3-A Championship, No. 15 College Park vs No. 5 Arroyo
By Kyle Bonagura
Saturday, May 31st, 2008 at 7:20 pm in General.
Well I’m pretty sure the blogging has topped 2500 words today, so hopefully the tens of thousands of you refreshing at home and those following all around the world on Armed Forces Internet were satisfied. Congrats to College Park and Arroyo for great seasons.
Top 7, Arroyo - Johnson - Double to RC. Second hit of the game for Arroyo. Bratton - Ball goes to the backstop, Johnson moves to third. Passed ball and Arroyo is on the board. It’s 2-1 CP. Coming in to pitch for CP is Harmen Sidhu. That snaps the 26-inning scoreless streak by the CP pitching staff. Bratton K’s and CP is two outs away. Jack - Sidhu has the slowest windup this side of Hideo Nomo. Caught looking. Strike 3. Grucza - ball 1. fouled away, 1-1. 1-2.
4,670 announced attendance. We’re not sure how many of the season ticket holders and luxury box holders didn’t show. Strike 3. game over. College Park is your 2008 NCS 3-A CHAMPIONS
Bottom 6, CP - Nuyten - Out. Vink - doubles down the RF line. Derr- Pop up lands beyond the reach of Jack. 1st and 2nd. Smith - Runners 4-6-3. College Park 2, Arroyo 0
Top 6, Arroyo - Anderson - Out at first on a close play 6-3. Petros (1-for-2) - This just in from Jimmy Durkin “College Park has good pitching.” Thank you for that in-depth analysis, Jimmy. Petros caught looking. Matheny - Strike out. College Park 2, Arroyo 0. Not looking good for the Dons.
Bottom 5, CP - Goonan - Single in the gap in RC. That’s all for MacHado as Greg Boyson comes in to pitch. MacHado walked two batters, both came around to score, ouch. Ornellas - good contact, but a nice play by Petros in CF to get the out. Goonan steals second. Holcomb - F8. Blallock pinch hitting for Gardner - Wild pitch, runner on third now. Walk. Nuyten - Squeeze play, missed, and he’s out at the plate. Which makes two catcher unassisted caught stealing plays in this game. College Park 2, Arroyo 0
Top 5, Arroyo - Grucza - Pop out. Plotz - Ground out to third. Hunter - pop up. College Park 2, Arroyo 0
Bottom 4, CP - Nuyten - Walk. Vink - Nuyten stole second. Groundout to first base, moves Nuyten to third. Derr - Ball in the dirt skips past Gruzca and CP is up 2-0. Derr doubles to deep center. Smith - Attempts a bunt, but doesn’t get it down. Fly out. Alec Alkire (for Fiammengo) - Ground out to SS. College Park 2, Arroyo 0
Top 4, Arroyo - Petros - Liner up the middle gives Arroyo its first base runner and hit of the game. Matheny - out. Johnson - Called strike three, but Petros steals second without a throw. Then, with no one covering third he jets for third and gets there safely. Heads up play by Petros, heads down play by CP and Coleman goes out to the mound to talk about it. Bratton - HBP. Jack - Deep fly ball, but its tracked down. College Park 1, Arroyo 0
Bottom 3, CP - Goonan - He was up when Fiammengo caught stealing home and flies out to lead off the third. Ornellas - Pop up to Grucza is foul terrioty. 2 outs. Holcomb - Hit by the first pitch. Gardner - CP has Arroyo thinking now, second pitch out, this time the runner wasn’t going. A little liner back up the box is knocked down by MacHado, he makes the throw to first, inning over. College Park 1, Arroyo 0
Top 3, Arroyo - Plotz - Fly ball to CF. 1 out. Hunter - line drive to LF, nice play for the out. Anderson - Fly ball in foul territory, caught. Scoreless streak 23 inning College Park 1, Arroyo 0
Bottom 2, CP - Vink - Walks for our first base runner of the game Derr - High fly ball to center, 1 away Smith - Another fly ball to CF sends him to the bench. Fiammengo - A pitch out is called perfectly, the the throw to second sails high and into center field. Vink doesn’t move to third, but he’s now in scoring position. Double down the left field line scores Vink and CP has the first lead, 1-0. Goonan - On the first pitch, Fiammengo steals third. That is College Park baseball right there. He tried to steal home, but was tagged out easily at the plate. College Park 1, Arroyo 0
Top 2, Arroyo - I was there to see College Park upset Foothill in the first round. In that game, Foothill’s first batter of the game scored. The Falcons haven’t given up a run since. 21 innings without a run. Bratton - First of all, Bratton may be the biggest person in the stadium tonight, but he grounds out to short. Jack - Goonan gets him swinging, 2 outs. Grucza - Pop up to third. 22 scoreless for the Falcons. Arroyo 0, College Park 0
Bottom 1, CP - Holcomb - Grounder to second, 1 out. Gardner - A rare strikeout for MacHado (looking) gets Gardner and up comes Nuyten - Hits a ball foul in left field, but Hunter crashes into the wall. For some reason the CP fans cheer after they see him lying there. Hunter is going to come out of the game and Luke Stone is warming up to come in, in his stead. Well, maybe he is not coming in, this delay is well over 10 minutes now. Hunter is going back out there now, looks like he is wearing wrap around his wrist. Naturally, the first pitch is a fly ball to hunt and we’re finally out of the first inning. Arroyo 0, College Park 0
Top 1, Arroyo - Petros - Weak grounder on a check swing back to Goonan, 1 away. Matheny - First pitch grounder to second, 2 outs. Johnson - Works the count full and thought he got walked, but after taking a couple steps out of the box, he gets rung out. 0 runs, 0 hits, 0 errors. Arroyo 0, College Park 0
Alright, the main event is here and there is a decent crowd on hand.
The Star Spangled Banner was not the Grace Leer version, kind of disappointing.
Arroyo will be the visitor by virtue of a pregame coin flip.
Arroyo lineup (w/ avg.)
Johnny Petros, CF, .427
Robert Matheny, RF, .410
Richard Johnson, SS, .449
Jordan Bratton, DH, .437
Alex Jack, 1B, .400
Nick Gruzca, C, .325
Brandon Plotz, 3B, .266
Tyrone Hunter, LF, .304
Andrew Richardson, 2B, .362
Pitcher: Tyler MacHado, 8-1, 1.86 era
Head coach : Eric Anderson
College Park lineup
Tommy Holcomb, 3B
Jimmy Gardner, 2B
Josh Nuyten, SS
Chad Vink, DH
Tyler Derr, LF
Travis Smith, 1B
Julian Fiammengo,
Casey Goonan, P, 5-2
Matthew Ornellas, RF
College Park has TEN COACHES.
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May 31st, 2008 at 8:29 pm
Nice crowd here at the Coliseum. Good for the game, not good for the concession stands — oops, I mean concession stand. They’ve only got one open. That means it really crowded. The folks in the press box are getting pretty hungry, but we’re not willing to wait in that line. Does somebody want to arrange for food to be sent to us in the press box?
May 31st, 2008 at 8:32 pm
Roast beef sandwiches…. mmmmmmmmmmm.
May 31st, 2008 at 8:48 pm
You bringing them????
May 31st, 2008 at 8:59 pm
I am here to provide a bit of luck for the Dons now. How many hits does Arroyo have?
May 31st, 2008 at 9:00 pm
1
May 31st, 2008 at 9:00 pm
Oh, and in case anybody is wondering. Arroyo’s Derek Thomas was chased down in the final 50 meters of the boys 800 CIF state meet today. He ran a tremendous race, though. He finished in second place by under a second.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:00 pm
1 freaking hit. Unbelievable.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Yeah and Northgate only had 1 hit in the 2-A. Our two highest seeded teams in the finals have a combined 2 hits.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Wow, sounds like this game is speeding along. We should make the Review deadline for sure! Knock on wood…
May 31st, 2008 at 9:04 pm
Cross your fingers. It’s bottom five and you’ve got 40 minutes till deadline.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:04 pm
What’s up with the EBAL commish blocking access to the field? Is he not happy with the newspaper or something?
May 31st, 2008 at 9:05 pm
He just hates Ben. Everybody else didn’t have a problem.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:05 pm
Man, if CP wins this game. I have no idea who to vote No. 1 in our poll.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:06 pm
That poll is going to be crazy! Piedmont is an NCS champ and wasn’t even ranked in our last poll.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:07 pm
Yea, we missed the boat on that one?
May 31st, 2008 at 9:09 pm
College Park was unranked too. Geesh!
May 31st, 2008 at 9:10 pm
Alex Jack is warming up in the pen. NorCalPreps’ Harold Abend says it’s too late. I say it’s never over till it’s over!
May 31st, 2008 at 9:10 pm
ha, we don’t know anything about baseball I guess.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:11 pm
Too late for what? To warm up Alex Jack? He couldn’t go more than two innings anyway.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:13 pm
Too late b/c the game’s already over. The belief is Arroyo can’t score two runs.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I got a feeling we are going to see a little excitement here at the end.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Looks like CP is going to complete this Cindarella season. If the shoe fits …
May 31st, 2008 at 9:15 pm
Got the meat of the order coming up in the seventh, maybe they can do something.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:17 pm
I hate that cindarella comparison. It is completely unoriginal. How many Cindarella’s in the world are there?
May 31st, 2008 at 9:18 pm
There’s only ONE and she’s at Disneyland
May 31st, 2008 at 9:18 pm
The happiest place on earth! I am right across the street from that place.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:19 pm
Seriously. Come up with something better Hoose!!!
May 31st, 2008 at 9:20 pm
I can’t wait until the A’s move to Fremont.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Are they putting the rally monkey on the video screen? Oh, they aren’t playing in Anaheim.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:24 pm
I’d love to see NCS make at least the finals a best-of-3.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:25 pm
C’mon Bower.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:26 pm
I knew you would like that one, Durkin.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Wow! We’ve got a ton of life on the Arroyo half of the Coliseum. Gotta give props to the Dons fan. They came out large tonight.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:26 pm
Told you there would be some excitement in the 7th.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:28 pm
What’s the count on Bratton?
May 31st, 2008 at 9:29 pm
3-1
May 31st, 2008 at 9:30 pm
3-2
May 31st, 2008 at 9:31 pm
k
May 31st, 2008 at 9:31 pm
Can Alex Jack be the hero?
May 31st, 2008 at 9:35 pm
The shoe fits for College Park!
May 31st, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Good game. Congrats to both teams on a great season!
May 31st, 2008 at 9:54 pm
Way to dominate CP.These last few games! Big difference in the Dons bullying the HVAL League teams HUH? Would have been nice to see a better hitting team for the fans.Congrats College Park. You guys were scary through the NCS Tournament.
May 31st, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Arroyo is a great hitting team, but CP’s pitching staff was hot. Usually, with the way the NCS tournament works, the hottest team at the end of the year will win it all.
June 1st, 2008 at 4:25 pm
Hey Dons Fans,
Its strange that sometimes the better team doesn’t win all the time.
I would bet that you think you are better then CP, just like the Cowboys think they are better then you.
Bottom line….boys playin baseball…you never know who’s gonna win.
Congrats CP
June 1st, 2008 at 9:37 pm
Really good game all-around. Both teams played their hearts out. Arroyo is a way better team, but College Park played way better then what I expected coming in. I myself, underestimated them. But I gotta give credit where it’s do. Goonan pitched the best game of his life. Good pitcher. Just wished the end result would have been different.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:18 am
Great game with lots of support for the small unincoorporated city San Lorenzo Arroyo Dons. Too bad they don’t give teams more rest to play their best pitchers or go best of 3. Arroyo Dons win in either scenario.College park had a few extra hits, and neither team made errors…great pitching dual and well played game by both teams. Both teams are winners in my book!
June 3rd, 2008 at 8:45 am
Congrats to CP for their victory on Saturday. But I think it would be fair to say that if Arroyo and CP played 10 times, Arroyo would win 8 of the 10. It just happened that Saturday CP played “small ball” and came away with the win.
You just can’t discount the 10 losses that CP had during the year. But on Saturday, they did win that game and congrats are in order…
June 3rd, 2008 at 10:06 am
SOUR GRAPES!!! 10 losses, 5 losses, 3 losses. Which team had 3???? Best team didn’t win the title…you are correct ErnDog.
June 3rd, 2008 at 1:34 pm
I doubt arroyo would take 8 out of 10. Goonan and Sidhu made arroyo look like little leaguers at the plate. Those are the two who would see the bulk of the innings in a 10 game battle. It would be more CP taking 8 wins out of 10
June 3rd, 2008 at 3:55 pm
Gaucho, you have made the best case possible to vote for best 2 of 3 to determine the NCS 3-A title.
Thanks for the support…
June 28th, 2008 at 12:22 am
congrads to arroyo for a great season…CP was weak anyways