18-Grip Shield Glory Days

The Caribbean Tigres came up short, losing to Rey's Pizza of Miami 4-2 in the championship game of the NABA National Championship Tournament's Wood Bat Division Sunday at Roger Dean Stadium in Jupiter.  The Tigres had won the tournament's inaugural in 2006. 

The Open (Metal Bat) Division title was won by a team from one of NABA's newest leagues---the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina White Sox, who defeated the Denver Bears by the same 4-2 margin. 

Both the Tigres and Rey's Pizza brought 6-0 tournament slates into the championship, with Rey's taking pool honors on the basis of fewer runs allowed in pool games, since the two teams were not scheduled against each other in pool play.    

The Tigres scored a run in the top of the second when Francis Dinzey singled, stole second, went to third on an infield out and scored on an RBI single by Melvin Bruno.  The infield out was a key play in the game as Billy Brescia grounded one wide of the bag, and Miami pitcher Eddie Oropesa appeared to be late in covering the bag, but Brescia was ruled out in a very close play.   

Rey's came back with two in their half of the inning on a leadoff walk to first baseman Jorge Toca, an infield hit by Maikel Jova, an RBI single by third sacker Jose Cano and a sacrifice fly by Carlos Castillo. 

The Tigres evened the score with a run in thje third on singles by Stalin DeLaRosa and Ramon Bautista, a balk which moved runners to second and third and a one out infield roller by Jose Acuna. 

The Miamians took the lead for good with two in the fourth.  A leadoff walk to Osmany Santana, and hits by Toca and Jova loaded the bases.  Osviel Oiz singled to score Santana, and Toca appeared to be thrown out at the plate, but the umpires ruled that catcher Melvin Bruno dropped the ball.  Tigres' starter and loser Wilson Ciprian got out of the jam with no further damage, but his counterpart Oropesa practically shut the door on the Tigres from the third inning on to not only earn the win, but Most Valuable Player honors.  Toca was selected as the game's Gold Glove winner after playing stellar defense---three assists, fifteen put outs and a couple of fine stretches to prevent throwing errors.

Oropesa allowed only hit after the third inning, walked only one and struck out five.  Ciprian gave up seven hits and notched three strikeouts.

Dinzey had two of his team's five hits.  DeLaRosa, Bautista and Bruno had the others.  Jova led all hitters, collecting three of Rey's seven hits.  Jesus Amettler had a double, Oiz and Cano had RBI hits and Toca had a single and scored twice.

Rey's wound up 7-0, the Tigres 6-1 for the four day tournament.   

In Myrtle Beach's win over Denver, Phil Frischolz pitched the complete game victory, giving up fourteen hits but pitching out of jam after jam, and getting great defensive support, particularly from third baseman Brooks Garris who turned two spectacular double plays to thwart Bears' rallies.  Frischolz was selected as the game MVP, an emotional moment for him and the entire Myrtle Beach team.  Phil's father, who had intended to come to Florida to watch the tournament, is hospitalized with lymphoma and doctors have given the elder Frischolz only about a month to live.

Denver started aggressively with a run in the first innings when Denver manager and third baseman Joe Collins singled in Jason Ezell who had walked and reached second on an attempted double steal.  Max Johnson of the Palm Beach League had singled, stole second and third, but was cut down trying to steal home on the front end of that double steal. 

Frischolz doubled home a run in the bottom of the inning, and Myrtle Beach added runs in the second, seventh and eighth innings, while Denver managed only one more in the top of the 8th.  The Mile High team left twelve men on base and contributed to their own demise by committing five errors.  The White Sox, who wound up 7-0 and were the pool winners, had eleven hits and played errorless baseball.  Bob Diaz, pitching for the fourth time in the tournament, took the loss for Denver and also went all the way.   Denver went 5-2 for the week.   

Collins led all hitters with four hits, one of them a double.  Kasey Fink had three hits for Denver, one of them a triple.  Austin Dooley had three singles and Frischolz had a double and single for the White Sox.