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Thursday, August 2

By Bryan Oringher

On a steamy Thursday afternoon at Shirley Povich Field, the #1 Rockville Express rebounded from a stunning loss to the #6 Maryland Redbirds on Wednesday to advance to the Championship Game of the 2007 Cal Ripken, Sr. Collegiate Basbeall League Championship Series, 7-5.

The game started off almost exactly as it had for the Maryland Redbirds just the night before—when they jumped out to a 7-0 lead over the #2 Bethesda Big Train before losing 7-8 in extra innings. In the top of the first, after Tony Jusino (Grossmont JC) and Matt Parker (San Diego State) each singled and Gavin Swanson (George Washington) was hit by a pitch, Jason McManis (Dartmouth) delivered with a bases-clearing double to give the Redbirds the early 3-0 lead.

In the top of the third, with the bases loaded, Rob Pietroforte (Johns Hopkins) was hit by a pitch to push home another run and put the Redbirds up four. With the bases still loaded, Matt Boyd (George Washington) worked a walk to force home another Redbird and chase Express starter Joe Miller (High Point).

In the bottom of the fourth, however, the Express fought back in a big way. After Beau Brooks (Troy) and Glenn Kiture (Flagler College) led off the inning with back-to-back singles, Bart Pettus (Troy) scored Brooks with a single of his own to put the Express on the board. With Pettis and Kiture on base, however, Pete Fatse (Connecticut) put the Express back in the game with one swing of the back. Fatse lined his third homer of the season over the right-field fence to pull the Express within one. After Travis Babin (Sonoma State) was hit by a pitch, Steve Domecus (UC-Santa Barbara) rocketed a triple to deep rightfield to score Babin—and Domecus scored himself after the rightfielder’s throw sailed past the third baseman to give the Express the 6-5 lead.

The Express added another insurance run in the bottom of the eighth on a Mike Zuanich (UC-Santa Barbara) fielder’s choice ground-out. The Redbirds never scored after the third inning thanks to a tremendous relief outing by Kevin Fuqua (LaSalle), who pitched six shutout innings while giving up only two hits and striking out five. Dennis Accomando (Connecticut) came on to earn the save with a perfect ninth inning and set up the Cal Ripken, Sr. League Championship Game, Thursday night at 7:30 P.M. between the Express and the Bethesda Big Train.