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The Islandian Times
Sunday, September 22, 2002
Ruthlandian Union North Division Sweet 16 Series
Glasco Makes Elite 8, Sweeps Two from Redhawks
In the RU North Sweet 16 Series at Athletics Field in Glasco, the A's squeezed out a 6-5 victory over Far Mountain and are now headed to the Elite 8 round... Glasco prevailed with 12 hits... 2B Barry McCord (.619) led the way with 3-for-4... CF Chet Reynolds and 3B Lloyd Windham chipped in with two hits apiece... the Redhawks countered with 10 hits with 3B Mike Murphy getting three of them, scoring twice and driving in two runs... 1B Royce Benson and C Dave Davis both had two hits and an RBI each... LF Karl Dietz had a solo homer... The Athletics tough lefty Takehide Takahashi (2-0 2.81) captured his second playoff win with seven gritty innings... Takahashi was touched for four runs and nine hits in his seven innings, fanned nine batters, but walked none... Closer Jake Nyberg (0-0 1.50) nabbed his second save, but gave up a run in two innings of relief... Robby Kelly (0-1 7.00) lost it for Far Mountain, yielding five runs in six innings, three of them earned... It was a seesaw battle... the Redhawks led 3-2 after four frames... Glasco surged in front 5-3 in the sixth... and held on to win... Far Mountain committed four errors, costing them two crucial runs.
Ruthlandian Union South Division Sweet 16 Series
Valka Advances, Eliminates Sunbirds 5-4
Playing on their home field at Cybertel Park, the Valka Blackhawks won for the second straight day and eliminated the Belair Beach Sunbirds 5-4 to advance to the Elite 8 Series... The Sunbirds kickstarted with three first-inning runs... 1B Phil Gravelli (.391) doubled in a run and two came in on LF Nicky Swift's home run... The Blackhawks got one back on a walk, sacrifice and an RBI single by LF T. C. Haskell (.429)... Valka tied it a 3-3 in the fourth on 3B Buddy Petrisko's (.238) two-bagger and 1B Stan Gatlin's (.263) single... Gatlin's two-run homer made it 5-3 Valka in the fifth... Belair Beach narrowed it to 5-4 on back-to-back doubles by C Denny Everhart and CF Bobby Joe Morris... Andrei Kokk (1-1 2.76) notched the win, striking out nine Sunbirds, while giving up all four runs on nine hits in seven and one-third innings... Lefthander Bobby Karu got the save, holding Belair Beach scoreless in his one and two-thirds innings, fanning two batters... The loser was Ray Watson (0-1 3.21), who was tagged for five runs and eight hits in six innings... Valka got 9 hits to 10 for the Sunbirds... Gatlin led the Blackhawks with three RBIs... Petrisko had three hits, two of them doubles... RF Jimmy Tremayne (.263) and Haskell got two hits apiece... Gravelli paced Belair Beach with 3-5... Swift had two RBIs... Gravelli and Morris one each.
Ruthlandian Union East Division Sweet 16 Series
Elnora Sweeps Again, Trounces Cold Creek 8-3
Zoggy White's Elnora All-Stars have yet to lose a playoff game this year... The All-Stars swept their second straight series... this time trouncing the Cold Creek Catamounts 8-3 to cop the Sweet 16 East Division playoff series... White got strong pitching from righthander Charlie Murphy (2-0 3.94)... Murphy blanked the Catamounts on three hits for the first eight innings, but weakened in the ninth and gave up three runs on three hits... He was backed up by 10 hits and plenty of run support... SS Joe Norris (.550) was the top gun with a bases-loaded triple... 1B Vic Gelder (273) walloped three doubles... and LF Quincy Peterson (.500) and C Todd Simons (.385) had solo roundtrippers... Going down to defeat was starter Mitch Saffo (1-1 5.65)... he was pelted for seven runs in five-plus innings.
Ruthlandian Union West Division Sweet 16 Series
Moore Keeps 'Jacks Alive, Beats Roosters 4-3
In the RU West Sweet 16 Series manager Rob Jackson needed a win in the worst way and he got it from Glenn Moore... Forest City stayed alive in the playoffs as Moore (1-0 6.00) hurled a solid game and beat Middlefield 4-3 at Riverside Stadium... Moore scattered nine hits, fanned seven and walked none in a complete-game effort... The Roosters drew first blood on a sacrifice fly by RF Bailey Norcross in the opening inning... but 1B J. T. Edmonds countered it with a two-run homer in the bottom half of the inning to give the Lumberjacks the lead... Forest City added single runs in the second and third on 2B Jesse Wolf's (.333) and CF Ryan Morse's (.429) solo smashes... That put the 'Jacks up 4-1... Middlefield made it 4-2 on two singles and a sac fly by SS Garrett Sims (.111) in the fourth frame... then narrowed it to 4-3 in the eighth when LF Cecil Clark (.500) doubled, went to third on a groundout and scored on CF Ty DeWitt's RBI grounder... But that was as close as they came... The Roosters Freddy Cooke (1-1 4.15) lost it, allowing four runs and six hits in six innings... The rubber game of the series will be played tomorrow afternoon in Forest City.
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