KC Cards

It has been said that the strongest steel results from placing the right raw materials under the greatest pressures at the highest temperatures. If that is true, then the Kyle Chapman 14 year old All-Star team showed its mettle (pun intended) in gutting out a gritty 7-6 win over a very tough Deer Park opponent at K.C. Field on Sunday afternoon. Deer Park got to the district semi-final game by routing its first opponent, then beating Brazos Valley 1-0 on Saturday night. K.C. got there by beating an overmatched Katy Freeway team into submission 22-1 in 2 1/2 innings on Saturday afternoon. That set up the third game of the K.C. - Deer Park series this year. K.C. beat Deer Park in the championship game of Deer Park's own tournament a few months back. Deer Park returned the favor in the finals of the Pony Director's Tournament by a score of 5-2. Everyone suspected this would be a good game, but it wasn't. It was a terrific game. Deer Park broke on top 2-0 in the top of the first inning on a walk and a two-out two run home run by Deer Park's cleanup hitter. K.C. answered with four runs of its own in the bottom of the first, courtesy of walks to Brian Borski and Karl Pringle and a three run blast by Matt West to give K.C. a 3-2 advantage. Sean Lamont walked, stole second, advanced to third on a wild pitch, and scored on a high fly fielder's choice by Beau Faulk to make the score 4-2 in favor of K.C. after 1 inning of play. Karl Pringle held Deer Park scoreless in the second inning, notching his third and fourth strikeouts of the game. K.C. stretched its lead to 5-2 in the second inning courtesy of a single by Matt West, a stolen base by Matt West, a single by Sean Lamont, advancing Matt to third, and a wild pitch, allowing Matt to make the score 5-2 in favor of K.C. after 2 innings of play. In the top of the third inning, the Deer Park first baseman hit his first of two home runs on the day (and third in two days), a solo shot, to close the K.C. advantage to 5-3. Mark Robichau (fresh off the D.L.), gave K.C. back its (temporary) three run cushion with a solo blast in the bottom of the 3rd. Score: K.C. 6 - Deer Park 3. In the top of the 4th, Deer Park converted a single over the second baseman and its third home run of the day into 2 big runs to make the score K.C. 6, Deer Park 5. K.C. could not answer in its half of the 4th inning. Deer Park tied the game in the 5th inning on their fourth home run of the game, this time by their first baseman (his second of the game). Alex Cernoch pitched the fifth inning and stranded a potential go ahead run for Deer Park at second base by inducing a grounder to the pitcher and a called strike three for the third out. In the bottom of the 5th inning, K.C. manufactured a go ahead run on a clutch leadoff single by Joe Silver, and an even more clutch two out run scoring single by Mark Robichau. The score after 5 innings of play: K.C. 7, Deer Park 6. K.C. defense and Alex Cernoch's pitching were enough to make that score stand over the last inning and a half. In the top of the 6th, Joe Silver made an awesome defensive play when the leadoff batter chopped the ball right in front of home plate. Joe pounced on the ball and fired it to George Murphy at first for the first big out of the inning. Alex hit the next batter, but with one out, the Deer Park pinch hitter hit a pop fly bunt that Joe Silver gathered in for the second out of the inning. Alex induced the Deer Park leadoff batter to ground to short for the last out of the inning. In the top of the 7th, Alex got the Deer Park 2 hole hitter to ground to short for the first out, and proceeded to strike out the next two batters (both of whom combined for three out of four of Deer Park's home runs earlier in the game). And just like that, K.C. is one win away from the District Championship. As this article goes to press, Deer Park and Brazos Valley are squaring off for the right to play K.C. in the championship game. The loser goes home. The winner plays K.C. at 6pm tomorrow (Monday) evening at Kyle Chapman field in beautiful Bayland Park. If K.C. wins, they are district champs. If they lose, they play the second game of a doubleheader against the same opponent for all the marbles at 8:30 pm tomorrow (Monday) night. Kudos to the Deer Park pitcher, who, though his team lost the game, pitched his heart out, throwing 126 pitches over 6 innings of work against a very good hitting K.C. team. That's all for now. Congrats to the K.C. players, parents, coaches, and supporters on a hard fought victory. See you at the ballpark tomorrow evening. That's all for now. This is Scott Rothenberg signing off.