Nov. 16, 2009

(San Francisco) - One weekend into the Fall World Series and there is already plenty to digest. After the first three games have been completed the Gold Team enters the week with a two games to one advantage, but what is even more amazing is how they got to that point. Game one, which was started on Friday afternoon and completed on Saturday, seemed to be all but in the bag for the Green Team before the Gold Team came storming back for a huge come from behind victory.

Green Team's starter Cameron Love threw five quality innings surrendering only two unearned runs. When Love left the game in the 6th the score was nine to two in favor of the Green Team. The Green Team grabbed the lead scoring early and often with four runs in the 2nd inning, capped off by a Derek Poppert two RBI single, and three runs in the 5th, highlighted by a two run single by Stephen Yarrow. But that is where the drama unfolded. In the top of the 7th inning the Gold Team pushed across three runs on a Chris Dittmann RBI double, and a run scoring single off the bat of Haden Hinkle. Three more runs would score in the 8th and finally two more runs in the 9th on a wild misplayed ball to first base with the bases loaded to come all the way back and take a 10-9 lead. Jordan Remer came on in relief to pick up the victory for the Gold Team throwing up zeros for the final three innings. Dittmann was a major part of the offensive outburst throughout the day for the Gold Team after going five for six at the plate with two doubles and three runs batted in.

"I had a song stuck in my head, and I was just kind of going to the rhythm of the beat when I was up there," Dittmann explained of his huge day at the plate. "It was great for our team to start off the series like that, never giving up. We just kept chipping away, inning by inning, until we were all the way back in it." It has been leaked by an anonymous source that Party In The USA by Miley Cyrus may very well have been the song that Dittmann was able to find his rhythm to.

With what seemed to be the momentum firmly on their side the Gold Team turned to Doug Murray to shut the door on the mound in game two, and he did that and a whole lot more. Murray silenced the bats of the entire Green Team lineup in route to a complete game one hit victory while striking out eight. The Gold Team provided what would be plenty enough offense for a final score of 3-1. All three runs were scored in the 3rd inning on a Ryan Lipkin single, a sacrifice fly off the bat of Adam Clear, and finally an RBI single from Jared Denham. The lone hit of the game off of Murray came in the third inning when right fielder Elliot Waterman was able to just get enough of one down the line in shallow left field.

"My stuff felt pretty good today, everything was working," Murray explained. "Do I feel bad giving up the only hit to a pitcher? No way. He did the only thing he could of with that pitch, stayed back and just got enough of it to get it out of the infield. Luckily for me I didn't really leave to many other pitches in a place where someone could hit it for the rest of the day."

With the Gold Team now out in front to an early 2-0 lead the Green Team needed to make a statement if they were going to get back in to the series. They let both their pitching and their bats do the talking. The Green Team offense exploded in the final game of the weekend for nine runs on sixteen hits. It was a team effort at the plate as Connor Bernatz, Matt Chavez and Travis Higgs contributed four hits apiece. The Green Team got the quality start they needed on the mound as well from Freshman RHP Abe Bobb. Bobb threw five quality innings allowing one run on four hits while striking out six to earn the victory.

When asked about his outing, Bobb was very appreciative of the opportunity to get a start in the Fall World Series, "It was an exciting opportunity to get the ball in a big game. I felt like we played well enough to come out of the weekend in better shape, but we knew we just needed to keep doing the things we were doing to get a win in that third game." When asked about what worked well for him on the mound Bobb gave most of the credit to his offense, "It was easy for me to make pitches today the way we swung it at the plate. Our lineup did a great job of putting up runs early and often and it took a lot of pressure off of me and just allowed me to do my thing out there." With the win the Green Team closed the gap on the series, with the Gold Team now leading two games to one, and all signs indicate that it will be a fight to the finish.

Commissioner Nino Giarratano had a few thoughts on the weekend, "I think if the first three games showed us anything it's that the fans need to stay tuned and get out to the park to see some of the action. This series is going to be close, and it's going to be a good one. You can tell by the intensity in the eyes of the players that they all want to win. And from what I heard there was a bit of a shoving match between the coaches of both squads after game three so it should be a lot of fun to see this one play out."

The series will resume again next Friday with game four slated to start at 1:15pm at Benedetti Diamond. As always check in on the game video, as well as pregame and postgame interviews at s3.360icoachserver.com. Type in the username fws and the password fws to access all the video from the 2009 Fall World Series.