NorCal Giants AAAA Champs again!

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We finished with a perfect 8-0 record. We outscored our opponents 94-11 in the 8 games.

Giants 11 – Akron Blues 5

Thursday, Nov. 21.

We won our placement game against the Akron Blues, 11-5.

Denny Brown started and went 6 innings, leaving with a 4-1 lead. We got 5 more runs in the bottom of the sixth to make the lead more comfortable. Bob Harvey and Dan Pawelek finished up, yielding only unearned runs.

Our 5-0 record and only 7 runs allowed gave us the #1 seed going into Friday’s playoffs.

Bob Harvey

Bob Harvey

Giants 11 – MBI 60s 1

Friday, Nov 22.

We opened against the #8 seed, MBI 60s. Bob Loflin threw another gem.

Loflin shut down the MBI offense, yielding only one unearned run and hanging on to keep the 10 run cushion and get the 7-inning mercy rule.

Dave Deitrich was 3 for 4 with 3 runs scored and an RBI. Paul Contreras drove in 3 with a bases clearing double. John Lane scored three after being hit  by pitches twice and walking a third time.

Bob Loflin

Bob Loflin

Paul Contreras

Paul Contreras

John Lane

John Lane

Giants 13 – Ohio Classics 2

On Friday afternoon, John Arnold matched Loflin’s effort with his own 7 inning win. He gave up two runs, one earned.

Phil Gelhaus scored twice and drove in 2  with a double in the fifth inning when we batted around and scored 9. Rich Battiato went 3 for 3 with a triple and 2 RBI.

John Arnold

John Arnold

phil gelhaus photo

Phil Gelhaus

Rich Battiato

Rich Battiato

Giants 8 – New England Red Sox 1

We played the championship game at Jet Blue Stadium, the Boston Red Sox spring training park. It is a replica of Fenway Park, with the green monster in left, Pesky pole in right, and the bullpen in right center. Our opponents included Bill Lee, Bill Campbell, Oil Can Boyd, and Scott Ostrow who all played for the big league Red Sox.

dan-pawelek-champs

Dan Pawelek

Dan Pawelek started for us. After a quick top of the first, we scored two in the bottom. Dave Deitrich got us started, reaching on an infield error. With one out Phil Gelhaus beat out a slow roller to put runners on first and second. Paul Contreras drilled sharp single to right to load the bases.

Pawelek then got what turned ou to be the gamw-winning hiit, a shot past the shortstop that rolled into deep left center, scoring Deitrich and Gelhaus.

The score was still 2-0 in the Red Sox 3rd inning. The inning started with Deitrich going deep in the hole between short and third and firing a one-hop strike to first to nip the runner. On the next play, a sharp ground ball up the middle, Deitrich again made an outstanding play to take away a hit from Kevin Marden. Rich Battiato capped the defensive inning by racing in front of the Red Sox dugout to make a sliding catch of a foul popup.

Pawelek gave up his only blemish in the 8th.

A 1-2-3 ninth made us champions for the second year in a row.

We finished the tournament with a remarkable 94-11 run differential. And only 4 of the runs we allowed were earned. The team ERA was 0.6.

We got complete games from our pitchers in 6 of our 8 games. We had 5 games shortened by the 10 run mercy rule.

We voted “The Team” as our MVP. It was a team effort throughout the tournament.

giants-team-champs

The Team – 2013 Champs

 

Front row (left to right): John Lane, Paul Contreras, Denny Brown, Mike Thatcher, Bob Wilms, Mark Flatau, Bob Wilms, Phil Gelhaus, Jim McArdle,  Dave Howard.

Back row (left to right): Wayne Grapes, Bob Harvey, Dave Deitrich, Rich Petrillo, Dan Pawelek, Rich Battiato, Hank Krautter, Phil Brown, John Arnold, Tony Frascello.

Jeff Brown

Jeff Brown

Not pictured: Jeff Brown

Comments

  1. Congratulations Denny Brown and entire team. Sounds like you had a great tournament.

    Bill Bonekat