KC Dodgers

Everything looked promising for Monday night's Kyle Chapman 14 year old semifinal game at the League City Sportsplex. K.C. would be playing Deer Park, a team they soundly beat at their very own tournament less than a month ago. They were coming off a weekend sweep of three preliminary games by combined scores of 39-2. The rains, which had threatened all day, managed to hold off until a winner could be decided. Yes, all the signs were very positive. Unfortunately, that is why we play these games on the field instead of on paper. The K.C. 14's bowed to Deer Park by a score of 5-1 on Monday night in the semifinal game of the PONY Houston Area Director's tournament. In doing so, K.C. ended the tournament as either the third or fourth best 14 year old PONY team in the Houston area out of 28 teams that entered the tournament. But now on to the particulars as to why they did not make it to the tournament's finale. In the top of the first inning, K.C. drew first blood on a grounder to third by Matt West that turned into a fielding error, a stolen base, a wild pitch, and an error by the Deer Park shortstop on a Karl Pringle grounder. Deer Park drew even in the bottom of the first. They started the game with a runner on first courtesy of a K.C. infield throwing error. The second Deer Park batter rifled a shot to right centerfield. Daniel Rothenberg retrieved the ball, fired a strike to Matt West in the cutoff position, who fired a strike to Joe Silver at the plate to gun down the Deer Park runner attempting to score from first. The Deer Park batter ended up on second base and scored on two straight singles. More damage was averted when Brian Borski, Matt West and Beau Faulk combined on a nifty 6-4-3 double play to end the inning. K.C. failed to score in the top of the 2nd. Deer Park nudged ahead 2-1 in the bottom of the second inning on a one out walk, a fielder's choice, an infield error, and an RBI double. K.C. got a leadoff double from Brian Borski in the top of the third, but failed to score him with an infield pop-up, a walk, a 5-3 fielder's choice, and a flyout to centerfield. Brett Gibson came on to relieve Jamie Reingold in the 3rd inning. Deer Park went quietly in the 3rd, managing only a two out single up the middle, followed by a routine groundout to second to end the inning. K.C. failed to score in the top of the 4th, despite a one out single by Mark Robichau. It was followed by a walk, a 6-4 fielder's choice at second advancing Mark to third, and a groundout to second base to end the inning. Deer Park managed another run in the bottom of the 4th to make it 3-1. They did it with a leadoff strikeout, a throwing error by the pitcher to first base, a walk, and a sacrifice fly to centerfield to bring in their third run. K.C. went quietly in the 5th inning on a groundout to the pitcher and two strikeouts, one looking and one swinging. Deer Park failed to score in the 5th inning, even though their pitcher led off the inning being hit with the first pitch he saw. A fielder's choice 4-6 to second base, a flyout to shortstop and a grounder to third ended the Deer Park 5th without any other runs being scored. K.C. appeared ready to spring the bats from mothballs in the 6th inning. Jamie Reingold led off the 6th inning with a four pitch walk. George Murphy hit a shotgun blast line drive right at the second baseman, who flipped to first to get Jamie, who appeared to be going on the pitch, perhaps as part of a "hit and run." A groundout to second base ended the K.C. threat without a run being scored. Deer Park added a pair of runs in the bottom of the 6th on some highly uncharacteristic (ooh, should I use that phrase?) fielding difficulties by the K.C. infield. After inducing a fly out to right field, and a groundout to shortstop that involved both a sensational grab and throw by Brian Borski and a tremendous stretch by George Murphy, the ceiling fell in on K.C. An infield throwing error, an infield fielding error, a single, another infield throwing error, and another infield fielding error (yes, that's four in one inning, folks), led to 2 very unearned runs for Deer Park. Unfortunately, time ran out before K.C. could bat in the 7th. And just like that, K.C.'s stay in the Director's Tournament was over. The scoresheet tells everything one needs to know about the result of the game. Three hits from a K.C. offensive attack that has been averaging 12 hits per game lately, 7 errors from a K.C. defense that had been averaging less than 3 errors per game lately, and some very good Deer Park fielding plays combined to ensure the result that occurred. We are all confident that this game will represent nothing more than a speed bump on the 14's long road to the PONY World Series. And won't it be fun sitting in our hotel rooms in Washington, Pennsylvania, six weeks from now, thinking back to everything we learned that humid, icky, buggy night in League City, Texas. That's all for now. This is Scott Rothenberg signing off.