Maccabi Star Reporter: Baseball News
Houston defeats LA for gold medal in baseball
By Ari Wohl
August 9, 2-18
In the gold medal game for Baseball 14U White, Houston got a close victory against Los Angeles, winning 3-2. It was a pitchers’ duel for the first three innings as neither team scored.
In the top of the fourth, LA’s starting pitcher hit an RBI double and later scored to give them a 2-0 lead. It remained that score until Houston loaded the bases in the bottom of the fifth.
Their sixth hitter hit a bases clearing double to give Houston a 3-0 lead after 6 innings.
Houston’s starting pitcher pitched a complete game of seven innings, only allowing four hits and striking out four batters.
LA had a man on third with one out in the final inning, but after a close play at the plate and a tough call, the runner was thrown out at the plate. Houston got the next man out to win the game and the gold medal.
Close call from umpire causes East Bay coach to say “some things I probably regret”
By Tyler Moss
August 7, 2018
This morning, the Orange County/Detroit U-16 baseball team faced off against Team East Bay. It was a very well fought game by both teams. They each had solid defense and offense.
In the early innings, the umpires had to deal with a lot of close calls with base runners being called out or safe. One instance, in particular, took place in the second inning, where a runner from O.C. was taking a big lead off of second base. The pitcher turned around to try to get the runner out and threw it to second base.
The runner decided that since he had such a big lead, he would try to steal third base. The second baseman threw the ball to third and the runner slid into the bag about the same time that the third baseman tagged him to get him out. The umpire called the runner safe.
One of the coaches from East Bay, Steve Douglas, came out of the dugout to argue the call. After he made his point to the umpire, he walked back to the dugout and the umpire gave him a warning.
After the game, the East Bay coach responded to the call, saying, “It was a close play, and I’m not even sure if the umpire got the call right or not.”
He thought the play was close enough to get help from the home plate umpire who possibly had a better angle on it, which is why he went out to argue the play, he said.
After he was asked if the umpire overreacted by giving him a warning, he responded by saying, “No. I said some things I probably regret.”
Unique hacky sack tiebreaker bounces East Bay baseball far ahead of O.C./Detroit
By Sam Sperling
August 7, 2018
One of today’s U-16 baseball matchups was the seventh-seed, Orange County/Detroit, playing the athletic bunch of the second-seed, East Bay.
O.C./Detroit’s starting pitcher had some shakey moments, yet that did not stop him from throwing flames. He was losing control of the ball as the game went on, hitting a batter later in the game.
O.C./Detroit’s defense was sub par, giving up 3 unearned runs and 5 errors. In the words of Coach Jerry Goldman of O.C./Detroit, “We had a couple key errors but we played great.”
Coach Goldman said he had not lost hope in his team after this outing. “The spirit was great,” he said.
Obviously, the players did not lose hope either. In the top of the fourth inning, Coach Steve Douglas of East Bay brought in a southpaw with a off-speed ball as his primary pitch.
He had a lot of movement, yet lacked control in his pitches. He was working his way out of the inning, until he let up his first baserunner. He started struggling, then he tried to attempt a pick-off to first base. He sent a ball flying way over East Bay’s first baseman’s head. That advanced him to 2nd.
The lefty worked himself into a jam. Lucky for him, he worked himself out before he got pulled.
East Bay worked their way to tie the ball game after Coach Goldman replaced his flamethrower with a new pitcher.
With the game tied, the umpire informed the two managers that they ran out of time. The two teams choose representatives to play a game with a hacky sack as a tiebreaker. East Bay came out on top, landing the ball on OC/Detroit’s side, giving them a 3-0 record.