Game #1 Boston flashes the “leather” and defeats the bombers 6-5
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Long Island | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 6 | 8 | |
| Boston | 1 | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | x | 6 | 7 | 12 |
| Long Island | AB | R | K | PO | Boston | AB | R | K | PO | |
| J. Desjesus | 4 | 0 | 2 | 1 | McCormick – RS | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |
| Barrera | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Haile – R | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| C. Dejesus | 4 | 1 | 1 | 3 | Silver – 3B | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Thorne | 4 | 1 | 0 | 2 | Sajjad – 1B | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| Hughes | 4 | 0 | 2 | 2 | Thaxton – DH | 3 | 1 | 2 | — | |
| Erickson | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – Zuccarello – DF | — | — | — | 4 | |
| –Agnone | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Dias – MF | 3 | 3 | 0 | 3 | |
| Totals | 23 | 5 | 6 | 8 | Totals | 21 | 6 | 7 | 12 | |
| Pitcher- Sciortino | Pitcher- Cotter | 15 | 2 | 5 | ||||||
| Pither- Dickerson | 6 | 4 | 2 | |||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller – Dickerson |
Game one of the 2015 season would be played in Lincroft, NJ, the first time in team history they had played in this town. Horrid weather reports made this day look difficult and time limits would be put into play of 1 hours and 45 minutes….though these games would move so quickly, there was no need. For the Renegades, the challenges continued as the team was short on callers and had been working coach Kara Peters into that role. A few days before the trip, she broke a toe and was unable to call on the field. On the mound the Renegades would spilt long time pitcher Danny cotter with first year pitcher (2nd year coach), Jamie Dickerson. Dickerson would be forced to go both ways, pitching to some of the guys and calling the right side of the team defense with Bryan Geillo on the left side.
Long Island was a little late getting to the fields, and the Renegades hoped this would impact their bats. the game started off with Bomber, Joe Dejesus fouling off 8 pitches in a row before taking the K. Then Alex Barrera would score the games first run on a pop up to the left side that he beat out on a bang bang play. Chris Dejesus would then stroke a hard grounder down the first base line that Aqil Sajjad would range way over to the first base line and stop with his bare hand. Rob Dias then would take a smash from Braulio Thorne away to stop the threat. Those bats were not sleeping for Long Island. For The Renegades, Joe McCormick would start the year in the lead off spot and score on a weak hit to knot the game at one a piece. The top of the second would be highlighted by Rob Dias taking a hard hit ball away from lead off hitter Jose Dejesus and then as it often works, he would score the Renegades second run in the bottom of the second. Larry Haile would also plate a run in the 2nd with two outs to give Boston a 3-1 lead. In the top of the third, Alex Barrera would hit a weak ball to Guy Zuccarello and would be put out by 10-15 feet…or so both teams thought when the umpire called him safe. In discussion, the umpire claimed that Guy did not use two hands to pick up the ball (which is not required). After arguing for a short time, the umpire decided to make up a rule and the score was 3-2. This goes to the importance of training umpires before a tournament and should not have been allowed. In the bottom of the third with one out, rookie, Christian Thaxton strode to the plate 0-1 after a whiff in his first at bat with Jamie Dickerson on the mound. Thaxton hit a hard grounder to the left side and sprinted to 3rd base and scored his first ever run. What made this special was it was one of the few times he had ever run to third (He played junior college baseball). It was a big moment as both Jamie and Christian got their first run on the same at-bat, something that has not happened since the teams first year of play in 2002. Rob Dias would add on insurance in the third to push the score to 5-2. In the Long Island 4th, Joe McCormick made two stops and in the bottom of the frame the Renegades started to struggle as Evan silver and Thaxton would strike out. In the 5th, Chris Dejesus would score on a play where two renegades (Dias, Sajjad) collided in the middle of the field to pull within two runs at 5-3. The renegades had confidence and Rob Dias provided his third hit to lead off the bottom of the 5th for his third run of the game…but the top of the order went down easily with two strike outs and a weak grounder. Would That extra insurance be enough cushion? Jose Dejesus struck out to start the top of the 6th, Alex Barera scored his third run of the game, Chris Dejesus struck out and Braulio Thorne scored on a bang bang play where rob Dias ranged well Into left field to make a play…but the umps ruled in favor of Thorne and the score was now 6-5(don’t forget the free run the ump gave Long Island). Jim Hughes came to the dish 0-3 on the day and hit a grounder up the gut that Rob Dias corralled for the final out. Boston won the game 6-5 behind Rob Dias making three runs and three stops. This would extend the Renegade win streak over Long Island to 8 games
Game #2 Boston Bats wake up and show no mercy on New Jersey
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Boston | 1 | 3 | 9 | x | x | x | 13 | 7 | 2 | |
| New Jersey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 2 |
| Boston | AB | R | K | PO | New Jersey | AB | R | K | PO | |
| McCormick- RS | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | Washington | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| — Huynh – LS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Blake | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Haile – 1B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | – Duran | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |
| — Thayer – 1B | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Bahn | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | |
| Dias – MF | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Wright | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |
| — Silver – PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | — | Winthrop | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| — Ward – 3B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Whitten | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | |
| Thaxton – R | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | ||||||
| Yee – DH/RS | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| – Zuccarello- DF/LS | — | — | — | 0 | ||||||
| Sajjad – 3B/MF | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 22 | 13 | 7 | 2 | Totals | 20 | 2 | 16 | 2 | |
| Pitcher- Cotter | 12 | 7 | 4 | Pitcher- Vega | ||||||
| Pither- Dickerson | 10 | 6 | 3 | |||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller – Dickerson |
In game two, the Gades would face off against the host, New Jersey Lightning who had some turmoil in the off season as many of their players left to start another team. The Jersey line up on this day consisted of just two players from the 2014 roster and also included two sighted players that were under blindfolds. To make things more challenging, their starting pitcher was unable to go as she was in a cast. Coach Weissman, wanted to get their bats going after striking out 33% of the time in the previous game and put the starters in to start the game. The desired result was not there to start the game as Joe McCormick, Rob Dias and Christian Thaxton all struck out in the first. Thankfully, Larry Haile plated a run as the number two hitter. New Jersey would fare much worse as they would strike out 5 times in the first two innings and after two frames the Renegades were In Control 4-0. The third inning is where the lightning came out of the bottle. In this frame Boston had one of its biggest innings in history as it plated 9 runs highlighted by Joe McCormick, Joe Yee and Aqil Sajjad plating a pair each in the inning. These 9 runs were the 3rd most the Renegades had scored in an inning. The last time they did this was in the 2012 World Series against the Minnesota Millers. the most they had ever scored was 11 against the Stockton Stingrays in 2007. The real thunder came when Rob “hot tub” Thayer came off the bench and scored on a nice hit Into left field. The team Errupted in excitement for Thayer who has as much heart and soul as any player on the squad and works so hard to better himself. After three frames, the Renegades led 13-0 and NJ had put just one ball in play. This invoked the 12 run rule, meaning the Lightning would continue to hit and the Renegades would stay on defense unless the game was tied up. NJ would struggle on offense in this match as they struck out 16 times. For Boston the defensive highlight was in the 5h frame when rookie Christian Thaxton made a stop at deep rover on a well hit ball from Doug Winthrop, for Thaxton’s first career defensive stop. Weissman succeeded in getting the bats going and getting his pitchers some confidence. The Renegades would start the season with a 2-0 record and face Pennsylvania for the final game.
Game #3 Boston Starts hot and holds on vs Pennsylvania
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Penn | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 | 14 | 10 | |
| Boston | 5 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | x | 6 | 5 | 4 |
| Pennsylvania | AB | R | K | PO | Boston | AB | R | K | PO | |
| Coughlin | 4 | 3 | 1 | 7 | McCormick – RS | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Hogwood | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Haile – 1B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| – Daly | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | –Huynh – PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | — | |
| George | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | –Ward – 1B | — | — | — | 0 | |
| – Bordley | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Dias – MF | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| — Koppenjan | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Thaxton – R | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Atin | 4 | 0 | 3 | 0 | Yee – DH | 3 | 0 | 0 | — | |
| Daly | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | – Zuccarello – DF/LS | — | — | — | 2 | |
| –George | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Sajjad – 3B | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | |
| Natoli | 3 | 0 | 3 | 0 | ||||||
| –Bordley | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 22 | 4 | 14 | 10 | Totals | 21 | 6 | 5 | 4 | |
| Pitcher – Hogwood | Pitcher- Cotter | 10 | 4 | 2 | ||||||
| Pitcher – Burns | Pither- Dickerson | 11 | 2 | 3 | ||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller – Dickerson |
The Pennsylvania Wolfpack broke a 12 game long losing streak to the Renegades in 2014 by playing two tough games resulting in an extra innings loss and a 1 run victory over the Renegades. Like the Lightning, the Wolfpack also lost key personal in the 2015 season including their founder and Captain, Greg Gontaryk, their pitcher, Bob Gomberg and a few players. This team looked different but two guys who remained were Mike Coughlin and Scott Hogwood who would bat 1&2 for the Wolfpack. Each would strike out to start off the game. In the bottom of the first, the Renegades continued their hitting as Joe McCormick, Larry Haile and Rob Dias plated back- to-back-to back runs that barely traveled 80 feet each. All of these balls were hit toward Mike Coughlin who was struggling in the field trying to make stops in time with the speed of the Renegades. When the dust settled, Boston was up 5-0 after one frame. Entering the third inning, the Wolpack had 5 strike outs, When Mike Coughlin got them on the board with a run scoring hit and Lamont Bordley came off the bench to replace an injured Randy George and he also plated a run to pull the score to 5-2. The third inning was bad for Boston as the top of the order could not answer and McCormick and Haile each struck out. Heading to the 4th inning, Coughlin was looking like a one man show as he pulled the Wolfpack to a 5-3 deficit and he had racked up 4 of the 6 defensive stops for the Wolfpack at this point in the game. Further trouble would happen for the Wolfpack when slugger Scott Hogwood was put out on a hard shot down the third baseline by Aqil Sajjad. When Hogwood hit the base he did not get up. The Wolfpack captain had to leave the game with ribs that may have been fractured. Boston would huddle in the 4th inning and ask for insurance. That call was answered by a deep bomb to center field off the bat of Christian Thaxton for the most impressive hit of Boston’s weekend and would prove to be the final straw giving Boston a 6-3 advantage with Hogwood out for the remainder of the game. Mike Coughlin would have a career day vs Boston as he would score a run in the 6th and finish the day with 3 runs on offense and 7 of the Wolfpacks 10 stops on defense. In the end, the Wolfpack did not have enough balls in play on offense to mount the comeback they needed and the Renegades walked away with a sweep and a grip on the 2015 Beast of the East title!
Game #4 Boston knocks out the Wokpack in front of home crowd
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Boston | 4 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 10 | 2 | |
| Penn | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 16 | 8 |
| Boston | AB | R | K | PO | Penn | AB | R | K | PO | |
| McCormick – RS | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Coughlin | 4 | 0 | 3 | 5 | |
| –Thayer – 1B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Hogwood | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| Haile – DH | 4 | 2 | 0 | — | Margist | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| –Hoyt – DH | 1 | 0 | 1 | — | Bordley | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | |
| – Zuccarello-DF/LS | — | — | — | 1 | Atin | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Thaxton – R | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | –Koppenjan | 2 | 0 | 2 | 1 | |
| –Quintanilla – R | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Natoli | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Dias – MF | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | –Atin | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| –Yee – 3B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Yee – 1B | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| –Quintanilla -PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | ||||||
| –Ward – 1b/RS | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Sajjad – 3B | 3 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| –Silver – MF/3B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Totals | 28 | 10 | 10 | 2 | Totals | 20 | 2 | 16 | 8 | |
| Pitcher- Cochran | 16 | 9 | 2 | Pitcher- Hogwood | ||||||
| Pitcher- Cotter | 7 | 1 | 5 | Pitcher- Burns | ||||||
| Pither- Dickerson | 5 | 0 | 3 | |||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller – Dickerson |
Boston would start the day off against the PA Wolfpack. A team they beat by just two runs in the previous game. Uncertain who would be in this roster before the game, the Wolfpack actually looked better than before with the return of John Margist to their line up and shockingly, Scott Hogwood was playing after his injury just two weeks prior. The difference in this match would be Ron Cochran’s presence on the mound. To start the game, Boston would lose the coin toss and be the visiting team, on their own field. The first inning of this game was action packed, as was the same case in the first meeting of these two teams. Joe McCormick would score the first run of the game on the 6th pitch of the at bat. Larry Haile would then hit a deep fly ball into left to plate the second run for the Gades. With one out Rob Dias would hit a bomb into deep left but he hit it so hard the ball broke and the play had to be done over/ He then promptly (on the first pitch) plated a run on a weak line drive to the right side. Aqil Sajjad would plate the team’s 4th run of the inning to help turn the line up over and get back to the top. Joe McCormick would then miss a base on a sure run to end the frame (Earning the pink blindfold for missing the base). In the bottom half, Hogwood and Margist would both plate runs to make it a 4-2 game. In the top of the 2nd inning, Larry Haile and Ron Cochran would face each other. The result would be a weak grounder up the middle for a Mike Coughlin defensive stop. The significance was this was the 3,000th hitter Ron had faced in his career as a pitcher since he started pitching in 2006 for the Renegades. Not much of a highlight, but a remarkable test of endurance for this pitcher and team. Dias would score in this farm to give Boston a 5-2 lead and they would never look back. McCormick and Rob Dias would each go on to plate two more runs and Pennsylvania would not be able to make contact. After 4 innings, Boston led 10-2 and started to pinch hit for all the starters. The bench was unproductive as they struck out in 5 of the 7 trips to the plate off of Jamie Dickerson and Dan Cotter. With one out in the Bottom of the 6th inning, the Renegades led comfortably by the score of 10-2 and the Wolfpack bats had struck out 16 times. Boston defense did not have a single stop. With the top of the order up, Coach Weissman yelled out to Evan Silver to make a play…and that he did on a smash up the gut by Mike Couglin. the final out would be on a weak grounder to the left side gobbled up by Guy Zucarello. Boston was now 4-0 in the Beast of the east…while the Wolfpack dropped to 1-3. On the other field, the Bombers crushed New Jersey 13-0 and these two teams would prepare to square off next
Game #5 Boston scores 8 runs in the 4th and clinches Beast of East title
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Boston | 3 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 11 | 9 | 11 | |
| Long Island | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 7 | 9 |
| Boston | AB | R | K | PO | Long Island | AB | R | K | PO | |
| McCormick – RS | 5 | 3 | 1 | 4 | Barrera – DH | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| Haile – R | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | -Fink – DF | — | — | — | 1 | |
| Thaxton – DH | 4 | 2 | 0 | — | J. Dejesus | 3 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| –Thayer – DH | 1 | 0 | 1 | — | Thorne | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| – Zuccarello- DF/LS | — | — | — | 3 | C. Dejesus | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| Dias – MF | 4 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Puvogel | 2 | 0 | 1 | 4 | |
| –Quintanilla – PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | — | –Hughes | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| — Sajjad – MF | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Erickson | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Silver – 3B | 4 | 0 | 3 | 1 | –Agnone | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| –Yee -3B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 | ||||||
| Sajjad – 1B | 3 | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| –Ward – R | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 29 | 11 | 9 | 11 | Totals | 19 | 1 | 7 | 9 | |
| Pitcher- Cochran | 18 | 10 | 2 | Pitcher- Sciortino | ||||||
| Pitcher- Cotter | 8 | 1 | 4 | |||||||
| Pither- Dickerson | 3 | 0 | 3 | |||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller – Dickerson |
The Renegades and The Bombers have been a rivalry since the start. The Bombers won the 1st seven games in a row from 2002-2007 until the Renegades finally broke the curse. The Renegades entered this match with an 8 game streak of their own and a 16-11 lifetime record. The fans were starting to arrive in anticipation of the best game of the tournament. Long Island had a stronger sorer than two weeks prior as they had their two best defensive players on the field in Boston lost the coin toss again and was visiting team. Joe McCormick led off the game and scored on a fly ball to the left side. This was a milestone run for Mac as it represented his 100th run of his career and he became just the 6th player in Renegade history to score 100 runs. Larry Haile and Rob Dias would also plate runs in this frame to give the Renegades a great start and a 3-0 lead entering the bottom of the inning. The Long Island line up featured some changes as switch otter Alex Barrera was in the lad off spot and Joe Dejesus was batting in the two hole. Right out of the gate they went down on a stop by Guy Zuccarello and Joe McCormick. Two batters into this game and the Renegades had as many defensive stops as they had in the entire previous game. The Renegade second inning was not good, McCormick went down swinging on four pitches. Haile also whiffed on 6 pitches and Christian Thaxton was put out on a weak ball to Matt Puvogel. Long Island had a chance but the bottom half of their order would be stopped by Rob Dias and Guy Zuccarello. With the score 3-0 Boston was unable to add any offense in the 3rd inning as Rob Dias, Evan Silver and Aqil Sajjad were put out by Jose Dejuses, Matt Puvogel and Chris Dejesus. Long Island would strike in the 3rd inning. With one out, Jose Dejesus would hit a ball down the 3rd base line. Since Boston was playing a shift, that slot was wide open. Guy Zuacrello was left all alone on that side and Dejesus beat Guy by a split second on a bang-bang play and the score was 3-1. McCormick would clamp down the rest of the inning making stops and heading to the 4th inning Boston clung to a 3-1 lead. The Fourth inning would be huge and historical as well. Joe McCormick, Larry Haile and Christian Thaxton would score to start the inning on bombs into left field to start off the inning. With two outs, Aqil Sajjad would score on a weak hit ball off Dan Cotter and the onslaught would continue. Aqil’s run allowed the top of the order to get up again and they did better than the first time through the line up as McCormick, Haile, Thaxton and Dias would plate 4 runs in a row to give the Renegades an 8 run inning. The most the Renegades had ever scored in an inning against Long Island and the first tint whey had scored this amount in an inning ever. (their most was 11 against Stockton in 2007). Long Island was mentally defeated at this point and the score was 11-1. The game would end in a fun way for Boston as Joe Yee was brought into the game as a replacement for Evan silver and made the final two out of the game. These two stops equaled his entire output from the 2014 season. Boston was now 5-0 in the Beast of the East, pushing Long Island to 3-2. On the other field, New Jersey had upset Pennsylvania in a 3-2 win. The Renegades had clinched the Beast of the East for the 5th straight time.
Game #6 Boston Sweeps the Beast of the East defeating New Jersey 8-1
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Boston | 2 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 4 | 2 | |
| New Jersey | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 16 | 14 |
| Boston | AB | R | K | PO | New Jersey | AB | R | K | PO | |
| McCormick – RS | 2 | 2 | 0 | 1 | Washington | 4 | 0 | 4 | 2 | |
| –Ward – RS | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Murrell | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Thaxton – 1B | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | –Allen | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| –Hoyt -1B | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Bahn | 3 | 0 | 3 | 10 | |
| Zuccarello- LS | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | Wright – DH | 3 | 0 | 2 | — | |
| Soto – DH | 3 | 0 | 1 | — | -Duran – DF | — | — | — | 0 | |
| – Quintanilla -DH | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | Winthrop | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| – Sajaad – DF/MF | — | — | — | 0 | Foster | 3 | 0 | 2 | 2 | |
| Yee – 3B | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| –Silver – 3B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Thayer – R | 4 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 26 | 8 | 4 | 2 | Totals | 19 | 1 | 16 | 14 | |
| Pitcher- Cochran | 24 | 8 | 3 | Pitcher- Whitten | ||||||
| Pither- Dickerson | 2 | 0 | 1 | |||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller – Dickerson |
The temperatures were rising into the 90′s on this hot day and the teams were slowed down by the lunch break. New Jersey and Boston were facing the dreaded lunch coma as they tried to get ready for this game. New Jersey entered this match off their first win of the year in Beast of the East play and would for the 3rd time the Renegades would lose the coin toss and be visiting team. For the 3rd time, they would strike first as Joe McCormick and Guy Zucarello would plate runs to start off the game. For Jersey, they would be sporting a new pitcher than in the previous game as Richard Whitten would take the mound for the Lightning. He would strike out the 1st three batters he faced. In the second inning with one out, McCormick, Thaxton and Zuccarello would go 1-2-3 to give the Renegades a comfortable 5-0 lead. This was comforting since the Lightning had only scored 10 runs in their 5 games. In the 3rd inning Thaxton would plate his 2nd run of the game on a bomb into left field when Zucarello strode to the plate in what would be an epic at bat. The first pitch resulted in a ground ball into the NJ defense where he was put out…but the base was late to turn on and he had a fresh count. On the 2nd pitch he hit a line drive up the middle and scored…but the ball was dead on contact. He faced a new count for the 2nd time. On the third pitch he hit a fly ball up the middle and scored…but the defense clued dead ball again and sure enough Guy had killed two balls on two pitches. On the 4th pitch of the at bat (after a late base and two dead balls,) he hit a line drive up the right side and scored a run, his third opt the game, the 12th time he had scored that many runs in a game in his career. With Dan Cotter not feeling well, Ron Cochran pitched to most of the line up in this game. They all made contact, but not enough solid contact and Jersey’s , Casey Bahn quietly made 10 defensive stops for the Lightning. The Lightning would plate their only run in the bottom of the 6th inning. Overall, the Lightning struck out 16 times in this slow paced game as the Renegades rolled 8-1 playing a lot of players who had not received a lot of playing time in the earlier games including starts by Luis Soto and Rob Thayer (their first starts of the year). On the other field, the Wolfpack bats woke up and upset the Long Island Bombers 9-4. Boston would go on to win the Beast of the East in sweep fashion and the Woburn Host Lions would cut them a $500 check for their efforts as a donation.
Game #7 Boston tucks them in and says good knight beating the Indy Knights
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Knights | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 5 | 9 | 7 | |
| Boston | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | x | 15 | 8 | 9 |
| Indy Knights | AB | R | K | PO | Boston | AB | R | K | PO | |
| E. Brown | 2 | 1 | 1 | 2 | McCormick- RS/LS | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | |
| –Guy | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | Haile – DH | 4 | 2 | 0 | — | |
| Lowery | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | –Thayer – DH | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | |
| –Lee | 2 | 1 | 0 | 2 | Yee – DF – 1B/3B | — | — | — | 1 | |
| Lombardo | 4 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Dias – MF/RS | 5 | 4 | 0 | 2 | |
| Popillion | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | S. Cantan – R/MF | 4 | 1 | 3 | 0 | |
| Stephens | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | – Sajjad – 3B | — | — | — | 0 | |
| –S. Brown | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – Hoyt – 1B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Akin | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Zucarello – LS | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | |
| — E. Brown | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | – Quintanilla – 1B/MF | 3 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| Sajjad – 3B | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| – Ward – R | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 23 | 5 | 9 | 7 | Totals | 30 | 15 | 8 | 9 | |
| Pitcher – L. Woodard | Pitcher- Cochran | 30 | 15 | 8 | ||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller – Dickerson |
The World Series started off for the Renegades against a new team that was a spin off from the Indy thunder. This team was comprised of players from the Thunder and the Wichita Sonics, who were not at the series this year. On the mound was first year pitcher, Lindsay Woodard. Right from the start, things started well for the Renegades as Indy went down 1-2-3 with two weak grounders hit to Guy Zuccarello. Boston batted around in the first highlighted by bombs off the bats of Rob Dias and Joe McCormick (in his 2nd at bat of the inning). Boston had a milestone in this inning as Guy Zuccarello scored (after hitting Ron in the arm on the first pitch). His grounder up the middle resulted in his 100th run of his career. At this point in history he is one of just seven players with 100 Renegade runs. Guy would not have much time to celebrate. In the second inning, Indy got on the board with runs by Eddie Brown and Cleo Stephens. During this inning Guy made the final out on defense off the bat of Dan Lowery but he took the ball off the face and came back to the bench bleeding from his nose and lip. The bats of Boston would be too much as the Renegades batted around again in the 2nd inning with Dias, Zuccarello (with gauze shoved up his nose), McCormick and Larry Haile all plating runs on bombs hit into the outfield. The booming bats for Boston gave trouble to Indy as both Eddie Brown and Cleo Stephens left the game with injuries in this inning. Guy would exit the game as a precaution to get the bleeding to stop. In the 4th inning, with a comfortable 12-4 lead, Joe Quintanilla and JJ ward would plate back to back runs. Two veterans who have been with the team for years and had battled injuries all season (Quintanilla an elbow and Ward three broken toes) would score their first runs of the year. Melissa Hoyt would also see action in this game as she got in for the 5th and 6th innings. She became the first female player to play in a World Series game for the Renegades since Kae Rausch played in 2007. Boston Would Roll as Rob Dias would score 4 runs in this match (his first career 4 run game). This offensive game would rank 3rd in team history for runs score (19), batting average of .500 (ranking 13th) and the 10 run differential was the 5th biggest margin of victory in history. Little did the league know…the Boston bats would be a force this week.
Game #8 Arizona is pummeled by a phenomenal Renegade offense 15-5
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Boston | 9 | 3 | 3 | x | x | x | 15 | 3 | 8 | |
| Arizona | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 6 |
| Boston | AB | R | K | PO | Arizona | AB | R | K | PO | |
| McCormick – RS | 3 | 3 | 0 | 1 | Padilla | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| – Quintanilla – R/MF | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Trejo | 4 | 0 | 1 | 5 | |
| Haile – 1B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | C. Lazcano | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| – Syphers – 1B | — | — | — | 0 | Logan | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| Dias – MF | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Boylan – DH | 4 | 0 | 2 | — | |
| – Ward – RS | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | Scholz – DF | — | — | — | 0 | |
| S. Cantan – R/3B | 4 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Griswald | 4 | 2 | 2 | 1 | |
| -Yee – 3B | — | — | — | 2 | ||||||
| Zuccarello – LS | 4 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Yee – DH | 2 | 1 | 0 | — | ||||||
| – Thayer – DH | 2 | 0 | 0 | — | ||||||
| Sajjad – DF/3B | — | — | — | 0 | ||||||
| – Hoyt DF/R | — | — | — | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 24 | 15 | 3 | 8 | Totals | 24 | 6 | 10 | 6 | |
| Pitcher- Cochran | 24 | 15 | 3 | Pitcher- Trejo | 20 | 6 | 9 | |||
| Catcher- Weissman | Pitcher – D. Lazcano | 4 | 0 | 1 | ||||||
| LS Caller- Lenicheck | ||||||||||
| RS Caller – Dickerson |
Game 2 of the World Series pit the Renegades up against a second team that broke off from their parent organization. This Arizona team had 6 of the 7 players who would play in this game appear against the Renegades with the Southwest Slammers in the 2014 season. It was a new team, with familiar faces. Boston would lose the coin toss and be the visiting team and this would start something big in Renegade history. Joe McCormick would lead off the game with a blast Into left field. Larry Haile would then be stopped on a grounder to third. Rob Dias would loft a weak fly ball up the middle and score. Shayne Cantan would then lift a fly ball to the right side with spin to score the 3rd run. Guy Zucarello would then score as would Joe Yee on a line drive up the middle. McCormick would plate his second run on a bomb up the middle. Larry would strike out for his second out of the inning. Dias and Cantan would plate runs on fly balls to the middle of the field and Guy Zuccarello would plate the final run of the inning on a laser up the middle. When the dust settled, Boston had plated 9 runs. An achievement they last did at home against New Jersey earlier in the year. In the third inning, JJ Ward came off the bench to play and hit a hard shot to the left side. Pete Trejo raced after the ball, dove and the ball landed square in his baseball glove as the Renegade coaches looked on with awe. Not many players even play with a glove. Without that glove, JJ likely would have scored…but this was one of two web gems of the day. After three innings the Renegades invoked the 12 run rule with a commanding 15-2 lead. This new team looked very bad on defense with huge holes left uncovered…but their swing were big and mighty. In time, they could have a very good offensive team. As we entered the 12 run rule part of the game, the Renegades would finish the game playing three straight innings of defense. A few highlights happened here. In the Zona 5th inning, Jen Boylan stepped to the plate 0 for 2 with 2 strike outs and she hit a ball weakly down the right side of the field and took off for first base. At about 40 feet into her sprint she plowed into and over the umpire knocking the umpire on his ass. That would not deter Jen as she may not have been officially ruled down by football standards and kept chugging. Sadly she was stopped. Since the umpire is part of the field of play, she was allowed a do over and she was stopped by JJ Ward. To see her plow this umpire over and keep going showed grit, determination and power! Later in this inning, Pete Trejo stepped to the plate 0-3 on the day and laced a low line drive to Guy Zuccarello. As guy was shuffling to his left…the ball hit him on the fly and kicked to his right. Joe Yee was playing third base and quickly stopped and pivoted to run in the opposite direction for an amazing web gem from the Renegades. When this game was over, JJ Ward played a few solid innings for Boston at Right Shorty picking up 3 stops on defense, his first of the year and this would give him confidence to chip in for the rest of the series.
Game #9 Renegades light up the Lightning and clinch team’s second one seed in World Series history, winning 10-2
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Boston | 1 | 4 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 10 | 8 | 7 | |
| NJ Lightning | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 11 | 10 |
| Boston | AB | R | K | PO | NJ Lightning | AB | R | K | PO | |
| McCormick – LS | 3 | 2 | 0 | 2 | Washington | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| – Zuccarello – LS | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | Duran – DH | 4 | 0 | 1 | — | |
| Haile – DH | 3 | 1 | 1 | — | Allen – DF | — | — | — | 0 | |
| Sajjad – DF/MF | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | – Wright – DF | — | — | — | 1 | |
| – Dias – MF | — | — | — | 0 | Winthrop | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Quintanilla – R | 4 | 1 | 2 | 0 | Merrill | 3 | 0 | 3 | 2 | |
| – Thayer – R | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | Foster | 3 | 0 | 3 | 1 | |
| Yee – 3B | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | Bahn | 3 | 0 | 2 | 4 | |
| -S. Cantan – 3B | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Ward – RS | 4 | 2 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| Syphers -1B | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| – Hoyt -1B | — | — | — | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 28 | 10 | 8 | 7 | Totals | 20 | 2 | 11 | 10 | |
| Pitcher- Cochran | 24 | 15 | 3 | Pitcher- Barrett | ||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller -Lenicheck |
Boston would close out day one of the World Series against a known foe, the New Jersey Lightning. The third consecutive team impacted by a mutiny…but this time, many of the players left the Lightning to form the New Jersey Titans. Since Boston finished off Arizona quickly, we were left waiting for the NJ/ Knights game to end as that game went extra innings and the Knights eked out a 4-3 win. Due to the length of this game and the distance to the concessions stand, we had an excruciating wait before our game could start. When the teams finally began to get ready, the key difference was the Lightning pitcher was Kevin Barrett of the Cleveland Scrappers. This would likely mean more offense from New Jersey than in the past two meetings. We had also learned their defensive whiz kid, Casey Bahn had spent the night in the hospital due to hydration issues. With the familiarity of the Lightning, Weissman trotted out a new line up with the goal to rest some bodies. Joe Quintanilla, JJ Ward and Tim Syphers would all get their first starts of the season in the lineup. This game would not start like the previous ones as the Renegades needed to shake off the long break and the rust that went with it. McCormick was able to score to lead off the game but then the Renegades would have not one but two huge base running blunders by Joe Quintanilla who ran to the wrong base before correcting himself and was put out by a step. The big boner of the World Series occurred with Joe Yee at the plate. With three strikes he hit a weak ball up the middle and took a step to the wrong base as well…but the difference is he never ran to the right base. Instead he stood at home plate. The sad thing was the defense stopped pursuing the ball..as both teams sat in silence and the coaches agonized because they could not say anything. In the end, Casey Bahn picked up the ball and Yee was out. Weissman was livid because players are taught to run everything out. Apparently Yee thought he heard “foul” from the Renegade bench. So as the Renegades took the field in the bottom of the first, they should have had at least three runs. Then something happened that had not happened all year…New Jersey took the lead with run scoring hits by Sherlock Washington and Doug Winthrop. The Boston bats would put it away in the next inning as they were able to stop the mental mistakes and built a 5-2 lead. With one out in the bottom of the second, Joe Yee was involved in another crazy play. This time, Sherlock Washington hit a shot that ricocheted off Joe McCormick who was playing in the left shorty spot…but the ball changed direction toward the middle of the field. Again, Yee stopped on a dime and reversed direction to make the stop…for the web gem of the game! In the third inning, Tim Syphers delivered the first run of his 2015 campaign with a fly ball up the middle as the team erupted for him. Lastly, a highlight for the Renegades here was Aqil Sajjad had been struggling with his swing and some hard work during the break paid off as he was able to put two balls in play and score a run in the 6th inning to give the Renegades their tenth run of the game. For just the second time in history, Boston would end day one as the number one seed. The only other time that had happened was in 2011. The team was stoked, well rested and the injuries were healing well. Christian Thaxton had spent the day as the on deck circle man. He was itching to get in the games..but was held back due to a hip flexor strain he suffered at practice just a few days ago. His training wheels would come off soon. For the Renegades, they would say goodbye to coach, Jason Lenicheck after this game. He bailed us out and provided a driver for the World Series. He also gave Bryan Grillo and Jamie Dickerson a game off from calling in the field on the first day. His contribution was immense and he was missed the rest of the week. We are just fortunate to have amazing volunteers like Ace who has been with the team since 2004.
Game #10 Renegades Trounce the Tigers and set team record winning 16-6
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Boston | 16 | x | x | x | x | x | 16 | 2 | 8 | |
| Tyler | 2 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 10 | 1 |
| Boston | AB | R | K | PO | Tyler | AB | R | K | PO | |
| McCormick – RS | 4 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Floyd – DH | 4 | 1 | 2 | — | |
| Haile – 1B | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | R. Reed – DF | — | — | — | 0 | |
| Dias – MF | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Jordan | 4 | 2 | 0 | 0 | |
| – Thaxton – PH | 2 | 2 | 0 | — | Ingram | 4 | 1 | 2 | 1 | |
| – Yee – 3B | — | — | — | 2 | Gainey | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| S. Cantan – R | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | Artis | 4 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| Zuccarello – LS | 3 | 3 | 0 | 2 | L. Reed | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | |
| Syphers – DH | 2 | 2 | 0 | — | ||||||
| Sajjad – DF/3B/MF | — | — | — | 0 | ||||||
| – Thayer – DH | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | ||||||
| Totals | 19 | 16 | 2 | 8 | Totals | 24 | 6 | 10 | 1 | |
| Pitcher- Cochran | 19 | 16 | 2 | Pitcher- Haskett | ||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller -Dickerson |
The night before this game, Coach Rob sat with the defensive team and asked why they were struggling so much. We knew the harder competition was coming and we truly needed to sure the defense up. The fields were hard, fast and often times not even. The result of the meeting was if we beat Tyler, we would stay on the field afterwards to take defense practice to prepare for the next day. Since Boston was the one seed, it got a bye while Tyler had to play Columbus in the morning game which they won by a low score of 6-1. In a rare moment, the Renegades actually won the coin toss and took the home field. This would be the game that Chrsitain Thaxton would have the training wheels take off as we needed him to get some at bats before the tough opponents showed up on the schedule. No knock on Tyler, as they have been an up and coming team and had won 3 of 4 games to this point with wins over the NJ Titans, Canada and Columbus. Their lead off hitter, Derrick Floyd amazed the Renegades as he stood at 6 feet 8 inches tall and dwarfed every player on our roster. He also scored on the first at bat of the game and Ron Jordan plated a run to go back-to-back for Tyler. This was not the way, the Renegades needed to sure up their defense. As the game was being played a tractor was cutting and bailing hay in a neighboring field which slowed the game down…though later in the match, the Renegades defense would choose to play through the noise. The story of this game was the bottom of the first inning, which set many Renegade records. Joe McCormick led off the match and hit the second pitch for a weak pop fly down the third base side that landed at about 70 feet for a score. Larry Haile on a full count hit a weak grounder to the 3rd base line that barely rolled out past the 40 foot arc for a score. Rob Dias then hit the best ball of the inning that may have traveled near 100 feet to the left side and scored. If this weak start was not enough, Shayne Cantan then hit a ball off the end of his bat that spun like it was hit with side spin from a pool table. Since the field was fast, the ball landed at about 40.1 feet for the 4th run of the inning. Guy Zucarello strode to the plate and on the second pitch hit a weak grounder up the middle that looked like an out…but Jason Gainey overplayed his position and just as Larry Reed was going to make the play, Gainey crashed into him and Guy scored the 5th run of the inning. Then Tim Syphers came up and hit a ball to the right side which the defense stood around looking for because Tim hit it hard enough that he hit most of the beep out of the ball…and the ball went speaker down into the grass..and nobody could hear it. The first six batters scored on all junk. So we turned the order over and McCormick scored on a pop up to the left side…this one struck better than the first. Larry also scored on a nice drive to left to make the score 8-2. Rob Dias strode to the plate and on a foul ball he came back limping to home plate with what looked to be the first serious injury of the week. Rob is one tough character but with an 8-2 lead and no outs, there was no reason to force him to play. Off the bench came rookie, Christian Thaxton with a 1 strike count. He calmly worked it to a three strike count and then laced a shot to deep left field where he was instructed to not run 100% due to his hip flexor. The team erupted and the score was 9-0. Shayne Cantan then hit a bomb down the third base line to make it 10-0. Guy Zucarello plated a run on a grounder up the middle and Tim Syphers scored his second run of the game…his first ever multi run game and the score was 12-0 and nobody was out. Mccormick and Haile would both plate their third runs of the inning. Thaxton would hit a ball harder and longer than the first one he hit and we had scored 15 consecutive runs. Joe Mccormick had a chance to score 4 runs in an inning but he struck out. When the dust settled and after more than an hour…the Renegades invoked the 12 run rule and were up 16-2. Coach Weissman decided this would be where the team got its defensive practice and left the starters on the field for the most part for the rest of the game. The defense had some gems and some help. Larry Haile made a nice play running toward the line and not giving up on a ball where a Tyler base runner missed the base. The web gem of the game was in the 3rd inning when John Ingram lined a shot off Joe McCormick’s chest and Mac made every attempt to cradle and catch the ball…to no avail. In the end, Boston won a big game which meant they were done for the day and could rest. They set some team records in this game including, 16 runs in an inning (most ever in an inning), a team .842 batting average (surpassing .684 vs Stockton in 2007) and the fist time the Renegades had ever 12-runned a team three times in a season. This win over Tyler was the 6th in a row in this rivalry. Tyler was the first team the Renegades ever beat in 2002. Boston would rest up as their morning opponent would be the Colorado Storm, a team that finished third in 2014 and a team whom the Renegades have not had a lot of success against. The team would have to see how Rob Dias was feeling and if Christian’s hip would be good after playing today.
Game #11 Storm halt Renegades 13 game winning streak in walk off fashion 17-16
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Boston | 0 | 4 | 0 | 6 | 4 | 2 | 16 | 7 | 11 | |
| Colorado | 8 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 17 | 4 | 11 |
| Boston | AB | R | K | PO | Colorado | AB | R | K | PO | |
| McCormick – RS | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | Johnston | 6 | 4 | 1 | 7 | |
| Haile -1B | 6 | 3 | 0 | 0 | Biggins | 6 | 4 | 0 | 3 | |
| Thaxton – DH | 6 | 4 | 1 | — | Morrow | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Yee – DF/3B | — | — | — | 2 | – Jackson | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| S. Cantan – R | 6 | 2 | 3 | 0 | Krussell – DH | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Dias – MF | 5 | 2 | 0 | 3 | Parker – DF | — | — | — | 1 | |
| Zuccarello- LS | 5 | 3 | 0 | 5 | Lyles | 5 | 3 | 0 | 0 | |
| Malloy | 5 | 2 | 1 | — | ||||||
| Totals | 34 | 16 | 7 | 11 | Totals | 32 | 17 | 4 | 11 | |
| Pitcher- Cochran | 34 | 16 | 7 | Pitcher- Walker | ||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller -Dickerson |
The game the Renegades would be looking forward to. They had beaten their first four opponents by the combined score of 56-18 including two 12-run rule wins. The day would start with some question marks that started at the hotel. Coach Weissman was running late for batting practice and in his haste of getting out of the parking garage would slam the front end of his rental van into the wall of the garage. Thankfully, nobody was hurt and the Cochran family was in town to watch the games…so he hitched a ride and showed up late for batting practice. Rob Dias was a question mark with his health and injury. Dias was limping through warm-ups but it would take more than this to keep him out of this game. Colorado was the three seed in this tourney and were also 4-0 on the week with wins over the Taiwan Lightning (17-5), Columbus Midnight stars (14-7), Indy Thunder (9-8) and the Southwest Slammer (14-5). Boston would lose the coin toss and Joe McCormick, Larry Haile and Christian Thaxton would go down 1-2-3 to start the game. All hell would soon break out as the bats from Colorado would do some serious damage. Ethan Johnston would start the game blasting a line drive up the middle past the hands of Rob Dias. Doug Biggins would hit a line drive into left field for the 2nd run. Guy Zuccarello would make a stop on a weak hit ball down the 3rd base line for the first out and then Joe Yee would settle into make a nice play on a hit to 3rd base by Rich Krussell and things were looking up for the Renegades. Steve Lyles would then step up and hit a lazy fly ball up the middle of the field that Rob Dias could not coral and then things just got bad as Rookie Mike Malloy would then score on a pop-up near Guy Zuccarello to turn over the order. Johnston stepped to the plate and blasted a bomb by everyone into deep left field. Biggins scored his 2nd run on a ball hit past Rob Dias on the right side of the field and then the back breaker of them all was Demetrius Morrow hitting a bomb into left field. The kicker here was Larry Haile was in a shift and was playing right on the ball. Both he and Joe Yee missed it for the 7th run of the inning. Russell would score another run before Dias stopped the bleeding. After one inning Colorado had put up 8 runs on the Boston defense. Shayne Cantan got the Renegades on the board in the top of the second with a fly ball up the middle of the field. Zuccarello also plated a run with a line drive to the right side to turn the order over as Joe McCormick and Christian Thaxton settled in and each scored. Guy Zuccarello looked good in the 2nd inning on defense as he made two stops against just one run from the bat of Ethan Johnston. When the inning was over it was 9-4 and the Renegades had started to get back into the game. The mojo stopped as Dias and Zuccarello would hit weak shots to Ethan Johnston and Joe McCormick struck out. Colorado’s bats would score three times in the 3rd but two of them were on junk that Guy and Rob Dias could not get in time. The score was 12-4 after three frames. The Renegades were waking up and Larry Haile would get on the board to lead off the 4th with a line shot into left field. Thaxton followed this with a more impressive blast into left field, Shayne Cantan hit a towering pop fly into left and Rob Dias followed suit with a hard hit fly ball into left field. Guy Zucarello changed the theme and then scored on a hard grounder to the right side for 5 consecutive runs and nobody out. What became worrisome was that Joe McCormick started to see some changes to his swing and he struck out for a second time. In frustration, McCormick threw his bat to the ground which was to close to the head umpire, John Lykowski and McCormick was warned for his conduct (he later apologized). a Scarier moment would come next as Christian Thaxton came to the plate and hit a hard line drive to the left side and took off down third base. The ball ricochet off Ethan Jonshton who chased after it into foul territory and these two speedsters collided in an ugly collision. Since Thaxton was starting his first game of the World Series, there was concern about his hip. He was fine. Johnston, whom had scored three times took the worst of it as he was hit in the head and shoulder. After a few minutes he rose to his feet and went back to the field. Colorado would tack 2 more runs on in the 4th, but the Renegade defense was settling in as Rob Dias and Joe Yee made nice stops. Boston had pulled the game within 4 runs and trailed 14-10. In the top of the 5th Rob Dias scored on a grounder to left field. Zuccarello plated a run on a line drive to 2nd base but then Joe McCormick came up and continued to struggle as he had swung and missed on 10 straight pitches after tearing the cover off the ball in the previous 4 games. Larry Haile and Christian Thaxton would then plate runs and tie the game at 14-14 as Boston had fought back from an 8 run deficit. In the 5th, Colorado would score on two more chump runs as Rich Krussel and Stevie Lyles beat Joe McCormick and Larry Haile and pushed the score to 16-14. During this time, Coach Weissman was looking hard at McCormicks swing on video and he found something that would help. This was discussed with hitting coach, Mike Marciello. Heading into the 6th inning, Guy Zuccarello hit a nice line drive into left field but Doug Biggins slid to make the stop. As the play unfolded, Weissman looked to the bench and asked when Demtrious Morrow was put back into the game. Play was stopped and the Renegades found out that Morrow was entered illegally by not notifying the score keeper. Weissman urged the umpires to make that run count since Morrow was in the game illegally. After a long delay it was decided that since Morrow was not involved in the play, the out would stand because the rule was not stated in the NBBA rule book. After a long delay, up stepped Joe McCormick who had been taking pointers from Marciello. On the first pitch, he blasted it into left field and the Renegades went crazy as Weissman was fired up and screaming “UBERSENSE!” Larry Haile then drove a line drive up the middle to make it 16-16. Christian Thaxton who had scored 4 straight runs in this game strode to the plate and on the 1st pitch hit a ball off the bottom of the bat which Ethan Johnston stopped and then Shayne Cantan struck out on 4 pitches…but the Renegades had come back 16-16. Doug Biggins came to the plate and was 3-5 on the day and hit a grounder to the 1st base side. Larry Haile moved to and it kicked off him as Biggins scored in walk off-fashion. Boston had their first loss of the World Series and had a 13 game win streak stopped. Boston had not let up this many runs in a game since 2012 when Colorado scored 22 and Chicago scored 31 times. BUT this was the 2nd time they had scored 16 runs this week which was one of their biggest out-puts in team history (most was 21 against Chicago in 2012). Since this game took a long time, the Indy Knights were awaiting the Renegades on a field far across the park. As the Storm would next face the RHI Extreme.
Game #12 Renegades 12-run third team of the World Series rolling over Knights 19-10
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Boston | 3 | 8 | 8 | x | x | x | 19 | 3 | 10 | |
| Knights | 1 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 10 | 5 | 6 |
| Boston | AB | R | K | PO | Indy Knights | AB | R | K | PO | |
| McCormick – RS/LS | 5 | 3 | 2 | 2 | E. Brown | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| Thaxton – DH/1B | 5 | 4 | 0 | 0 | – Lee | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | |
| Dias – DF/MF | — | — | — | 2 | Lowery | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| Haile – 1B | 4 | 3 | 0 | 0 | – Stephens | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| – Syphers – PH | 1 | 1 | 0 | — | Lombardo | 4 | 4 | 0 | 1 | |
| – Sajjad – 1B/MF | — | — | — | 1 | Popillion | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Zuccarello- LS | 5 | 3 | 1 | 0 | Guy | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | |
| – Ward – RS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | – Stephens | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Quintanilla – R | 4 | 2 | 0 | 2 | Akin | 4 | 2 | 2 | 3 | |
| S. Cantan – 3B | 4 | 3 | 0 | 2 | ||||||
| – Yee – 3B | — | — | — | 0 | ||||||
| Totals | 28 | 19 | 3 | 10 | Totals | 25 | 10 | 5 | 6 | |
| Pitcher- Cochran | 28 | 19 | 3 | Pitcher- L. Woodard | ||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller -Dickerson |
Following the loss to Colorado, the Renegades huddled and were reminded they were still alive for the championship as they only had one loss. They were told to keep their heads up and forge forward. As they packed up their equipment, they were forced to head to the other side of the complex where the Renegades would face off against the Indy Knights for a 2nd time. The Knights had played well since they played the Renegades as they had beaten NJ (4-3), Arizona (11-5), Columbus (15-14) and Atlanta (10-2). They seemed cocky as we arrived at the field when Pitcher, Ron Cochran asked Lindsay Woodard, how they had done and she replied, “you will soon see what we can do”. Ron chuckled and brought this banter to the bench as bulletin board material. Joe McCormick would lead off this game and his struggles would continue as he would foul off just one pitch and go down swinging. More work was to be done to his swing and he would soon become a project for Coach Rob and Mike to help him set up his arms consistently. Christian Thaxton moved up to 2nd in the order and scored followed by run scoring hits by Larry Haile and Guy Zuccarello in the first to give Boston a 3-0 cushion to start. This line-up had some changes to it as Joe Quintanilla was making a start and batting 5th, Shayne Cantan was starting at 3rd base and batting 6th while Rob Dias was moved to a Designated fielder. Dias was still limping and the overall feeling was we would need him to stay loose. We feared if he tightened up he would be lost for the day. The Renegade defense looked more relaxed to start this game as Rob Dias and Joe Quintanilla made stops to start off the game before John Lombardo put the Knights on the board. After one inning Boston was up 3-1. It would be over from here. In the 2nd inning Boston would go off in record setting fashion. Joe McCormick would lead off and score on a line drive into left field (2 pitches), Christian Thaxton would score on a hard ground ball (1 pitch), Larry Haile would hit the 1st pitch in the air to 3rd base before Guy Zuccarello would battle (hitting the pitcher on one pitch) and strike out. Joe Quintanilla would score on a grounder up the middle (1 pitch), Shayne Cantan would score on a high fly ball to the left side (1 pitch). Joe McCormick then came to the plate and on the 3rd pitch hit a grounder to the left side for his 2nd run of the inning. Thaxton would score on 1 pitch to the right side and Guy Zuccarello would hit a hard grounder to the right side. When the inning was over Boston would send 11 batters to the plate and score 8 times. Ron Cochran threw just 20 pitches which the Renegades offered swings at (there were 2 takes) and only 3 of them were swings and misses (all by Zuccarello). One of the top run scoring innings in Renegade history (though they had scored 16 the prior day against Tyler and 9 against Arizona on day one of the World Series). In the Bottom of the 2nd, the Knights would impress by putting the ball into play. The Renegades defense struggled mightily as Joe Mccormick and Guy Zuccarello failed on 4 different hits and the Knights plated 5 runs to make the score 11-6. The Boston bats did it again in the 3rd inning sending 11 batters to the plate and scoring another 8 runs. For the 2nd consecutive inning every batter would score at least one run with Shayne Cantan plating a pair in this frame. Another highlight of the inning was Tim Syphers coming off the bench and scoring a run. When the dust settled, Christian Thaxton had his 2nd career 4-run game, Joe McCormick battled his swing and finished 3-5 with 2 strike outs. Larry Haile, Guy Zuccarello and Shayne Cantan all plated 3 runs with Joe Quintanilla plating a pair of his own. The 12-run rule was in effect with the Renegades leading 19-6. Guy Zuccarello was taken out of the game at this point because he was having a hard time with his ears on this field as he had missed 5 chances in this game. It’s funny to hear this as the former defensive MVP was more valuable with his bat (hitting .619 at this point in the World Series) John Lombardo would score a run in the 3rd inning and then something happened unprecedented in Renegade history. The official scorekeeper claimed it was the 5th inning. Ron Cochran called time and tried to explain to the umpire that it was actually only the 4th inning and the Knights should not be penalized. The Renegade coach was actually fighting for the Knights but to no avail. The umpire and scorekeeper called it the 5th inning as the scorekeeper refused to count her outs on the score sheet. Boston would get a lot of players into this game and the final out of the game was made by JJ ward as the Renegades rolled 19-10 and eliminated the Knights from double elimination. After the game, the scorekeeper was baffled as to why the Knights only had 15 outs.
Game #13 Renegades set team record for most runs scored in a game and defeat Indy Thunder 22-12
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Boston | 3 | 3 | 2 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 22 | 8 | 8 | |
| Indy thunder | 2 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 12 | 10 | 10 |
| Boston | AB | R | K | PO | Indy Thunder | AB | R | K | PO | |
| Thaxton – DH | 7 | 5 | 1 | — | White | 4 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Yee – DF/3B | — | — | — | 1 | – T. Rodriguez | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
| Haile – 1B | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | E. Rodriguez | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 | |
| – Sajjad – 1B | — | — | — | 0 | Boggs – DH | 3 | 0 | 1 | — | |
| – Syphers – PH | 2 | 2 | 0 | — | – Arbogast – DH | 2 | 2 | 0 | — | |
| McCormick – RS | 6 | 4 | 1 | 2 | Telo – DF | — | — | — | 6 | |
| – Ward – RS | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | T. Rodriguez | 3 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Dias – MF | 6 | 4 | 1 | 1 | – Stringer | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| – Thayer – PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | Harris | 4 | 0 | 4 | 0 | |
| – S. Cantan – MF | — | — | — | 0 | – Boggs | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| S. Cantan – R | 4 | 0 | 2 | 0 | Gregory | 5 | 1 | 2 | 0 | |
| – Quintanilla – R | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Zuccarello – LS | 6 | 3 | 1 | 3 | ||||||
| Totals | 40 | 22 | 8 | 8 | Totals | 30 | 12 | 10 | 10 | |
| Pitcher- Cochran | 40 | 22 | 8 | Pitcher- Booker | ||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller -Dickerson |
In NBBA form, the Renegades were forced to change fields for the third time that day while the lower ranked Indy Thunder camped on one field all day long. The Indy Thunder were having an amazing season but they had a brutal schedule and this would be their 9th game in 3 days. They had played 3 games on each of the first three days of the Series (compared to just the 7th for the Renegades). They had gone 2-1 in pool play beating Columbus 9-0, the Taiwan Lightning 13-7 before losing in heart-break fashion to the Colorado Storm 9-8. On day 2, Indy beat the BCS Outlaws 18-5 before losing to the Taiwan Home Run 18-15 and then defeated Long Island 10-4. On this day they had won both their matches beating the NJ Titans 15-4 and the Minnesota Millers 11-10. The winner of this game would advance and secure a top 6 seed. The loser would play in the 7/8 game on Friday. A lot would be on the line and both teams were tired. The Boston injury front looked better than Indy as just Rob Dias had suffered a new injury this week. The Renegades would have the most respect for the Indy Thunder as some of their scores were very close against top teams. The line-up would go through another tweak and Christian Thaxton would be moved to the lead-off spot. Boston would lose another coin toss and start off as the visiting team. The bombs would start right out of the gate as the Renegades bats stayed on fire as Thaxton lined a shot up the middle, Larry Haile hit a fly ball up the middle and Joe McCormick hit a line drive up the middle on the 1st three pitches of the game where every ball rolled near or well past the 170 feet mark. In fact, all 6 batters would put the ball in play for the Renegades on just 9 pitches for the inning. To start off the game for the Thunder, Corey White would lead off for Indy and controversy would start on the very first at-bat as the umpire called a ball foul that had cleared the 40 foot line which Joe McCormick had picked up. After the umpire refused to change her call, Darnell Booker, the Thunder pitcher, in a moment of great sportsmanship convinced the umpire the wrong call had been made and the out was awarded to the Renegades defense. This would be a common theme for much of the early parts of the game where calls seemed to baffle the renegades. In the bottom of the first, the Thunder would score a pair of runs as the Rodriguez brothers (both teenagers) continued to haunt the Gades, each scoring in the first frame. In the 2nd, Haile and McCormick hit more bombs and Rob Dias scored on a grounder to push the score to 6 runs. In the bottom of the frame, Guy Zucarello and Joe Yee each made stops on defense and just Corey White scored as Boston led 6-3. A comical moment happened in the 3rd inning as Joe McCormick popped up a ball to the right side and ran toward first base yelling “No base” as the base had gone out during his run to the base. He was able to find the base without it beeping but had been put out as he struggled to locate the base. He did receive a new count and scored on a bomb up the center of the field. The Boston bats would remain hot with 5 of the 6 starters scoring runs in this game. As the Boston bats banged hard, many of the Indy players were coming up limping as Tyler Rodriguez, Corey White, Jordy Stringer and Miguel Tello all needed time for injuries during the game. The worst looking injury occurred to Miguel Tello who was playing third base in the 5th inning when Joe McCormick hit a smash to left field but the ball had stopped beeping. On the very next pitch, he hammered a shot right at Tello and Tello put him out but in the process the ball hit him square in the nuts. Tello could barely stand after this play as he was clearly not wearing a cup..but he did hold on for the out. Coach Marciello joked that it was the first time he had seen three balls broken in an at-bat. The inning would proceed with Rob Dias and Shayne Cantan striking out back-to-back and the Renegades put up a donut in the 5th inning. For the first time since the 1st inning against Colorado they had not scored in an inning. Indy would plate a pair in the 5th and pull within 5 runs at 14-9. Boston was well aware of Booker’s capability to bring a team back. The 6th inning would put the nail in the coffin as the Renegades looked for insurance. They got it in the form of 8 runs as Thaxton, Tim Syphers and Guy Zuccarello all plated a pair of runs with Rob Dias and Joe Quintanilla pitching in one run each. Boston would have enough cushion 22-9 that they could afford to let up a few runs in the bottom of the 6th. When this game ended both teams were exhausted and it was close to 8:00 at night. Combine the high scoring affair with the fast fields and the fact Boston hit bombs all over the field that rolled over 170 feet caused major delays to the pace of this game. These bombs were coming from everyone in the line-up including players like JJ Ward, Joe Quintanilla and Tim Syphers whom had come of the bench to contribute at the plate. One highlight that many of the Renegades will recall was in the middle of the game, Christian Thaxton hit a laser over everyones heads and laughed as he ran down the third base line by his bench. The laugh was not in any meant to be disrespectful to the Thunder..it was merely Thaxton having fun with his new sport that he had just started playing in June. He had known that he had laid into the ball as well as he could. Thaxton would become just the 5th Renegade to score 5 runs in a game as it was just the 6th time in history a Renegade had scored this many runs and the first time since Joe McCormick and Larry Haile did it against the Cleveland Scrappers in 2012. Joe McCormick would work hard with his coaching staff to be consistent in his stance and would plate 4 runs while Rob Dias battled through injuries all day also plated 4 runs to pace the Renegade offense. Defensively, the team continued to struggle but 5 different Renegades made stops led by Guy Zuccarello making three stops on the left side. For the 2nd year in a row, the Renegades would still be alive on Friday of the World Series!
Game #14 Bayou City Brings the heat and knocks out the Renegades…AGAIN 27-15
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Bayou City | 5 | 2 | 2 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 27 | 9 | 7 | |
| Boston | 5 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 15 | 8 | 9 |
| Bayou City | AB | R | K | PO | Boston | AB | R | K | PO | |
| Gers – DH | 8 | 7 | 0 | — | Thaxton – DH | 6 | 4 | 0 | — | |
| Gontaryk – DF | — | — | — | 2 | Yee – DF/3B | — | — | — | 4 | |
| – Rodriguez – DF | — | — | — | 1 | Haile – 1B | 6 | 2 | 3 | 1 | |
| Kibodeaux | 8 | 5 | 1 | 2 | McCormick – RS | 6 | 4 | 2 | 4 | |
| Minor | 8 | 4 | 3 | 1 | Dias – MF | 5 | 2 | 1 | 4 | |
| Boudreaux | 7 | 5 | 0 | 3 | S. Cantan – R | 4 | 0 | 1 | 1 | |
| Clark | 7 | 5 | 0 | 0 | – Quintanilla – R | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | |
| Walters | 7 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Zuccarello – LS | 5 | 2 | 1 | 0 | |
| Totals | 45 | 27 | 4 | 10 | Totals | 33 | 15 | 8 | 14 | |
| Pitcher – Medrano | Pitcher- Cochran | 33 | 15 | 8 | ||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller – Dickerson |
After a very long Thursday, The team got back to the hotel after 8:00 and we had Pizza delivered and sat on the floor of the hotel. Not a luxurious way to do things..but we needed to get rest as the Bayou City Heat awaited us on Friday Morning. The Renegades wanted a chance at redemption from what the Heat did to us on 2014. To recap that, the Gades held an 8-2 lead and ended up losing by a run to get knocked out of the World Series. Bayou City also accused Guy Zucarello of cheating and patched him. So there was some anxiety about this issue as well. Redemption, Revenge and the chance to show them we had made some adjustments since they saw us last. Well when the line-ups were turned in, The Renegades had two guys in the line-up whom were not there in 2014 in Christian Thaxton and Shayne Cantan. Bayou it had two as well in Greg Gontaryk and John Kebedeaux,. But in this match they also made sure to have all their big bats in the line up as Boudreux (did not start in 2014 and was injured) and Clark both started out of the line-up. This was going to be a tough match for sure. Bayou City had only one loss on the week, losing to Austin (the eventual champs 21-13). The team that could play better defense was sure to win this match, at least thats is what we thought. the Bayou City pitcher, Fonzi Medrano had other plans. Bayou City started off fast scoring 5 times in the top of the first inning with Tanner Gers scoring a pair. Boston would fight back and score three runs in the bottom of the inning to keep it close. Excitement was in the air. In the second, Rob Dias and Joe Yee made some stops and Bayou City only scored a pair..as Boston won the inning by having the same exact three players score again- Thaxton, McCormick and Dias Plus Zucarello got on the board for the first time and the score was Bayou City 7 and Boston 7. The third inning was big for Rob Dias as he made two more stops on defense and with the help of Joe McCormick, the Renegade defense held the Heat to only 2 runs again. Only Joe McCormick would score in the Renegade 3rd and the score stood at 9-7. But during this time Ron got into trouble with head umpire, Kemp. The Renegades were arguing that on multiple plays the Bayou City heat did not have possession of the ball and that the player had it pinned to their body before they got it “up”. Kemp disagreed and Ron had some choice words as he walked back to the bench and was officially warned for his conduct. The Bayou City bats caught fire in the 4th inning and they plated 6 runs as Tanner Gers and John Kebedeux each scored a pair in the inning. In the bottom of the Fourth, Larry Haile finally got started as he scored the third run of the inning and as he scored he jumped up and down yelling “Im back…I’m back” as the team never showed quit. At this point in the game, many of the other teams were starting to find their way to watch this game and a huge amount of league support was breaking out for the Renegades as teams filled up the space behind the Renegades bench cheering. In the 5th inning with just one run in, McCormick stopped a ball of the bat of Bam Bam Clark and Joe Yee made a nice play on Jason Walters. The NBBA looked on and though…Could this be the Renegades time? But Boston could not get off the field and Bayou City scored another 5 runs with two outs. That was the dagger for the Renegades and heading into the bottom of the 5th it was Heat 21 and Boston 11. Fauns continued the pain in the 6th putting up three consecutive innings where his team scored 6 runs and the Renegades would end up losing 27-15. The 27 runs was the 2nd largest output ever allowed by the Renegades (Chicago plated 31 runs in 2013). For Bayou City, anger Gers scored 7 times in 8 trips to the plate and three different players (Kebedeaux, Boudreaux and Clark each scored 5 runs). For Boston, Christain Thaxton and Joe McCormick would each score 4 runs to pace the Renegade offense. Boston would strike out 8 times in 33 trips, while Bayou City only struck out 4 times in 45 trips. this was part of the problem as well as Larry Haile (3) and Joe McCormick (2) had issues in this game with strike outs. Boston would be eliminated. Bayou City would then go to place the Taiwan Home Run. Their game against Taiwan would end up going till the evening as Fonzi continued to keep his bats mashing the ball.
Game #15 Boston wins Rematch against the Colorado Storm 17-5
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | R | K | Put outs | ||
| Boston | 7 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 17 | 8 | 8 | |
| Colorado | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 10 | 10 |
| Boston | AB | R | K | PO | Colorado | AB | R | K | PO | |
| Thaxton – DH | 6 | 4 | 0 | — | Johnston | 2 | 1 | 1 | 4 | |
| Yee – DF/3B | — | — | — | 1 | – Oldham | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| McCormick – RS/LS | 5 | 3 | 1 | 2 | Krussell – DH | 2 | 1 | 0 | — | |
| – Quintanilla – PH | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | – Scales – DH | 2 | 0 | 0 | — | |
| – Zuccarello – LS | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | Morrow – DF | — | — | — | 1 | |
| Haile – 1B/R | 4 | 4 | 0 | 3 | Parker | 4 | 1 | 1 | 2 | |
| -Syphers – PH | 1 | 0 | 0 | — | Malloy | 3 | 0 | 2 | 0 | |
| – Hoyt – 1B | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | – Trustche | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | |
| – Thayer – 1B | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Facio | 4 | 0 | 1 | 2 | |
| Dias – MF | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Jackson | 3 | 2 | 1 | 2 | |
| -S. Cantan – MF/R | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ||||||
| Quintanilla – R | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||||
| – Syphers – PH | 1 | 0 | 1 | — | ||||||
| – Sajjad – 1B/MF | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Zuccarello – LS | 3 | 1 | 2 | 0 | ||||||
| – Ward – RS | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||||||
| Totals | 35 | 17 | 7 | 9 | Totals | 23 | 5 | 9 | 11 | |
| Pitcher- Cochran | 35 | 17 | 7 | Pitcher- Buckingham | ||||||
| Catcher- Weissman | ||||||||||
| LS Caller- Grillo | ||||||||||
| RS Caller -Dickerson |
In 2014, when the Heat defeated the Renegades, it was an emotionally draining game. When this game ended in 2015, the Renegades huddled and were not going to let the same thing happen. The Colorado Storm awaited them and Boston wanted a chance to get back at them for the 17-16 loss they had on Thursday. As the game time neared, the Storm Pitcher was not on the field. Johnny Walker was actually at the hospital as one of their players, Steve Lyles was hospitalized. Colorado Storm star, Doug Biggins was also not able to play due to injury and during warm-ups, they had a new pitcher on the mound in Cory Buckingham. Boston wanted this game. The Renegades had a feeling that Walker would enter the game at some point (as he did against the Indy thunder leading them to a come from behind victory 9-8) in pool play. Boston had a Huge start to this game as Christian Thaxton, Joe McCormick and Larry Haile each plated a pair of runs and Rob Dias pitched a run to give the Renegades 7 runs in an inning (their second biggest output for an inning during the week). Colorado was able to score to start off the game as Ethan Johnston and Rich Krussel plated runs on plays the Renegade defense should have made. The luck stopped there for Buckingham as he caught the bottom of John Parker’s bat for an out to Joe McCormick and then Mike Malloy and Frank Facio struck out. This game would be all Boston and nothing said this more than at one point during the game Boston it a ball into left field which was dead when it went by all of the Denver players. Just as the umpire approached the ball to see if it was dead..it started to beep loudly and a run was awarded. During this game the skies would turn purple and there were threats of a real storm. By the 4th inning, Boston was working all of its players into the game and had built up put up 12 runs through some intermittent down pours that had the teams under their tents for about 5 minutes. the highlight of the top of the 5th inning and web gem of this game would come by Aqil Sajjad. With 2 outs, Frank Facio, an intimidating big left handed pul hitter lofted a fly ball to the right side of the field where Aqil Sajjad stood. Jamie Dickerson, the field spotter made a call and the ball hit Aqil on the foot, where he was able to pounce on the ball quickly. As they trotted off the field, Aqil mentioned that the wrong call was made by Jamie. The Irony was Aqil was in perfect position to make the play based on the call. Shayne Cantan would come off the bench in the 5th inning to get Rob Dias rest. Shayne plated the 13th run and then the game would be stopped by the league due to threats of lightning. the teams decided it was important to finish this game as both teams wanted to get their players playing time. As both teams retreated to baseball dug outs for cover..the game was halted (and there was no lightning at this time). Eventually the league let the game resume and the Renegade defense would pitch a shut out in the 5th and 6th innings as Buckingham and the Storm struck out 3 times while Joe McCormick, Guy Zuccarello and JJ Ward would make stops. Boston would get all 12 players into the game and proudly finished with its best seed ever as the #5 seed in the 2015 World Series. As the Boston team smiled and took pride in the performance word spread that the Taiwan Home Run and Bayou City Heat were still playing. That game would end when the Renegades were back at the hotel with a football score of 45-37. The Bayou City Heat were a very impressive offensive force. For the Renegades, they found a force in Christian Thaxton. Thaxton (who missed the first three games because of a coaches decision to rest him and a hip injury) set a Renegade World Series record hitting .719 and would place 4th on the World Series All-Star team. Joe McCormick would also break the Renegade World Series record hitting .628. Boston would finish the series with the 4th best Batting average in the league at .535. Defensively, the highlight was the play of Joe Yee at third base. Yee entered this tournament with just 4 defensive stops to his credit in his career. He would finish the series with 15 stops and a ton of confidence in his play on the field.