Sacramento California-
Sacramento 4 Hawaii 2- Thursday, September 28, 2062
WP- Don Jordan (5-6)
LP- Kinzo Iwamoto (14-10)
Save- Steve Warren (6)
Time: 3:04
Attendance- 64,865 at The Basilica at Muskrat Slough
The Hawaii Tropics and Sacramento Mad Popes are tasked with deciding the Pacific Division with a winner-take-all Game 163. The Trops come into the game 6-4 in their last 10 games while the M’opes limped into the end of the season going 4-6 in their last 10.
Hawaii started veteran Kinzo Iwamoto against Mad Popes #1 starter Michihiro Tanaka.
The Trops jumped out to an early lead against the Mad Popes with two runs off Tanaka in the 1st inning. With one out, rookie Vicente ‘Yogi’ Martinez tripled to right center on an 0-2 fastball. He scored on a 6-3 ground out by Eric Owens to make it 1-0. Then 1B John Harris drilled a 1-0 fastball over the right field wall to make it 2-0 in favor of Hawaii.
The game remained scoreless until the bottom of the 5th inning when Sacramento halved the Tropics lead on a single by Weston McMullen and an RBI triple by Lou Bayou.
Dan Jordan shut down the Trops offense in the top of the 6th to set up the games key moment. Sacramento DH Callum Browne wasted no time in the bottom of the 6th and launched the 1st pitch from Iwamoto over the wall in left center to tie the game at 2-2. The Mad Popes offense wasn’t done yet as the next batter singled and was erased on a fielder’s choice for the 1st out. Craig ‘Cat Boy’ Williams singled to put two men on with just one out. 1B Chinh Tran-Nhu broke the game open with a two-run double and sent Kinzo Iwamoto to the showers. Gheorghe Sollomovici took the ball and ended the Mad Popes uprising and pitched 1.2 clean innings with a K.
The Sacramento bullpen kept the Tropics offense at bay the rest of the game allowing three hits in 4.1 innings and Hawaii’s ‘pen blanked the Mad Popes.
Sacramento wins Game 163 4-2 and takes the Pacific Division once gain.
Hawaii Manager Rich Kerr said, “We held out some guys in this game that were tired and had some nagging injuries. I made a mistake leaving Kinzo in a batter too long but we’re still in the playoffs. We need to make the best of it.”
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