to score Wood and send the game into extra innings.
The 10th inning was a microcosm of the rest of the game in that Brett Compton singled to lead of, and von Meister, pinch running, then proceeded to steal second and third base before being driven in on a two-out base hit by left-handed hitter Tom Kazansky off Tristan Alfama. Manager Bill Inkster apologized after the game, saying “I shouldn’t have put Tristan in that position. We had two lefties in the pen. That’s on me.”
Lucky for Inkster, though, the YS9 bats responded when Jose Machado walked to lead off the bottom of the inning. After a base hit and another walk loaded the bases, third baseman Alejandro Rodriguez hit a sharp liner to right to score one and move everyone up a base, then Lucas McNeill lifted a deep fly to center that allowed Dimiao Laqui to tag and score the winning run.
The fans were ecstatic.
Alas, game three wasn’t quite as enjoyable for Utopia Field faithful. The Surfers scored early and often on the way to an 8-4 victory.
“Maybe we were a little lethargic,” said center fielder Mauro Saucedo, who went 1-for-5. “But you also literally can’t win every game, you know? And Long Beach is a solid team. Rios kind of had our number.”
“We’ll take two of three from Long Beach any day.” Said veteran Lucas McNeill. “It’s a long, long season. It’s important not to get too high or too low in June.”
