KC Dodgers

Those of you old enough to remember the old "Wide World of Sports" are well-familiar with "the thrill of victory, the agony of defeat." Kyle Chapman's 13 and 14 year old All-Star Teams experienced both, respectively, in tournament action on Sunday (6/22). The two games were as close and exciting as any played by any K.C. teams in recent memory. First the 14's. They played in quarterfinal action of the CABA tournament at Baseball USA on Sunday morning. The opponent-- Red Dogs VI. The Red Dogs drew first blood in the bottom of the first inning. With Daniel Rothenberg on the mound, the Dogs converted a walk, a single to center, and an error by the centerfielder to post an unearned run. K.C. came right back to tie it up in the top of the 2nd on a single by Mark Robichau, a walk to Bo Faulk, a wild pitch and an RBI single by Joe Silver. The Dogs nudged ahead in the bottom of the 3rd with another unearned run. An error at 2nd base, a stolen base, and a single put the Dogs up 2-1. Daniel Rothenberg had to leave the game in the middle of the 4th inning after straining his back while poking an outside pitch to left field for a hit. Karl Pringle came in to pitch in the 4th, and held the Dogs scoreless in the 4th and 5th innings. K.C. tied the game in the top of the 6th inning on a single by Cameron Brown, a single by Joe Silver, and an RBI single by Corey Triche. Thus, the score was tied 2-2 in the middle of 6. Karl held the Dogs scoreless in the 6th and 7th innings. Meanwhile, K.C. could not score in the 7th and 8th innings. That brings us to the bottom of the 8th inning. The Red Dogs leadoff batter hit a double to right center field. The next batter was out on a sacrifice bunt. Karl gave intentional walks to the next two Dog batters to load the bases with one out. The final Red Dogs batter hit a routine ground ball to shortstop. The Dog runner from second to third stopped in front of the ball and shook his leg, distracting the K.C. shortstop just enough to make him miss the grounder. Just like that, the 14's were knocked out of the tournament after a gutsy 3-2 loss in 8 innings. Daniel Rothenberg pitched well, allowing only 2 unearned runs in 3 innings, while Karl Pringle pitched magnificently, holding the Red Dogs to the final unearned run in the 8th over 5 brilliant innings of work. One bright side to the 14's CABA showing is that up to 5 starters on the spring K.C. 14 year old Titans were not present for the tournament. Thus, it would not be appropriate to draw any conclusions about the 14's chances in the upcoming PONY tournament. Turning to the K.C. 13's, they played in their third game of the Director's Tournament on Sunday evening at the Katy Freeway field (Campbell @ Westview in Spring Branch). The 13's run-ruled their first two competitors on Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Sunday night found them facing a very tough Dickinson Gator team that had just finished beating the host team by a score of 19-5. Paul Knowlton got the ball for K.C. and proceeded to put Dickinson down on three straight ground balls in the first inning. K.C. struck for two big runs in their half of the stanza. Andrew Burns singled, stole second, Paul Knowlton earned a walk. Both runners advanced a base on a wild pitch. Pat Brosch drove them both in, drilling a 3-1 fastball into the outfield. At the end of 1, K.C. led 2-0. Dickinson halved the K.C. lead in the top of the 2nd on a leadoff double, a passed ball and a fielder's choice grounder to the pitcher. K.C. didn't score in the bottom of the 2nd, but Dickinson managed to tie the game in the top of the 3rd on a leadoff walk, a balk, and an error by the shortstop. The score remained deadlocked in the bottom of the 3rd inning, the 4th, and the 5th. In the top of the 6th inning, Dickinson seized the lead on an error by the second baseman, a wild pitch, a single to left field, and a fielder's choice groundout to first base. Down 3-2 in the bottom of the 6th inning, the fireworks finally began. Paul Knowlton led off with a sharp single to right center field. He advanced to second on a steal and then to third on a balk. With an 0-1 count, and one out, Grant Haynes attempted to lay a bunt down the first base line. As he left the batter's box, the ball bounced up and hit Grant on the leg. The umpire called, "FOUL," then called Grant out for making contact with the ground ball bunt. Coach Glenn Haynes reminded the umpires that once the foul call was made, the ball was dead, even if the foul call was an error. The umpire agreed and Grant was sent back to bat. He promptly drilled a 1-2 pitch to the gap for a double to tie the game 3-3. With 2 outs, Dylan Hickey pinch hitted for Jared Rothenberg. He poked a 1-0 high fastball to the fence for an RBI single, scoring Grant from second. K.C. led 4-3 going into the top of the final inning. Even though he threw 99 pitches through 6 innings, Paul Knowlton asked for the ball in the 7th inning. He promptly struck out the Gators' pinch hitter on a 2-2 breaking ball. The next batter lined a hard grounder to 3rd base. The ball glanced off Jeffrey Rohrbach's glove and went right to an alert Ross Chan at shortstop. With the Gators' batter flying toward first, Ross fired a strike to Jared Rothenberg at first, who stretched the full extent that his 100% polyester baseball pants would allow. He needed every bit of that stretch, since the Gators' batter was out by a fraction of a second. The final Dickinson batter flied out to centerfield, and just like that, the 13 year old Kyle Chapman team earned a birth in the Pony Directors Tournament semifinals tomorrow (Monday) night at 8:30pm in Pasadena. The author of this article would be remiss for not pointing out two acts of heroism. First, even though he was exhausted and ringing wet with sweat, Paul Knowlton wanted to pitch the 7th inning to lock down the win. His 109 pitch effort in high heat and humidity was nothing short of magnificent. Second, mere days after knee surgery, coach Bob Rohrbach shuffled into the 3rd base coaching box, inning after inning. What a splendid example of intensity and determination on the part of both of these young men. We'll see you at the ballpark. That's all for now. Signing off ..... Scott Rothenberg