U.S. East, Canada teams cruise to victories

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BANGOR – It took three games, but the U.S. East team finally got the big inning it was looking for in the Senior League World Series en route to becoming the first team to advance to the semifinal round.

The regional representative from Upper Deerfield, N.J., scored nine runs in the fifth inning of Wednesday morning’s first game, earning a 15-1 Pool B win over the U.S. Southwest team from Bryan, Texas, and sewing up a berth for Friday’s semis.

Canada pitcher Chris Fischer helped his squad stay alive in Pool A with a 4-1 victory over Asia-Pacific in Thursday’s second game.

Upper Deerfield, now 3-0, will face the Latin America team from Willemsted, Curacao, Thursday.

Bryan National West Little League’s status, meanwhile, is much more tenuous. Bryan falls to 2-1 and will try to stay alive Thursday when it plays the U.S. Central team from New Philadelphia, Ohio.

“Thankfully we have the luxury of playing for tomorrow, at this point,” Bryan manager Richard Rodriguez said. “That was our strategy and we’re going to try to put up a ‘W’ tomorrow and advance.”

Whalley Little League of Surrey, British Columbia, moves to 2-0 in its pool and will next face the U.S. South Thursday morning. Illam Central Little League of Makati City, Philippines, wraps up its Senior League World Series experience at 0-4.

In the first game, Upper Deerfield’s Chet Godfrey had an RBI double and Barry Larro added a two-run single to help Upper Deerfield to a 6-1 lead going into the fifth inning.

By the time the U.S. East team emerged from the fifth, they’d put up nine more runs against the U.S. Southwest’s faltering pitching. Bryan starting pitcher Miguel Perez and relievers Nathon Kiser and Matt Byer combined to give up nine runs on five hits and five walks. There were no errors in the inning, but there were two wild pitches, a passed ball and two hit batters.

“I think at a certain point of the inning we just lost focus and hung our heads a little bit,” Martinez said. “That’s something that’s real hard to recover from if you’re not in that state of mind.

Larro added a two-run single in the fifth for a total of four RBIs in the game, but he thought the key to the inning was a pinch-hit single by D.J. Johnson that loaded the bases.

“We were due to catch a break because it seems like we didn’t ever catch a break and have a big inning, and that ground ball … seemed like a huge turning point,” Larro said. “That broke open that big nine-run inning and hey, we’ll take what we can get. If they’re gonna make a mistake we’re going to jump on it.”

Godfrey kept the Bryan batters off the bases most of the game with five strikeouts and no walks. He didn’t allow a baserunner past first after the first inning and the Upper Deerfield defense threw out two runners at second.

“Basically I was throwing pretty hard,” Godfrey said. “I was hitting my spots a lot, mostly. But basically it was the defense that really helped me out. They made a couple of key plays in the infield … and it was basically defense that was really working for us today.”

In the second game, Canada’s Fischer was sharp on the mound with 11 strikeouts to 11 different players. He reached the 95-pitch limit in the top of the seventh after walking two and allowing just four hits and one run.

“[The] fastball really [went well],” said Fischer who added two RBIs and a single and credited catcher Nic Buse with calling pitches. “I worked the zone well today. [The] curveball wasn’t working well but I made up for it with the outside corner and that seemed to help me a lot.”

Nick Rohla doubled and scored in the second inning, and Brandon Bufton had a triple.

Buse made a potentially game-saving play in the bottom of the fifth. Yuksuke Kuroda, who hit a leadoff single and advanced on a one-out walk, tried to score from second when Seba Martinez-Miranda flared a hit to shallow right field. The throw home came in to Buse, and he tried to block Kuroda from getting to the plate. Kuroda got around Buse and stretched for home plate, but got up and walked away.

The umpire never signaled Kuroda touched the plate, so Buse trotted after him and tagged him near the dugout steps, ending the inning.

“That was disappointing,” said Makati City manager Peter Olivares. “… We had hoped that the call would go our way, we thought it was clear, but it was a judgement call [by the umpire]. What can you do?”

jbloch@bangordailynews.net

990-8287

U.S. EAST 15, U.S. SOUTHWEST 1

Upper Deerfield, N.J. (3-0) Bryan, Texas (2-1)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Mick, ss 1 2 0 1 Byer, ss-p 2 1 0

Fischer, rf 2 2 1 0 Galvan, rf 1 0 0

Larro, cf 3 2 2 4 Garza, cf 2 0 0

Godfrey, p 3 2 2 1 Martinez, 1b 2 0 1

Willis, lf 0 0 0 0 Spivey, c 2 0 0

Tyler, 3b 2 1 1 1 Sutherland, lf 2 0 0

Owens, 1b-3b 4 0 2 2 Contreras, 3b-ss 2 0

Casper, c 0 1 0 0 Spies, c 0 0 0

Hamidy, c 1 2 0 0 Longoria, 2b 2 0 0

Fogg, lf 2 0 0 0 Perez, p-3b 2 0 0

Marshall, lf-1b 0 1 0 0

Overstreet, 2b 1 1 0 1

Griffith, 2b 0 1 0 0

Johnson, ph 1 0 1 0

Totals 20 15 9 10 Totals 17 1 6 1

U.S. East 102 39 — 15

U.S. Southwest 100 00 — 1

E-Longoria; LOB-U.S. East 3, U.S. Southwest 2; 2B-Fischer, Godfrey; DP-Byer-Longoria-Martinez; S-Fischer, Mick, Galvan; SB-Spies

U.S. East IP H R ER BB SO

Godfrey (W) 5 6 1 1 0 5

U.S. Southwest IP H R ER BB SO

Perez (L) 3* 4 5 4 3 2

Kiser 1 2/3 3 9 8 5 1

Byer 1/3 2 1 1 1 0

HBP-Larro, Marshall by Kiser; WP-Kiser 3; BK-Kiser; PB-Spivey; T-1:50; ATT-450

*faced two batters in the fourth

CANADA 4, ASIA-PACIFIC 1

Makati City, Phil. (0-4) Surrey, B.C. (2-0)

Player AB R H BI Player AB R H BI

Cabigon, c 2 0 1 0 Lankmyer, rf 2 0 0

Bernardo, c 1 0 0 0 Wearing, rf 1 0 0

Ramos, 3b 2 0 0 0 Quan, cf 3 0 0

Mitra, 3b 1 0 0 0 Atkinson, ss 3 0 0

Ong, ss 3 0 0 0 Nylund, pr 0 1 0

Laurel, cf 3 1 1 0 Rohla, 3b 3 2 0

Kuroda, p 3 0 1 0 Fischer, p 3 0 2

Olivares, rf 1 0 0 0 Bufton, lf 2 1 0

Lamotan, lf 1 0 0 0 Morache, 2b 3 0 1

Esguerra, 1b 1 0 0 0 Buse, c 3 0 1 0

Tan, 1b 1 0 1 1 Brien, 1b 3 0 0

Ondrik, lf 1 0 0 0

Disini, rf 2 0 0 0

Martinez-Miranda 2 0 1 0

Totals 24 1 5 1 Totals 26 4 6 3

Asia-Pacific 000 000 1 – 1

Canada 010 201 x – 4

E-Cabigon, Martinez-Miranda, Kuroda, Mitra; LOB-Asia-Pacific 4, Canada 5; 2B-Cabigon, Laurel; Buse, Rohla; 3B-Bufton; SB-Laurel; Fischer

Asia-Pacific IP H R ER BB SO

Kuroda (L) 6 6 4 2 1 4

Canada IP H R ER BB SO

Fischer (W) 6 2/3 4 1 1 2 11

Nishimura 1/3 1 0 0 0 1

WP-Kuroda; PB-Buse; T-1:47; ATT-450