Cal Orioles

July 9: You could hang out at the Little League fields for another fifty years and never see it happen again. One father called it the equivalent of being hit by lightening and winning the lottery at the same time. Ahead by a score of 6-2 in the sixth inning, with two out, no one on, and two strikes on the Silver Spur #9 hitter, the Manhattan 12's saw their lead disappear within ten pitches on a double, home run, home run and another home run. They did re-group to get the final out of the sixth. Only to lose the game on the second pitch of the seventh inning on another home run. The final score was Silver Spur 7....Manhattan 6. None of the Manhattan 12s can hang their heads. They played an error free game with Travis Bradford contributing two highlight plays in center field. In fact, the only place the Silver Spur batters could hit the ball, where the Manhattan boys didn't catch it, was over the fence. All the Silver Spur runs scored via the home run. The pitchers didn't hang easy pitches. The Silver Spur hitters hit good pitches over the fence. It was truly a herculean effort by the entire Silver Spur team. The game started well for the Manhattan 12s. In the top of the first, they jumped out to a 4-0 lead. Travis Bradford lead off the game with a double. A Jack Hadley single and Braden Casady single scored Travis. And then Jackson Casady hit a three run home run for a 4-0 lead. Manhattan loaded the bases a second time in the inning, but couldn't score. It looked good for Manhattan at this point, as the #1 pitcher for the Silver Spur team, MacKenzie Menthem, needed to throw 49 pitches to escape the inning. He reached his 85 pitch limit in the third inning. Gordon Cardenas was pitching for Manhattan and he had an easy first inning. He gave up a single runs in the second and fourth on, what else, home runs. After four innings, Manhattan was up 4-2. Travis' thumb injury had forced him to give up catching and he moved to the outfield. Christian Herrera caught the fourth and C Mac caught the fifth and sixth. In the fifth inning, the Manhattan 12s tagged on two more runs. Carter Casady lead off with a single followed by an Austin Schoff single. With two out, Travis Bradford drove home a run with a single. Austin scored the sixth run on a wild pitch. Gordon went to the mound in the 5th. He retired the first two hitters before reaching his pitch count limit. Carter Casady came in and recorded the final out. The sixth started well. Travis make a circus catch on a line drive to center field. After a second out ,it got weird. On a 0-2 count, the #9 hitter for Silver Spur hit a ball to right field. He was almost thrown out trying to stretch the single into a double. This brought up the heart of the Silver Spur line-up. They are big boys who can stand eye to eye with grown men. Perhaps the Manhattan boys are just small. Silver Spur had shown their quick strike capability when they had mercied PV in four innings by a score of 13-0 with six home runs. The lead off hitter , Josh Norwood, hit a home run to make the score 6-4. The next hitter, Jack Seaton fell down 0-2, but then hit a home run that barely cleared the center field fence. Jack Hadley came in to pitch. On his first pitch, Ryan Fuhrman hit a home run that, again, just cleared the center field fence. Manhattan recovered to get the final out. In the top of the seventh, they were obviously pressing as they went down easily. On the second pitch of the seventh inning, Silver Spur hitter, Max McHugh, hit a Jack Hadley knuckleball over the center field fence. The Manhattan players will recover quickly, as they are 12-years old and they have a lot of baseball in front of them. And no one was to blame. They made good pitches and fielded every ball that stayed in the park. It will take longer for the coaches to recover, but again they did a great job. It was just meant to happen. The Silver Spur team demonstrated their quick strike offensive ability the next night with three more home runs and a 11-7 win over Lunada Bay. For the tournament, the Manhattan 12s placed third. They ended up playing the three best teams in the tournament and knocked two of them into the losers bracket. Their other loss was to Lunada Bay, who will play for the championship tonight. Congrats to the boys and thank you to the coaches, Tim Bradford, Gus Cardenas and John Whitaker, for a job well done. ___________________________________________________________________________________ July 8: The Manhattan 12-Year Old All Stars gave it everything they had, but came up short versus a very strong Lunada Bay All Star team on Sunday afternoon. The final score of the game was 5-3. Hope is not lost as the Manhattan 12-year Old All Stars can still fight back through the consolation bracket. They play again on Monday night at 7pm versus Silver Spur at the Marine Complex. The game was scoreless through three innings. Philip Prendergast was pitching well for the Manhattan Stars and he was supported with a strong fielding effort by the Manhattan team. Jack Hadley turned an unassisted double play to get the Manhattan team off the field in the first and Travis Bradford threw out a runner in the second. At the plate, the Manhattan 12s were frustrated, leaving a runner at 2nd in the first inning and the bases loaded in the second. In the top of the 4th, Manhattan again loaded the bases on two walks and an error. Austin Schoff put Manhattan up 3-0 with a bases clearing double. The lead was short lived. In the bottom of the 4th a single and back to back home runs tied the game. Philip, closed out the inning. Grant Southwood came on to pitch the bottom of the 5th inning. Lunada put two more runs on the board on a single, walk, error and a double. Manhattan fought hard, but couldn't put any runs on the board. ____________________________________________________________________________________ July 5: The Manhattan 12-Year Old All Stars persevered for a hard fought victory over a very good Silver Spur team on Thursday night at the Marine Complex. The game was decided on a two-out, walk-off, double by Jackson Casady in the 7th inning. The final score was Manhattan 3.....Silver Spur 2. The Manhattan 12-Year Old All Stars play again on Sunday at 1pm. All the District 36 All Star games are at the Marine Complex. Gordon Cardenas started the game for Manhattan strong, striking out four over the first two innings. In Manhattan's bottom of the second, with two down, Braden Casady walked. Philip Prendergast lined a triple to left field to score Braden. Philip then scored on a wild pitch. Manhattan was in position to do more damage after consecutive singles by Greg Whitaker and Travis Bradford followed by a Jack Hadley walk. But Jackson Casady struck out with the bases loaded. In the third inning, Manhattan had two more hits from Jack Dulgarian and Gordo. But pinch runner Christian Herrera was thrown out trying to score on a wild pitch and Gordon was thrown out trying to stretch his single into a double. In Silver Spur's top of the 4th, an error and two walks (the second one intentional) loaded the bases with two out. But the next Silver Spur hitter grounded out to 3rd baseman C Mac ending the threat. Gordon was cruising along in the top of the 5th after a strikeout and a nice play on a foul ball by first baseman Carter Casady. A single by Ryan Fuhrman and a two run home run by Jack Seaton tied the game in a flash. Gordon bounced back to strikeout the Silver Spur clean up hitter. In the bottom of the 5th, more base running problems hurt Manhattan. Shortstop Jack Hadley was hit by a pitch to start the inning. On a wild pitch, Jack was thrown out at 2nd base on a close play. To make matters worse, Jack was hurt on the play and needed to leave the game. A strike out and ground out ended the inning for Manhattan. Carter Casady came on to pitch for Manhattan in the top of the 6th and held Silver Spur hitless over the last two innings. The game moved into extra innings. In the bottom of the 7th, the first two Manhattan hitters went down easily. Travis Bradford drew a walk and moved up to second on a wild pitch. Austin Schoff walked to bring Jackson Casady to the plate. On a 0-1 pitch he lined a double into the right field gap to score Travis. In the game, Gordo pitched five innings giving up four hits, three walks and two runs. He struck out eight. Carter pitched the final two innings. He didn't allow a hit or walk and struck out four. In the field, C Mac, Greg Whitaker and Carter Casady contributed great plays. Travis also threw out a runner trying to steal. For much of the game, luck or fate didn't appear to be on Manhattan's side. But the boys kept battling and pulled out a tough victory over a very good team. ____________________________________________________________________________________ June 30th: The MLL 12-year old All Stars started their District Tournament with a well played win against a tough Palos Verdes team. The final score was 9-1 in a game that was much closer than the score showed. It was a team victory with every boy contributing with either their glove or bat. Grant Southwood was on the mound for Manhattan and found himself in immediate trouble after a double and single. The PV runner at first base tried to take an extra base, and was caught in a run down by catcher Travis Bradford. When the runner at third broke for home, Travis threw to Grant for the out at home. There was still more trouble as PV loaded the bases with two out. Third baseman Gordon "Gordo" Cardenas made a nice play on a grounder to get Manhattan out of the inning. In the bottom of the first, Travis doubled and scored on a clutch two out hit by Gordo. Again in the top of the second inning PV had runners on 2nd and 3rd with two out. This time third baseman Christian " C Mac" Macdonald made the play to close out the inning. PV tied the score at one in the top of the 3rd, but Manhattan grabbed the lead right back in the bottom of the 3rd on a Jack Hadley walk, stolen base and a single by Jackson Casady. In the bottom of the 4th, Manhattan broke the game open. Gordo and Grant lead off the inning with singles. Braden Casady doubled in two runs to push Manhattan's lead to 4-1. A Philip Prendergast single scored Braden. Philip was caught stealing. After an Austin Schoff walk and a single by Travis, Jack Hadley sent a ball down the first base line for a two run triple. Jack scored on a wild pitch to bring the score to 8-1. Manhattan added its 9th run in the bottom of the 5th when Braden was hit by a pitch, Philip walked and Greg Whitaker singled. Grant pitched four innings of one run ball for the win, with Philip throwing two innings for the save. Jack Hadley turned an unassisted double play to get the Manhattan team off the field in the 5th inning. Philip, Grant and Jackson all made nice plays in the outfield. Jack Dulgarian and Carter Casady handled all the throws at first base. The Manhattan 11/12 All Stars play again on Thursday, July 5th, at 5pm against the tough Silver Spur team. All the of the District 36 All Star games are at the Marine Complex.