Wizards Baseball

Red Sox 6 Marlins 1

In the Winner's Bracket Semi-Finals, the Centreville Bank Red Sox defeated the Richard's Oil Marlins, 6-1, and advanced to Tuesday night's showdown against the Titan Sport's Orioles.

Led by the combined four hit pitching of Nick Motroni, Greg D'Ambrosca, and Tyler Boisclair, the Red Sox were able to keep the potent Marlins off the bases for most of the game.  Motroni struck out five in two innings of no hit ball.  In two innings of middle relief, D'Ambrosca gave up one hit and struck out three.  In the last two innings, Boisclair gave up one run on three hits and struck out three.

In the bottom of the first inning, the Red Sox took a 1-0 lead when Kurtis Quinn doubled and scored on Greg D'Ambrosca's single to left field.

In the bottom of the second inning, the Red Sox made it 3-0 when Andrew D'Ambrosca (walk) and Mike Tetreault (walk) scored on a double by Jacob Valenti-Ochs.

In the bottom of the fourth inning the Red Sox broke the game open with three runs on two hits (Nick D'Ambra and Tyler Boisclair), two walks, and two errors.

In the top of the sixth inning, the Marlins scored when Joe Maynard (double) and scored on Tom Pecchia's single to right field. 

Orioles 4 Athletics 3

For the third time this year, the Titan Sports Orioles (16-1 regular season record) were able to hold off the suprising Athletics (9-8 regular season record) by one run, 4-3.  

Led by the pitching of 11 year old All Star Matt Grenier, the Athletics (last year's playoff champions), kept the Oriole and Athletic faithful at the edge of their seats for six innings.  Grenier, who threw 58 of his 78 pitches for strikes, struck out 12 and walked one (intentionally) while allowing two earned runs on four hits.  During the first five innings, Grenier allowed one hit (Ray Zincone's lead of single in the fourth inning) and faced only 18 batters.

Oriole 12 year old All Star Nick Morel was equally impressive in middle relief.  Morel, who pitched three innings allowed only one hit and struck out one.  While Morel was able to keep the Athletics offense in check, the Orioles were able to stay in striking distance.

In the top of the second inning, the Athletics scored three runs on three walks (Andrew In, Kyle Baxter, and Alex Hernandez), one perfectly executed suicide squeeze (Matt Reid), and a clutch two out, two run double by Evan Barrera.

In the bottom of the second inning, the Orioles opportunistically scored a run, despite striking out three times, on two errors and a passed ball to cut the lead to 3-1. 

In the bottom of the fourth inning, the Orioles scored another run when Ray Zincone singled, moved to second on a passed ball, and scored on a error. 

After Trevor Lawton held the Athletics scoreless in the top of the sixth inning, the Orioles were able to score two runs and escape with a heart pumping, 4-3, playoff victory. 

Nick Morel reached second base when his fly ball was misjudged and landed over an Athletic outfielder.  With Morel on second and the count reaching 1-2, Ray Zincone hit a "baltimore chop" up the middle tying the game at 3-3.  After Trevor Lawton reached on a fielder's choice and stole second, Cullen Kirchmeyer was intentionally walked to set up the force out.  Unfortunatley for the Athletics, the clock struck midnight early, as Hunter Dean lined a single to center, ending any hopes of a "Cinderella" date for the Athletics against the Red Sox in the Winner's Bracket final of the West Warwick Cal Ripken Playoffs.

Now the top two regular season teams (Orioles and Red Sox) will face each other for the fourth time this year.  The Marlins will now face the Athletics in a Loser's Bracket game.