Chasing The Storm 2013-14 CAL Series Review

[njherdfan]

Game One: Seattle took out some of its long-repressed anger on the Crusaders en route to an 8-1 victory. The game's top story was rookie Angel Cervantes, who pitched 8 fantastic innings, giving up 3 hits, allowing 1 run and striking out seven. Ivan Salas continued to mash the ball, as he hit a monstrous 473 foot home run, along with two relatively boring singles. Miguel Garcia, Jose Munoz and Ralph Butt each had two hits. This was Cervantes' first career MBBA victory.

Game Two: The Storm were unable to string wins together, as they lost to the Crusaders by the score of 5-4. Dennis Tolbert got the start and he was ineffective, going 5 1/3 innings, giving up 11 hits and 5 runs. Although the bullpen pitched well after Tolbert's departure, the offense was unable to score enough to reclaim its lead. On offense, the Storm were led by the home runs of Dave May and Josh Tyler, and May, Tipper Kengos, and Manuel Roman each had two hits.

Game Three: The Storm won the series with a thrilling 8-7 victory in 17 innings. Esteban Benitez started and his performance was eerily similar to his last start: a lot of strikeouts, no home runs allowed, but a lot of hits allowed. He's probably due for some good luck soon. The Seattle bullpen was the team's collective MVP, as they pitched 12 innings and only gave up one run. The Storm entered the 9th inning down 3 runs, but a pinch-hit double by Austin Gibson tied the game, and Miguel Garcia was thrown out attempting to plate the go-ahead run. Both teams traded runs in the 14th before a bases loaded walk to Keith Moss in the 17th run drove in the eventual winning run. Felix Ramirez finished the game, and he threw 6 1/3 fantastic innings. Offensively, Austin Gibson went 3-4 after entering as a pinch hitter, while Roman Empire had four hits in eight at-bats.