18-Grip Shield Glory Days

BEACH BUMS 6 THUNDER 5 (At Roger Dean Cardinals Field #6) Never was it clearer that baseball can be a game of inches, than when the Beach Bums’ Dylan Love, with two outs and two strikes, flared a bloop down the right field line that evaded three Thunder defenders and landed inches inside the line to give the Beach Bums a come from behind 6-5 victory in the National Division championship at the St. Louis Cardinals’ complex Field Number Six in Jupiter.

The Beach Bums entered the playoffs as the number two seeded team, and played host to the number five Thunder, the Cinderella team in the Spring ‘17 post season. While the Beach Bums drew a quarterterfinal round bye, all they had to do to get to the finale was take care of business against the number six Mets, whipping them 15-1 in the semis. The Thunder had the much tougher route, upsetting both the number three seeded Athletics 13-4, then the top seeded, 16 time league champion Los Tigres 5-4 in a ten inning thriller. For the first three innings, it looked like the Thunder would pull off another upset, building a 4-1 lead on a three-run second inning, followed by a run in the third.

The Beach Bums had scored their run in the bottom of the first for a short lived 1-0 lead. The Bums’ initial tally came on a double steal pulled off by courtesy runner Jesus Delgado, running for Love, who reached second on a single and outfield error, and manager Dave Salley, who reached first on a wild pitch after swinging at a third strike by Thunder starter Shaun Garceau. Salley drew a throw when he stole second, and the return throw home came too late to get the speedy Delgado at the plate. Garceau singled to center in the second inning, stole second and went to third on an errant throw, then scored on a double to left by Rudy Plasencia, Chris Snyder’s sharp single to right moved Placencia to third. After a walk to Roy Nino loaded the bases, Plasencia scored on a fielder’s choice attempted double play grounder up the middle off the bat of Greg Nicholson. Jake Hadad knocked in the third run on a base hit to left.

The Thunder added a run in the third mainly on singles by Eric Gormley and Snyder, two wild pitches by Love, and a passed ball. At that point, Rick Shnur came on to get the final out of the inning. Schnur was to go the rest of the way, holding the Thunder scoreless until they scored an unearned run in the top of the ninth inning. ason Bryan doubled in the fourth for the Beach Bums, and after a wild pitch advanced Salley, running for Bryan to third base, Brendan Hayden singled in Salley to make it 4-2.

Three hits, including two doubles by the Beach Bums created a 4-4 tie in the fifth inning. RJ Neal singled and stole second. He scored on a double to right by Jesus Delgado, who moved to third on an infield out and scored on Salley’s double to left. Delgado smacked a triple to right center to lead off the seventh and scored on a passed ball to give the Bums a 5-4 lead, but the Thunder had one more big thrust in the top of the ninth, Louie Napoleon smacked a grounder to third that Salley could not handle for an error. He moved to second on Gormley’s sacrifice bunt, and held there as Garceau laced a liner to right for the second out.

Then came the play of the game as Plasencia hit a sizzler to center field and Delgado uncorked a terrific throw to the plate, and Napoleon scored the tying run when catcher Nicholson could not hold on to the tag at home. With lefty Chris Kirk on the mound in the bottom of the 9th, Roberto Santiago drew a walk, moved to second on a wild pitch. The Thunder registered the next two outs, and with the count 2-0, the T Men opted to intentionally pass the lefthanded hitting Delgado. That brought Love to the plate and he proceeded to serve a blooper into no man’s island in short right field, and Santiago raced home with the game winner.

Schnur was brilliant in relief, pitching out of a no-out bases loaded jam in the fourth, and a two runners on base situation in the sixth. He wound up with no walks and a half dozen strikeouts and was chosen as the title game’s Most Valuable Player. Delgado led the Bums on offense with a triple, double, RBI and three runs scored. Conrad Forrest also hit a triple, but was stranded at third base. Kirk was charged with the loss after almost pitching out of that 9th inning. The former St. Louis Cardinals’ farmhand Garceau got a no decision, striking out eleven in a performance that was at times spectacular. Placencia had a double, single, RBI to lead the Thunder. Hadad, Napoleon and Gormley had two singles each, as the Thunder outhit the Bums 12-10, but left a proverbial “small army” on base, stranding ten.