T.N.T.’s dynamic duo of Jeremy Tracy and Jay Herr exploded on the California Lumberkings Saturday morning combining for three home runs, four RBIs and a dominating three-hit pitching performance as the ISC II title heads south of the Canadian border for the first time ever and will reside in South Lebanon, Pennsylvania with T.N.T.<\/p>\n
Tracy set the tone early, following a lead-off walk to Bob Wengert with a two-run home run. In the the third inning, Tracy ended Lumberkings’ starter Darren Strang’s day with a solo shot. Herr greeted reliever Ed Gaspar with a first pitch line drive HR, his record 7th of the tournament, to complete the scoring for the new champions.<\/p>\n
The Lumberkings got two back in the 5th inning as Jon Nimmo belted another tape measure home run to score Kevin Castillo who had led off the inning with a walk. But that was all for the #2 ranked California team as Tracy shut the door the rest of the way, inducing a ground ball to second for the final out.<\/p>\n
Herr was named the MVP and also garnered awards for Top Hitter, .571 heading into action Saturday, and Most RBIs with 16.<\/p>\n
Tracy, who finished 7-0, was the Top Pitcher.<\/p>\n
After three days of close competition in the round robin portion of the Tournament of Champions, the three playoff rounds on Friday produced even better games and ever-increasing pressure that culminated in two semi-finals that may never be duplicated for sheer drama.<\/p>\n
On diamond one, Herr clobbered a rise ball from Niagara Snappers’ ace Corey Costello in the bottom of the first inning to plate himself and Tracy who had walked. The two-run lead would stand into the top of the fifth when Adam Dearborn sent one over the left field bleachers to make it 2-1. In the Snapper sixth, Costello drove a ball into right-center that was never more than 15 feet off the ground when it disappeared between the bleachers to even things at two.<\/p>\n
With nothing settled in the 7th, the two teams headed into the eighth using the international tie-breaker rule starting a runner at second. Scott Young executed a perfect sacrifice bunt moving pinch runner Kres Anderson to third. After a walk to Jarrod Burtt, Costello hit a hard two-hopper through a drawn in infield to put the Snappers out in front 3-2. However, that was as far as the last Ontario team would get as they were unable to extend the lead.<\/p>\n
In the home half of the 8th, Herr crushed the second pitch over the left-center bleachers for the come-from-behind, walk-off home run to send T.N.T. to the final, setting up the first all-American final.<\/p>\n
Over on diamond two, it was a lock that a California team would make the final for the first time as the California Lumberkings were facing A-1\/Taylor Farms, their rivals from upstate. A-1\/Taylor took an early 3-0 lead on RBI singles by Jason Gluckman in the 2nd inning and by Greg Oliver and Jeff Twist in the 3rd.<\/p>\n
The Lumberkings got one back in the 4th as Tim Hunt scored on a passed ball. In the top of the 7th, the Lumberkings closed the gap to 3-2 on an RBI double by Brian Teeters to score pinch runner Ryne Hicks. With the bases loaded, Tim Hunt worked A-1\/Taylor pitcher Dave Drotzman for a walk to score Kasey Knight, sending the game into extra innings.<\/p>\n
In the Lumkerkings’ 8th, ITB runner Kevin Castillo was sacrificed to third by Chris Hunt and scored on a wild pitch. Jon Nimmo then launched a massive solo HR for what turned out to the be the winning run. For A-1\/Taylor in the bottom of the 8th, Rich Moore singled to score Eddie Martin. After a single by Marcus Tan and a walk to Greg Oliver, Jeff Twist bounced into a controversial game-ending double play as it was ruled that Oliver was off the baseline trying to avoid the tag.<\/p>\n
Three games. Two extra innings games. Bases loaded pressure. Walk off home runs. Unrivaled drama. One champion. Memories that will last a lifetime. Priceless.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
T.N.T.’s dynamic duo of Jeremy Tracy and Jay Herr exploded on the California Lumberkings Saturday morning combining for three home runs, four RBIs and a dominating three-hit pitching performance as the ISC II title heads south of the Canadian border for the first time ever and will reside in South Lebanon, Pennsylvania with T.N.T. Tracy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[19,1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/thedeuce\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/thedeuce\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/thedeuce\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/thedeuce\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/thedeuce\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=828"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/thedeuce\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/thedeuce\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=828"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/thedeuce\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=828"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fastpitchwest.com\/thedeuce\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=828"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}