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Today's date is:
Boston Renegades
2008 Game Results
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Game #1 Boston Pays back the WolfPack (4-2)
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4
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5
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6
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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Boston
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0 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
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4 |
4 |
9 |
| Penn |
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9 |
14 |
The
first time the Renegades have opened a season in a city other than
Chicago in the history of the team. They opened at Hofstra
University against the Pennsylvania Wolfpack. This would be the
first of four planned regular season contests between the two teams.
Boston was looking forward to playing on a fast grass but came to
New York to discover the grass was thicker than most fields they had
ever played on. It would prove to be a tough defensive game as
the Wolfpack have two of the better defensive players in the game in
Greg Gontaryk and Kevin Burton. All pre-season Boston had been
preparing to hit the ball deep. That game plan would take
Gontaryk out of play and lead to multiple runs. Boston
would lead off the game by achieving this game plan but Kevin Burton
was able to make plays up the middle of the field on the first two
hitters of the game. Larry Haile would be the first Renegade to
score in 2008 as he was able to beat out a pop-up into the middle of
the field with one out in the second. Philly would get that run
back in the second frame as Tony Santiago scored on a 41 foot coffin
corner ball down the third baseline just beating Dino Vasile who almost
made the play. JJ Ward would pay back Santiago for that hit
in the 3rd as he hit a towering pop fly to the right side of the
field which landed directly on Santiago's head and bounced 20 feet away
from him. Santiago would be ok and almost recovered to make the
play. The scoring stopped in the 3rd for both teams. The
Boston defense would clamp down in the middle innings as JJ Ward made 4
put-outs in the 3rd, 4th and 5th innings while Dino Vasile (2) and Luis
Marquez would also get outs in those innings. In the 6th, Evan
Silver (grounder down the 3rd base line) and Luis Marquez (pop fly into
left center) would lead off with back to back runs for much
needed insurance. After the first two Wolfpack hitters
struck out, Kevin Burton scored on a weak hit up the middle. In
the end Boston would win with 4 different batters scoring runs.
JJ Ward would have a career game on defense with 4 stops in his
first career start at right shorty. Marquez pitched in 3 of his
own playing the mid-field spot while Vasile also had two. Greg
Gontaryk (who would tie for the defensive MVP of this tournament would
lead the game with 7 stops. Kevin Burton also had 5 of his own).
Boston avenged their defeat in the double elimination round of
the 2007 World Series. This win also marked the first ever
winning streak in tem history as they won their last game of 2007
against Long Island. A two game winning streak was born for the
first time inseven years!
Game #2 The curse stays reversed as Boston defeats Long Island again (7-2)
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4
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5
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6
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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Boston
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1 |
2 |
0 |
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4 |
0 |
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7 |
5 |
15 |
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LI
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0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
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2 |
3 |
13 |
Both teams
won their first game of the tournament by the same 4-2 score as Long
Island defeated the Chicago Comet B team. Boston came into this
game with a lot of confidence and a defensive plan to beat the Bombers
again. Luis Marquez did what he does best and led off the game
with a well hit ball up the middle of the field to put Boston on top.
They would never look back. In a Deja Vous moment, Braulio
Thorne would leave the game due to injury just as he did in the 2007
World Series game. JJ Ward (2) and Darren Black would shut out
the Bombers 1-2-3 in the first. Larry Haile and Evan Silver would
go back-to-back in the second as they both scored on pop flys to short
stop. Boston's defense would continue to turn Long Island away as
Long Island went a total of 12 (and only 2 strike-outs) consecutive
batters before finally plating a run in the 5th inning when Braulio
Thorne Re-entered the game. Luis Marquez would make the defensive
play of the game in the 2nd inning on a smash down the 3rd baseline by
Bomber speedster Matt Sapolin. Marquez who was playing at 105
feet would have to angle to his right and would make a diving play at
about 115 feet, just nailing Sapolin. The Boston Bats came alive
for another deja vous moment as they plated 4 consecutive runs in the
5th on well hit balls by Larry Haile (pop up to second base), Evan
Silver (pop up up the right middle), Marquez deep pop up up the right
middle) and Joe Quintanilla (deep pop up to center field). That
would prove to be the end of the Bombers. It was a decisive a win
as Boston has had. Their bats mighty, their defense like a wall.
The 15 put-out by Boston would tie a team record and this would
prove to be their best game on defense ever as they made plays on 88.2%
of the balls Long Island put into play. Dino Vasile led the way
with 5 stops playing left shorty. Marquez had 4 at third base, JJ
Ward had 3 at Right shorty, Darren Black had 2 at mid-field and Sengil
Inkiala had one pick while playing right shorty when JJ Ward was
injured in the 5th inning. Boston now owns a 2 game winning
streak against the Bombers and improved their own win streak to 3 games!
Game #3 Boston comes back and walks off with Long Island Classic (8-7)
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4
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5
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6
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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| Chicago B |
2 |
1 |
0 |
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1 |
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7 |
2 |
11 |
| Boston |
0 |
0 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
5 |
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8 |
6 |
15 |
Tie
breaker scenarios were running through Coach Herzog's head for Chicago.
Chicago had a chance to win the Long Island Classic but they
needed to beat the undefeated Renegades and an 8 run victory would
force a second tie breaker. After an hour long lunch break and an
hour long thunderstorm, the rain stopped and the teams took the field.
For the first time in the tournament, Boston found themselves behind as
Chicago plated three runs in the first two frames. Boston was
hitting the ball, but not getting much on it as Chicago's Jose Martinez
would make 6 put-outs in the first three innings. Even their well
struck balls would find their ways to Chicago players like magnets as
Dino Vasile was put out on a rocket to right center field on a ball
that Bernardo Barrera would make a spectacular diving play on. In
the 4th, Chicago's bats would get hot again as Barrera, Wally Mozdzierz
and John Herzog Jr would score to give the Comets a 6 run lead.
The tie breaker situation looked like it may be in sight for the
Comets. The Bottom of the Boston order would again make a huge contribution as Evan
Silver and Sengil Inkiala would go back-to-back to lead off the 4th to
put Boston on the board. Mike McGlashon would get one back for
the Comets in the 5th and Evan Silver would answer again for Boston in
the bottom of the fifth. In the top of the 6th inning the
momentum started to turn Boston's way as Joe Quintanilla made one of
the best stops of the day on a smash by McGlashon down the first
baseline. Quintanilla playing at about 90 feet would turn and run
back to about 115 and make the play on the line nabbing Mcglashon just
before he reached the base. Sengil Inkiala would then make two
plays at the Right Shorty position to give him 4 on the day
(a single game career high for him). Boston would come to
the bench fired up.
Coach
Weissman huddled them up and asked them to stop swinging tired bats.
The lunch coma had to end. They had a chance to win the
tournament if they could swing the bats like they meant it. The
message was heard. Coaches Bryan Grillo and Justin Manjourides
put on the rally caps. Marquez led off the inning with a smash
off Ron Cochran's shoulder (that would leave a bruise for 3
weeks). Cochran toughed it out and served up a beauty pitch that
Marquez rocked into deep left center field for the first run. Joe
Quintanilla would then work the count full and hit a weak bleeder up
the first base line but his line to the base was perfect and he beat
the defense by a step. The score was now 7-5. Dino Vasile would
strike out for the first out. Larry Haile entered the game with a
chance at offensive MVP but he struck out the first three times in the
game to end those chances. However, he answered Weissman's call
on a full count with a grounder up the middle for the 3rd run of the
inning. Evan Silver would then hit a towering pop up to short
stop (possibly one of his best hits of his offensive MVP day) but would
be put out on a nice play by Mozdzierz. Two outs and down by one,
Sengil Inkiala strode to the plate with his personal pitcher, Danny
Cotter. Inky hit a weak ball up the middle and his perfect line
to the base produced a run on a bang-bang play to tie the game at
seven. Luis Marquez came to the plate as the team batted around.
He had the team's only walk-off run in team history as he beat
this very same team in Chicago in an extra inning affair in 2005.
Marquez hit a grounder to the right side and beat the play as the
defense was playing to deep and the celebration started. Players
and coaches pig piled on Marquez. Boston had won its first ever
tournament on an amazing come from behind 5 run rally in the 6th
inning. Silver and Marquez would be named as co-offensive MVP's.
Larry Haile would place second in the voting with his 4 runs
scored. Boston had its second consecutive 15 defensive put-out
game. On defense Dino Vasile would pace the Renegades with 5
stops. Inkiala had 4, Quintanilla & Marquez each had 3 while
Larry Haile would have one. For Chicago Jose Martinez would make
8 stops on the day. The Boston win streak would reach 4 games and
the team would come home with 3 new shiny trophies (tournament champs
and co-offensive MVPs).
Game #4 Boston shuts out the Wolfpack 3-0
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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| Penn |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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0 |
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0 |
11 |
9 |
| Boston |
1 |
2 |
0 |
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0 |
x |
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3 |
6 |
6 |
The first
home game since 2005 was played at 9:00 am on Saturday, June 28th in
Watertown. As the teams prepared to play, Coach Weissman shocked
the team with the starting line-up as three players made their first
ever career start. Joe O'Neill started at Rover as the designated
fielder. Steve Houston started at first base for his first time
on defense in a game ever. Rookie Tony Flinn got the nod at
deignated hitter. Both O'Neill and Houston were shocked and
happily surprised to get the start. The Wolfpack would send three
big namesin the NBBA to the plate to lead off the game in former World
Series champion Kansas All-star, Kevin Burton (stuck out), Fromer star
of the Columbus Vipers Dan Kelly (grounded out to Evan Silver) and Long
time NBBA player Sherlock Washington (grounded out to Guy Zuccarello).
Dino Vasile would lead off for Boston and would hit a grounder
down the thrid baseline for the first run of the day. This would
break an 0 for 12 start to Vasile's season. In the second Vasile
would score again on a pop up down the first base line. Boston
would then get a run from Joey Buizon who had missed most of the season
recovering from surgery. That would be all of the offense on the
day. The Wolfpack would struggle to get the bats on the ball as
they struck out 11 times in this game. Boston would pitch its 3rd
ever career shut-out in team history (2nd against the wolfpack as they
shut them out in 2006). Vasile, Silver and Zuccarello would each
get two defensive stops for the Renegades in this win. Boston did
put the ball in play but some poor base running and stellar defense
would limit them to three runs. Kevin Burton finished the game
with 6 stops while Dan Kelly, darren Daly and Greg Gontaryk each had
one stop. The defensive play of the game was made by Darren Daly
of the wolfpack on a line drive hit by rookie Tony Flinn in the 2nd
inning. Daly made the stop at about 115 feet in center field.
Tony Flinn in his first career start put two balls in play and
almost scored his first run of his promising career. This game
was played in a crisp hour and 26 minutes. The Boston win streak
had reached 5 games!
Game #5 Boston Walks off on Wolfpack in front of home crowd (4-3)
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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| Penn |
0 |
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1 |
0 |
2 |
0 |
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3 |
7 |
11 |
| Boston |
0 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
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4 |
5 |
11 |
The fans
started to come in for this game and sit down the first baseline to
support the Renegades. Between games, both teams had some time to
hone their skills. Pennsylvania took a lot of batting practice
after their 11 strike-out performance. Boston worked on their
defense. Both teams worked on parts of their game they knew would
be needed to win the contest. As Weissman was filling out the
line-up card for this game, he huddled with other coaches to figure out
what to do as Joe Quintanilla was not available. Joe had lost his
father to cancer 40 days prior to this game. In his culture, it
is customary for the family to attend ceremonies 40 days after the
burial. Joe had told the team he would miss game one but he
assured the team he would be there for game two and he wanted to
do something special to honor his father. In a moment familiar to
die hard Red Sox fans, as the teams were about to take the field,
Quintanilla was seen running on to the field in uniform with a
guide...much like Doug Mirabelli did for the Sox in 2006. He was
quickly inserted into the two slot as the designated hitter.
the Wolfpack
would start cold again as 5 of their first 8 hitters struck out.
However for Boston in the 2nd inning Joey Buizon (Fly ball to
right field) and Sengil Inkiala (weak grounder to the right side)
plated back-to-back runs to start the frame. Darren Black would
be put out on a hard hit by Tony Santiago on a pop-up to the right
side. Vasile would be put out by Dan Kelly on a hot shot to
second base and Quintanilla would be put out on a deep fly to right
center by Sherlock Washington in a play where Quintanilla missed the
base. Coach Weissman asked the Boston bench how the team hit..and
they replied in unison "Wicked hard!" as the crowd roared in approval.
Defense would be the name of this game as the wolfpack would only
strike out once after the 3rd inning. In the top of the
3rd,Sherlock Washington hit a ball over everyone's heads in deep center
to get the Wolfpack their first run of the day. In the 4th Sengil
Inkiala may have made the most exciting defensive stop of the game on a
high fly down the first baseline by Kevin Burton. Inky back
pedaled from his spot at 90 feet on the first base line and has he went
to the ground to make the play the ball hit him in the chest for a huge
out. In the 5th they took the lead over the Renegades for the
first time in 3 games as Washington hit a line drive off a diving
Vasile to lead off the inning. Mike Patterson would then score on
a pop-up to the middle of the field to give the wolfpack a 3-2 lead.
It was short lived. Sengil Inkiala would hit a pop-up down
the first base line and beat Gontaryk to the base to tie the game in
the 5th.
The 6th
inning may have been one of the most exciting innings in Renegades
history, Kevin Burton led off the inning with a line drive up the
middle. Evan Silver made a diving stop to his right for out #1.
Two pitches later Dan Kelly hit a hard line drive up the middle that
Larry Haile stopped at about 120 feet out in left center field for out
#2. Sherlock Washington (who was responsible for 67% of the
Wolfpack offense on the day) lofted a high pop up to the middle.
Darren Black was able to make the stop for a 1-2-3 inning on the
top hitters for the Wolfpack line-up. Dino Vasile and Darren
Black led the defense on the day for Boston with 4 put-outs each.
Silver, Haile and Inkiala each pitched in big outs at the right
time.
Dino Vasile
led off the 6th inning with a nubber down the third base line that sent
Greg Gontaryk scrambling. Gontaryk beat Vasile by a step for the first
out (he made 6 stops on the day). Quintanilla came to the plate.
He had hit the ball hard twice and had nothing to show for
it. On the first pitch he crushed a high fly to left field and
took a great line to the base to score. The Renegades walked off
with a sweep. They had their second walk off win of the year and
third in team history. Their win streak reached 6 games.
The crowd was on their feet in approval of the Renegades first
two wins at home in team history.
The story
here is Quintanilla delivered on his goal. He did something truly
special to honor his dad. In 2007, he earned an offensive MVP at
the Long Island Classic and he dedicated that performance to his dad.
In 2008, he honored his father's memory with a ceremony in
church in the morning and a walk off hit in front of his home crowd in
the afternoon.
Game #6 Rengades Win streak stopped by Wolfpack (4-3)
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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Boston
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3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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3 |
10 |
11 |
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Penn
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0 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
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4 |
4 |
8 |
Fundamental
Beepball. That is what Weissman told his team they would need to
continue to do to win games. It would be imperative to apply the
fundamentals that the team works so hard on in practice. For the
4th time in 2008, these two teams faced off. This game would
start in an ugly fashion as Ron Cochran would strike out the first the
Boston batters of the game. One of the Boston highlites would
take place with two outs in the bottom of the first inning as Rookie
Tony Flinn got his first career start in the filed playing First
base as the designated Fielder. Mike Patterson tested him early
and Flinn passed the test nabbing the ball to get out of the inning.
Boston got all of its offense in the 3rd inning as Dino Vasile
scored, Larry Haile scored on a controversial call and Joey Buizon also
scored on a controversial call. In the first two innings both
teams were arguing with umpires as the rules were being sorted out.
For the Boston offense they would strike out 10 times in this
contest and have one of its worst offensive games in two years.
For the Wolfpack, Greg Gontaryk scored twice and Sherlock
Washington continued to be a mystery to Boston's defense as he launched
two bombs over everyone for the 4 runs. Boston did not play
fundamental ball. They made 2 errors in the field, and missed 2
bases that cost them two runs. The six game winning streak was
over. One exciting aspect of this game was the defensive play of
Sengil Inkiala who made 4 stops at his first career start at Right
Shorty. This would play huge for Boston going into the game with
the Cleveland Scrappers.
Game #7 Cleveland "Rocked" by Renegades (13-2)
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Boston
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2 |
1 |
6 |
2 |
1 |
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13 |
9 |
12 |
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Cleveland
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1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
1 |
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2 |
6 |
9 |
Memories of a 4 run walk-off win that
Cleveland had against Boston in Bolingbrook from 2007 were flashing
through the coaches heads as they prepared for this game. Boston
had never beaten Cleveland in its history, a 5 game losing streak.
After Boston, watched the Wolfpack come back and walk-off on
Cleveland, it was already determined that Boston could not win the
tournament. None of that mattered. Boston came out ready to
play on both sides of the ball. As Coach Weissman, predicted,
Vasile would have a big game. He led off the game with a run and
Boston never looked back. Buizon would hit a bomb down the first
base line to give them a 2-0 lead in the first. Simon McNeil
would score on a ball up the middle in the bottom of the inning
and that would be as close as it would get. The 3rd inning was
where all of the action was. Cochran was on fire as the Boston
bats rained bombs down on Cleveland scoring 6 times. Sengil Inkiala and
Larry Haile would each score twice in the inning while Quintanilla and
Buizon would also pitch in a run. Both Buizon and Haile hit balls
that traveled well over the 180 mark on a roll and Haile came close to
getting it on the fly. Cleveland was left in the field for a long
time and tried to switch their defense to no avail. The strong
Boston defense would hold Cleveland scoreless till the 6th inning as
Sengil Inkiala would pace the defense with 5 stops. Dino Vasile would
have three stops while Tony Flinn, Steve Houston, Evan Silver and Larry
Haile would also make stops. Steve Houston's put-out was his
first ever career stop and it came as the last out of the game against
Simon McNeil. Offensively, Buizon would have a 4 run game (the
12th in team history) on 4 balls that all may have traveled close to
180 on the roll. Vasile would have 3 runs of his own.
Inkiala and Haile pitched in a pair while Quintanilla and Steve
Houston also scored for the Boston Offense. It was a gutsy
pitching performance for Ron Cochran who was sick with food poisoning.
He was actually leaving the Boston bench after every inning after
the 3rd to be sick while the defense was on the field. It may
have been his best pitching performance of the year as the team hit
.423 (11 for 26) off him and 11 of the balls put into play were hit
hard. Dan Cotter also pitched well (2 for 5) helping Inkiala
score his pair of runs.
Game #8 Austin 12 runs Boston in 3 Innings (13-7)
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Strike-outs
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| Austin |
1 |
5 |
7 |
x |
x |
x |
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13 |
6 |
11 |
| Boston |
0 |
0 |
0 |
3 |
4 |
0 |
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7 |
7 |
3 |
Game
one of the World Series and Boston won the coin toss, electing to be
home team. That would be all they would win in this
game. In the first inning, Boston let up one run to Craig
Cotton but Sengil Inkiala made 2 fine stops at third base to escape
further damage. Austin would blank Boston for the first three
innings of play as Ron Cochran struggled striking out 4 of the first 9
batters he faced. Austin would put a hurt on the Renegades in the
2nd and third. The third inning was one of Boston's worst innings
in team history allowing 7 runs and making zero put-outs as Austin
struck out three times. This was the story of the game. The
field played fast and Boston could not make any outs unless Austin
struck out at the plate. Boston turned in their third worst
defensive effort in team history stopping only 18% of the balls put
into play. Once the mercy rule was in place, the Boston bats
started to relax with hopes of getting some confidence for later in the
tournament. Dino Vasile, Joe Quintanilla and Evan Silver all
scored a pair of runs while Guy Zuccarello scored his first run of the
year. For Austin they were paced by Craig Cotton who score 4
runs. Axel Cox was the star defensive player leading the way with
6 defensive stops. Austin would go on to finish 4th in the World
Series
Game #9 Dawgs Crush Boston (18-1), Renegades Get Experience
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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| Boston |
0 |
0 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
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1 |
6 |
10
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| West Coast |
9 |
1 |
2 |
6 |
x |
x |
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18 |
2 |
12
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Game 2 of the Round Robin Bracket
would again be a tough match-up. As predicted by Weissman, The
Dawgs proved to be the top team of the World Series as they would go on
to an undefeated World Series. In heat approaching 100 degrees,
the goal for Boston in this game was to have some fun, get people some
playing time and try to keep people rested so they could play three
games in the heat. It was a very long first inning. In
fact, it was one of the worst innings in team history as the Dawgs
scored 9 times and 4 players scored twice in the inning. This
All-star team did not let up on the Renegades but they did struggle to
score runs in the 2nd and third as the Boston Defense started to show
some spunk. Much needed spunk after their defensive problems they
faced in game #1. For the Renegades their focus was to get some
experience. Rookie Chris Genikos got his first ever start and hit
a high fly into the middle of the field in his first at-bat.
Third string pitcher, Justin Manjourides also made his first ever
appearance as he faced 5 batters and he connected with Evan Silver for
his first ball in play for his career. Defensive Coach Matt
Nippins had his debut game as a caller helping the defense make 36% of
their defensive stops. Tony Flinn, Steve Houston and Joe O'Neill would
all get valuable playing time on defense. Statistically for
Boston, Sengil Inkiala would lead the team in runs with one and
defensive stops with 5. This would be the second game in a row
they would be 12 runned. The 17 run defect would also be the
biggest loss in team history while this would be the first time since
early 2006 they would only score one run. The eventual World
Champ Dawgs were paced on offense by Lupe Perez and Eric Mazariegos (4
runs a piece) on offense and Mazariegos (5) and Mike Finn (4) would
make 9 of the Dawgs 12 stops on defense. Despite the lop sided
score, the Renegades achieved what it wanted to do which was keep
players rested, get people experience and set themselves up for the
third game of the day.
Game #10 Boston Shows Some Pride Downing North Carolina 18-14
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5
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6
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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| Boston |
1 |
7 |
5 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
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18 |
5 |
3 |
| NC |
0 |
1 |
6 |
3 |
3 |
1 |
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14 |
14 |
13 |
Both
teams limped into this game after getting mercy ruled by Austin and the
West Coast Dawgs. It appeared both teams had different approaches
to the game. Boston was somewhat rested and put out their
starters. North Carolina decided to start their number two
pitcher. If you believe in signs, the sign of the game may have
been the first at-bat of the game. Dino Vasile started the game
off by fouling off 8 straight pitches before striking out in a marathon
at-bat. Boston's Joe Quintanilla would score the lone run in the
first inning. The North Carolina Pride struck out 3 times in a
row and 4 of the first 5 hitters of the game. For Boston the
story would be offense. Lots of it early in the game. They
would post 7 runs in the 2nd inning (their third best ever out-put in a
game). This inning was led by Evan Silver who scored twice in the
frame as the team sent 10 players to the plate. In the third,
Boston would plate 5 more runs as Larry Haile would score twice in the
inning. Boston was excited at the chance of getting a 12 run win
as they led 13-1 going into the bottom of the third inning. The
Carolina Team looked tired after standing in the heat for 2 long
innings. Carolina decided to change pitchers and the entire game
changed. The Boston defense could not make plays. In fact
from the 3rd inning on, they only made one stop on defense. It
was a slug fest. Carolina cut the lead in half as Thomas Todd and
Marlon Stover would each score a pair of runs in the 3rd as they batted
around on the Boston Defense. The North Carolina defense regained
life with this comeback as Barney Flemming started to rack up the
defensive stops (making 5 of his 7) in the last 3 innings of the game.
Boston would get a spark off the bench in the 5th inning as Tony
Flinn would score the first two runs of his career. Both he and
Larry Haile plated a pair of runs in the 5th and 6th innings to provide
the insurance the Renegades needed to hold off the Pride. The
teams would be on the field till just past 5:00PM making this game near
a 3 hour long marathon. The Dino Vasile first inning at-bat was a
sign that this game would be a long struggle. Offense was the
game for Boston. Larry Haile became just the third Renegade to
score 5 runs in a game while Evan Silver scored three times as well.
Steve Houston got his second start of the World Series and had
his first 2 run game of his career. Dino Vasile, Quintanilla,
Sengil Inkiala and Flinn also each scored a pair of runs. For the
team the 18 runs scored was the 2nd highest output ever. The
teams .500 average was its third best per game stat in team history,
the 13.6% strike out rate was the 5th lowest in team history.
Defensively the game was equally as ugly as the offense was good.
The team only made three stops on defense and was saved by the 14
strike-outs of the Pride. This tied the Austin game for the 2nd
least stops in history and resulted in the team stopping only 17% of
the balls put into play (its third worst in history). For North
Carolina they were paced by Marlon Stover with 4 runs and Barney
Flemming with 7 defensive stops. Boston would clinch the 3 seed
in their bracket and would face the Long Island Bombers in the first
round of double elimination.
Game #11 Long Island Sends Boston to Loser Bracket 6-3
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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| Boston |
0 |
2 |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
3 |
4 |
10 |
| Long Island |
2 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
1 |
x |
|
6 |
4 |
14 |
Boston had a
team meeting after day one and was determined to put a better defensive
effort on the field in day #2 of the World Series. A game plan
was created and the Bombers and Renegades faced off for the 2nd time in
2008. Boston would go silent in the top of the first and Long
Island would jump out to a two run lead as Jim Hughes and Steve Guerra
each plated runs in the bottom of the frame. Boston would tie it
up in the 2nd as Rookie Tony Flinn would stay hot scoring his third run
in his last three at-bats and Dino Vasile also plated a run. Nick
Esposito scored to lead off the bottom of the 2nd for the Bombers.
The back story for the Renegades here was defense and things were
looking up at this point. Boston made 5 stops in the first two
innings by three diferent players. This was already more
than they had against Austin or North Carolina. The highlite stop
was made by Evan Silver on a ball that he stopped in deep right field.
The fun thing about this stop was that the ball actually found a
way inside his game shirt and he was caught on film ripping his shirt
away from his body holding the ball in his hands. The other good
news for Boston was at this point Frank Guerra had only made two stops
for the Bombers. Sengil Inkiala scored on a bang bang play
on a grounder down the 3rd baseline to tie the game in the 3rd.
Long Island would lead off the bottom of the third with runs by
Steve Guerra and Braulio Thorne. Jim Hughes pitched in some
insurance for the Bombers in the 5th and that would be all the scoring
in the game. On Defense Frank Guerra would turn it on late in the
game as he made 10 put-outs and his twin brother Steve would make 3 of
the Bomber 14 stops. For Boston Dino Vasile paced the way with 4
stops as Quintanilla, Zuccarello and Evan silver also had a pair.
This game was one of the lowest scoring games of the entire 14
team World Series. Boston was still looking to put together a
game where they played solid on both sides of the ball. Long
Island was off to face the Kansas All-Stars in the 2nd round.
Game #12 Boston Storms back on Thunder in Extra innings (16-12)
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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7
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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| Boston |
2 |
4 |
2 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
4 |
16 |
8 |
13 |
| Indy |
7 |
1 |
0 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
12 |
8 |
13 |
In the
first two days of the World Series Boston had been unable to put
together a game where they played well on both sides of the ball.
The team showed up early to take batting practice to help work
out some of the kinks. At first it appeared to pay off as Dino
Vasile and Joe Quintanilla led of the game with back-to-back runs.
Then they went down on a dribbler and two strike-outs.
Indianapolis came out hot. They sent 10 hitters to the
plate in the first frame and scored seven times. The defense
struggled again and it looked like it could be a long day for Boston.
Boston had been through some tough battles in recent past and was
not ready to give up easily. Again in the 2nd Dino and Joe Q
went back to back. However in this inning Sengil Inkiala and Evan
Silver also got on the board to bring the game within 1 run. The
Boston Renegades had some regained energy and after three innings the
two teams were all knotted up at 8 a peice. The difference here
was that Boston was scoring in every inning and its defense was making
stops as Joe Quintanilla had 4 stops and Vasile had 2 for the
Renegades. The fourth inning would swing to Indianapolis as
Boston would go down 1-2-3 with 2 strike outs and the Thunder scored 4
consecutive runs with 2 outs to take a 12 to 8 lead. In the 5th
inning Indianapolis was forced to make some changes to their line-up as
Demielle Wright and Jerry Wendell (Their top two hitters in the
line-up) were both hurting due to injuries. The teams would later
discover that Wendell was hurt while pitching to Darnell Booker earlier
in the game as Booker hit a line drive off Wendell who was pitching to
him. That line drive cracked some of Wendell's ribs.
Boston
continued to chip away in the top half of the 5th as Larry Haile, Evan
Silver and Vasile each scored to pull with one run. A defensive
shift in the 4th inning would prove to be helpful as Guy Zuccarello
would become a big factor in this game. Zuccarello and Inkiala
made big outs in the bottom of the 5th inning. Down by a run in
the 6th inning Larry Haile would eliminate the suspense and tie it up
with a grounder up the middle that Dave Benney could not handle.
However Inkiala would stike out, Silver would be put out on a
defensive stop by Michael Lweis at 3rd base and Tony Flinn would also
whiff. Boston headed to the bottom of the 6th in a tie game.
The Thunder would have to face two guys who represented 5 of the
Thunders 12 runs. Darnell Booker who was 2 for 4 at this time led
off the inning and struck out. James Michaels who has long killed
the Renegades came up next after scoring three times in 4 at-bats.
He grounded out weakly to Guy Zuccarello. With two outs,
the Thunder re-entered Demeille Wright who may be the best all around
offensive player for Indianapolis. He Struck out. Boston
jumped for joy and ran off the field knowing they had the top of their
line-up up. Vasile scored for the 4th time of the day to lead off
the inning with a line drive up the middle. Quintanilla then hit
a grounder up the left side for his 4th run of the game. Larry
Haile then hit a pop fly up the middle and beat it out for his 5th run
of the game and Sengil Inkiala poped up a fly ball down the 3rd base
line as he scored his second run. The Damage was done.
Zucarello would make the final two stops on defense and the
Renegades held on to win! This win clinched Boston's best ever
finish in the World Series as they were told they could finish no worse
than 8th place. For boston Larry Haile became only the 3rd player
to score 5 runs in a game. Defensively Boston was led by Joe
Quintanilla with 5 stops and Zucarello with 4 stops while Vasile (2)
and Silver (1) and Inkiala (1) each made stops. This game went
down as one of the most exciting games in Renegades history. It
ranked as the 3rd best offensive out-put ever (16 runs), 8th best
batting average (.432) and third most defensive stops (13). It
also improved the Renegades record in extra inning games to 3-0 in its
8 year history. For the Thunder they were led by Ron Brown and
James Michales who scored three runs a piece and Dave Benney made 6
stops on defense.
Game #13 Storm Rains on Renegades 14-9
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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| Colorado |
1 |
2 |
1 |
7 |
0 |
3 |
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14 |
9 |
10 |
| Boston |
1 |
4 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
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9 |
8 |
9 |
For the
second year in a row, Boston faced the Colorado Storm with one loss in
the double elimination bracket. This time the teams looked
completely different. Denver had only two players from their
starting line-up who played in the previous match-up while Boston had
only 4 players who played in last years contest. Colorado was
stocked with a bunch of new players from the Arizona area and this team
was making noise through the World Series. In the First inning,
Boston got a look at some of these big swings as Tanner Gers led off
with a base hit to put the Storm up by a run and that would be followed
up by 2 whiffs and a play at third base by Sengil Inkiala. Boston
came out hitting as their first three batters put balls in play but
only Larry Haile was able to plate a run tying it up. With
two outs in the second, Gers and Ethan Johnston went back-to-back but
Boston was playing some good defense as Guy Zucarello and Evan Silver
made stops in the field for the renegades. Boston would pay it
back as they would also score a bunch of runs with two outs as Dino
Vasile hit a grounder to the right side, Joe Quintanilla hit a line
drive up the right side, Haile hit a grounder down the third base line
and Inkiala hit a pop fly up the middle to give the Renegades a 5-3
lead. In the third, Demitris Morrow scored a run for
Colorado and Tanner Gers was put out on a bomb into deep left field by
Larry Haile. Boston would get that run back as Rookie Tony Flinn
scored on a grounder to the right side. Both teams were battling
and at this point it was anyones game. Johnny Walker, The coach
and pitcher caught fire for the Storm and he was laying the ball on the
sweet spot of the big Storm swings. Colorado plated 7 runs in
the top of the 4th inning highlighted by Johnston scoring twice in the
inning as the big bats and quick legs of the Storm rained all over the
Renegades. The bottom half of the Boston line-up could not
produce any offense and in an inning where they desperately needed an
answer they put a dougnut up on the score board. Joe Quintanilla
and Zucarello gave the Renegades some hope as they helped produce the
only 1-2-3 inning of the game for Boston making 2 outs on grounders hit
to the right side in the top half of the fifth. Boston was fired
up with the top of their line-up coming up in the fifth however Vasile
led off with a strike out and Quintanilla was put out on a line
drive up the middle. With two outs Larry Haile and Inkiala
went back-to-back to spark the team and draw within three runs.
The Boston Defense could not hold the Storm. The last three
batters in the line-up plated runs in consecutive at-bats to give the
Storm a cushion and the win. For the Storm, Tanner Gers, Ethan
Johnston and Demitris Morrow each scored three time (Gers would later
be named to the all-offense team hitting .676 as a rookie) while
Johnston made 7 stops on defense on weak dribblers to the right side.
Boston was led on offense with three runs by Larry Haile while
Vasile and Inkiala each had a pair. Quintanilla and Tony Flinn
also scored once. Defensively for the Renegades everyone made a
stop who played in the field Vasile, Silver and Zucarello each had
a pair of stops. Boston was eliminated from the double
elimination bracket. The Storm would go to play the Chicago
Comets and would eventually finish in 6th place. Boston was
headed to play their rival's, the Long Island Bombers for the third
time in the 2008 season.
Game #14 Long Island hands Boston their Worst Beating Ever 23-5
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1
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2
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3
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4
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5
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6
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Runs
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Strike-outs
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Put-outs
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| Boston |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
0 |
0 |
|
5 |
4 |
9 |
| LI |
7 |
3 |
3 |
10 |
x |
x |
|
23 |
3 |
14 |
Boston was
excited at the chance to play Long Island again. After losing the
first contest in a low scoring affair, they had found their offense in
the previous day's game against Indianapolis and Colorado. This
game could be summed up in two words...Frank Guerra. Dino Vasile
would score a run to lead off the game. Tony Flinn would score a
run in the second inning. Larry Haile would score once in the 3rd
inning and Joe Quintanilla and Sengil Inkiala would each score a run in
the 4th. Frank Guerra would make every single defensive stop as
he 11 put-outs through 4 innings. The only out he could not make
was a strike out by Dino Vasile to lead off the 4th. Guerra would
finish the game with 13 defensive stops. The only other Long
Island player who made a stop on defense was Nick Esposito on a freaky
play in which Rookie Chris Genikos was called out for running 125 feet
into right field as third base went off. This game was all Long
Island. Matt Puvogel was 3 for 6. Jim Hughes was 3 for 6.
Frank Guerra was 6 for 6. Steve Guerra was 3 for 6. Braulio
Thorne was 3 for 6. Alex Barrera was 3 for 3 and Nick Esposito
was 2 for 2. It was an abysmal game for Boston as they were 12
runned in the 4th inning.
This game
was the biggest beating Boston had ever taken. The 23 runs was
the most ever let up by the Renegades in team history. The 18 run
differential was also the biggest run differential for the Renegades in
history. Frank Guerra would go on to win the tournament defensive
MVP. Coach Rob Weissman asked Frank to speak kindly of Boston who
gave him 23 of his 64 stops in the tournament in just 2 of the Bomber's
8 games. Despite the beating, Boston took 8th place. This
was the highest finish ever at a World Series for the Boston Renegades.
It also marked their second consecutive winning season.
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