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The Kyle Chapman 14 year old All-Stars beat East Cobb Georgia 11-10 in a stunning come from behind victory in the championship game of the PONY South Zone Tournament in St. Amant, Louisiana, late Tuesday night, to earn a berth in the 2003 PONY World Series, which begins in Washington, Pennsylvania, on Saturday, August 9, 2003. The K.C. 14's, who have now won 13 out of their last 14 games, had to erase a 7-0 deficit after 2 1/2 innings, and a 10-9 deficit after 6 1/2 innings, but managed to win with the timely hitting that has become their trademark in this dramatic championship run. The K.C. 14's had knocked East Cobb into the elimination bracket on Monday night with a dramatic 5-4 victory despite trailing 4-2 after 6 innings of play. East Cobb earned their way back into a rematch with K.C. by eliminating Corpus Christi Westside 3-2 earlier on Tuesday evening. By the way East Cobb came out, there was no doubt that they intended to avenge their defeat at K.C.'s hands just 24 hours earlier. East Cobb posted a field goal in the first inning, and another in the second inning on a conglomeration of K.C. fielding errors (there were four in the first two innings) and just plain good hitting (they got 4 in the first two innings). Before K.C. decided it came to play baseball, East Cobb had run the score to 7-0 in the middle of the third inning. How thoroughly did East Cobb dominate the K.C. 14's? The Corpus Christi team stayed to cheer their Houston brothers on to victory, but left in the middle of the third. Boy, did they ever miss a comeback!!! Karl Pringle led off the bottom of the third with a single to right-centerfield. Matt West advanced him to second when he was hit with a pitch. Jamie Reingold loaded the bases with a single to right field. Daniel Rothenberg ran the count to 3-2 before walking (for the first of three times this game), to drive Karl in from third. Sean Lamont drove in Matt with a fielder's choice to centerfield that retired Daniel at second base. With two outs, Joe Silver hit a pinch-double to left field, driving in Jamie. Corey Triche followed with a clutch RBI single to left-centerfield, driving in Sean. Brian Borski blasted a triple to right-centerfield, driving in Corey and Joe. And just like that, K.C. had shaved East Cobb's lead to 7-6 after three innings of play. After relief pitcher Daniel Rothenberg held East Cobb scoreless in the top of the 4th, K.C. finally tied the game in the bottom of the inning on a leadoff triple to right field by Matt West, who scored on a wild pitch. It was all tied up at 7-7 after 4 innings of play. East Cobb untied the game, scoring 3 big runs in the top of the 5th inning. They did it with a leadoff walk, a bunt single that was clearly a blown call by the umpire at first base, a serious throwing error by Daniel Rothenberg that allowed two runs to score and the batter to advance to second, and a pair of wild pitches. East Cobb led 10-7 in the middle of the 5th inning. K.C. could not make a dent in the lead in the bottom of the 5th, going down 1-2-3 on two groundouts and a strikeout. Relief pitcher, Brian Borski came on to relieve Daniel Rothenberg in the 5th, and held East Cobb scoreless in the 6th and 7th innings, allowing just one meaningless single. Meanwhile, K.C. shaved the East Cobb lead to 10-9 in the bottom of the 6th inning. Karl Pringle led off with a single, then scampered safely into third base when the East Cobb left fielder allowed Matt West's fly ball to glance off his glove on a dead run. With one out and runners on second and third, Daniel Rothenberg hit a 2-1 outside curveball down the left field line past the third baseman for a standup double scoring both Karl and Matt. Sean and Joe each received walks from the East Cobb pitcher, but could not advance to score the tying run. Thus, it was 10-9 East Cobb in the middle of the 7th inning. K.C. came up in the bottom of the 7th needing one run to tie and two to win. Jason Butts, the East Cobb pitcher appeared to be well in command of the game when he ran the count to 1-2 against Karl Pringle with one out and no one on base. However, Karl stroked a double to left-centerfield. Then, with two outs, and the game hanging in the balance, Jamie Reingold stroked a single to left field. Incredibly, the East Cobb left fielder (who, no doubt, had thoughts of throwing Karl out at the plate), allowed the ball to roll under his glove and it went to the fence. Karl scored and Jamie ended up on third base. The game was tied 10-10 with a runner on third and two outs. Daniel Rothenberg strided to the plate, and was promptly intentionally walked. Sean Lamont decided that he didn't like the notion of one of his teammates being walked so that they could pitch to him. Result? A lined shot to left-centerfield that scored Jamie Reingold from third base with the winning run. Thus, for the second time in 24 hours, K.C. erased a multiple run deficit to a very talented and well-coached East Cobb team, to win the 2003 PONY South Zone Championship. Your K.C. 14 year old All-Stars are now district champions, section champions, regional champions, and now zone champions. But best of all, Tuesday night's win qualifies K.C. for a berth in the PONY World Series, which will be held from August 9th to August 16th in Washington, Pennsylvania. K.C. will play its first game of the 2003 PONY World Series on Sunday, August 10, 2003 at 5:30pm eastern time, against either Orange, California, Heartwell, California, or Mililani, Hawaii, depending on which of those three teams wins the West Zone Championship later today (Wednesday). For information about the PONY World Series, or its brackets, see http://www.ponyworldseries.com or http://www.pony.org. Congratulations to the hard-working players, coaches, parents, administrators, family members and volunteers of the Kyle Chapman PONY League 14 Year Old All-Star team on two incredible but exciting hard-earned victories. This is Scott Rothenberg saying, "Onward to the PONY World Series!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" See you at the ballpark. image