All good things must come to an end. A heart breaking loss for the team in green.
Our defense had ups and downs in the game. In the first Alex had a 1-4 with Christian for the 1st out, Reilly caught a pop up for the 2nd out. But the damage had already been done with team Windermere scoring 5 runs on us.
Christian pitched a brilliant 2nd inning shutting down the side. He got two 1-3 combos with Reilly and Jordan caught a pop-up at catcher.
Being down 5 runs we had our work cut out for us. But we scored our first run in the third inning when Sean had a nice double to drive Chris home.
Christian struggled in the 3rd inning giving up a hit and 4 walks for 2 earned runs before striking out the fifth batter. Chris relieved Christian in the third inning finishing with a line drive on the mound for the 2nd out and a 1-3 with Reilly to finish the inning.
In the fourth, we score 4 more runs to get us in the get us to 5-7. Alex R walked, Reilly had a base hit, Ian had an RBI single with boys in scoring position, Alex B had a sacrifice RBI single and Christian also had a sacrifice RBI single.
Chris had a nice 4th inning facing 4 batters. He had another 1-3 combo with Reilly and 2 strike outs.
In the 5th inning, Benji gets a clutch 1st pitch single, Alex R and Reilly are walked. Ian you had a big hit in the last inning gets out on an Infield Fly Rule. Next our MVP of the game Jack comes in with a big 2 RBI hit to drive in 2 runs! The score is now 7-7.
Chris started the 5th strong, but then they started getting hits on him. Jordan came in to try to shut them down, but Windermere’s hot bats got 2 more hits before Jordan got his 1st strike out and Chris got another pop up at short.
In the bottom of the sixth, with the top of our order Christian strikes out looking on a high pitch over the shoulders. Chris gets on board on a single. Jordan also strikes out looking. Sean gets a single. With 2 runners on board, Benji hits a big hit to center field which was caught by Windermere, game over.
Congrats to the Echelbarger Phantoms for an awesome season! 12-4 record or 13-3 if you want to correct the umps call for the 5/15 game. Then go 2 and 2 in the post season. They should feel good about getting themselves this far.
I’d like to thank our coaching staff; Hans, Jeff and Mike. Without them, we wouldn’t have been able to mold these raw players into a true baseball team. Thanks to Carolyn and Becky for being our team moms, Jesica and Karin for keeping the score book and to all that have helped with pitch counts and score board. Thanks to Tyler Echelbarger for supporting Pacific Little League and coming out to practice with us. Thanks to the Meadowdale High School players Taylor, Tyler and TJ. Mike Heck for helping us out. Finally thank you parents for bringing the players to practice, games and supporting the team.
The Phantoms fought hard to the end. They broke my Field 1 curse with 5 wins. It has been my pleasure coaching this team. See you next season!
Final Score: Echelbarger 7 – Windermere 10