The Antiques beat the Greenwood Ridge Dragons, 10-5, in the championship game of the 2006 Cal Cup, 55+ Division to claim their second regional championship this year.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | R | H | E | ||||||
| Dragons | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |||||||
| Antiques | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 1 | 4 |
Rich Battiato of the Antiques and Larry Hendrickson of the Dragons locked up in a tight pitchers' duel. The Dragons got out to a 3-0 lead by scoring single runs in the 3rd, 5th, and 6th. In the third, Hendrickson led off with a walk and scored on Steve Balling's single. Hendrickson and Balling also combined for the Dragons' second run in the 5th. Hendrickson led off with a single and scored on Balling's two-out double. In the sixth, Rick Chassey led off with a single. This time Pat McGlennon's two-out double drove in the run.
The Antiques finally got to Hendrickson in the sixth. With two out, Dave Beren, Randy Olson, and Terry Fail got consecutive singles to break the ice.
Down 3-1 in the bottom of the ninth, Fail and Steve Brye singled to open the inning. Jim Gardner bunted hard down the third base line; Fail was safe at third, sliding under McGlennon's diving tag. With one out, Battiato grounded out to short to drive in a run. Mike Ching walked to reload the bases. Denny Brown then got the tying RBI by drawing another walk from a tiring Hendrickson. Hendrickson got out of the inning on a 3-2 strikeout.
Fail relieved Battiato in the top of the tenth. Howard Campbell and Dennis McCroskey touched Fail with two-out singles, but Fail was able to end the inning without damage.
Leading off the bottom of the 10th, Beren reached on an infield error and moved to second on a passed ball. Olson moved him to third with a groundout to right side. With one out and Beren on third, the Dragons intentionally walked Fail and Brye to load the bases and brought in McCroskey in relief of Hendrickson. Gardner then foiled the Dragons' strategy with a game winning single between short and third.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||
| Antiques | 0 | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 0 | 9 | |||||||
| Grizzlies | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7 |
Extra innings, travel, and traffic combined to push the start of the Antiques - Grizzlies game back to nearly 6pm. Chabot College at that time creates a tough sun field on the left side of the infield and in left field.
Antiques catcher Panos Lagos scored the first run by himself in the third. He singled, got to second on an errant pickoff attempt, stole third, and scored when the catcher's throw went into left field. The Antiques scored two more that inning when Randy Olson, Dave Beren, and Rich Battiato each singled and stole a base.
Antiques starter Rich Hinkle got out of a mini-jam in the second when a sun-affected infield fly, and some base-running confusion ended the inning with an odd double play. In the bottom of the fourth, the Grizzlies jumped on Hinkle with the aid of the sun and scored 7 runs. A combination of well-hit, but possibly catchable balls, with some well-hit, uncatchable balls resulted in 6 singles and two doubles before an out was recorded. Phil Montes relieved Hinkle and got out of the inning by getting a sac fly to center and a strikeout, successfully keeping the Grizzlies from hitting more balls to left field.
The Antiques started their comeback in the sixth. Terry Fail and Steve Brye singled and move up on an infield out. Randy Cobb's base hit drove them in to bring the score to 7-5.
In the seventh, with the sun starting to set, the Antiques batted around and scored 4 runs to take a 9-7 lead. Hits by Mike Ching, Beren, Battiato, and Fail, tied the score at 7. Cobb's bases-loaded, two-out walk and Jim Kenney's single put us ahead 9-7.
Fail relieved Montes and pitched the 7th and 8th for the save.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||
| Giants | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 9 | ||||||
| Antiques | 3 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | x | 11 |
The Antiques jumped ahead in the bottom of the first. Phil Montes led off with a walk and a stolen base. Consecutive singles by Denny Brown, Rich Battiato, and Steve Brye scored three runs.
The Giants answered with a run in the second. Phil Bland singled and stole second. Donny DeCordova singled to put runners at the corners. A ground-ball double play scored Bland, but stifled the rally.
The Antiques scored three more in the second. George Esposito singled to open the inning. An infield error and Rich Hinkle's hit pushed across the first run. Rich Battiato's two-out single plated two more.
In the third, Mike Ching's leadoff single, a stolen base, and an infield error pushed the lead to 7-1.
The Giants got to Antiques starter Randy Baumgardner for another run in the 4th. Robert Stormont singled and scored on Gilbert Banuelos' double to left.
The Giants trimmed the Antiques' lead to 7-5 with a 3-run fifth. Phil Bland's leadoff triple started the rally. Baumgardner escaped after two singles and three walks by coaxing a bases-loaded groundout. The Antiques got one run back in the bottom of the fifth when Dave Beren singled and scored on Sal Esposito's groundout.
The Giants wouldn't go away, however. Banuelos got a one-out single and later scored on Phil Bland's ground ball. The Antiques threatened to break away again in the bottom of the sixth. Battiato drove in Montes to score one run, but a 1-2-3 double play killed the rally, leaving the score 9-6 after 6.
The Giants scored again in the top of the seventh. The Antiques answered with two in the bottom on singles by George Esposito, Montes, and Brown, pushing the lead to 11-7.
Baumgardner tired in the top of the eighth and walked Jerry Emanuelson and Calvin Dewey to open the inning. Brown relieved and gave up a two-out single to Mark Kriendler, but kept the damage at 1.
The Giants made it interesting in the top of the ninth. Three singles got the Giants to 11-9 with one out and runners at first and second. After a force out put runners at the corners, Brian Mau made a nice play on a hit-and-run ground ball to end the game.
The Antiques' 3-0 record secured the #1 seed. The Dragons beat the Grizzlies in the other Sunday morning game, to give them the second seed with a 2-1 record. The Grizzlies at 1-2 took third, and the Giants were 4th at 0-3.
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | R | H | E | |||||
| Dragons | 0 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 5 | ||||||
| Antiques | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 3 | 3 | 1 | x | 10 |
Antiques starting pitcher Randy Olson bent but didn't break in the championship game. He found himself behind 3-1 in the third and 5-3 in the sixth. But by the time he turned the game over to closer Terry Fail, the Antiques had come back to lead 10-5. Larry Hendrickson threw another excellent game for the Dragons, but couldn't hold off the Antiques late scoring. The Dragons threatened in the ninth, loading the bases, but Fail got a strikeout and a comebacker to end the game.
The Antiques opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. Olson led off with a base hit. Courtesy runner Phil Montes stole second and moved to third on an infield out. Pat McGlennon, the Dragons' third baseman, knocked down Rich Battiato's hot shot and made a near-perfect through to the plate. Luckily for the Antiques, the throw clipped the sliding Montes' helmet and bounced away.
McGlennon's one-out single started the Dragons' second inning rally. Redge Dondero singled and an Antiques error loaded the bases. Lou Patler's single scored McGlennon, but a Mike Ching to Phil Montes to Panos Lagos relay nailed Hendrickson (running for Dondero) at the plate. Chuck Tudor kept the rally going with an RBI single, driving in Howard Campbell.
Allan Green led off the third with a base hit and later scored on a Tony Shimetz single. The Antiques answered in the bottom when Montes reached on an error, stole second, moved to third on a wild pitch, and scored on Dave Beren's groundout.
The Antiques tied the score at 3-3 in the bottom of the 4th. Fail doubled, moved to third on Steve Brye's single, and scored on a wild pitch.
The Dragons jumped back into the lead in the top of the sixth. Rick Chassey and Shimetz got one out singles. With two outs, McGlennon's booming double plated both runners; a hustling Shimetz scored easily from first.
The Dragons lead was short-lived though. Battiato led off the bottom of the inning with a double to the fence in left. Fail's single put runners on the corners. Battiato, running to prevent a double play, was nailed at the plate on Brye's ground ball. Fail and Brye moved to second and third on an infield out. Mike Ching then came through with a clutch two-out base hit to tie the score, moving to second on the play at the plate. Jim Kenney then put us into the lead with another base hit. The score was 6-5 after 6.
The Antiques got some insurance in the seventh when Hendrickson's defense let him down. Olson led off with a double and Beren walked. Beren was forced at second on Battiato's potential double-play grounder, but the throw to first to complete the double play got away and Olson's courtesy runner scored. Fail's third hit of the game kept the rally going. Battiato later scored on a wild pitch, and Fail's courtesy runner scored on another throwing error.
The Antiques added one more in the bottom of the eighth. Montes drew a walk and scored on Olson's double. That sealed the decision to turn the ball over to Fail to close.
The Dragons continued to scrap. Dondero drew a walk, and Campbell and Patler singled to load the bases with one out. With the tying run in the on-deck circle, Fail got a strikeout and a comebacker to end the game.
The Cal Cup championship makes it two in a row for the Antiques. They also won the Las Vegas Open on Memorial Day weekend. Randy Olson was the winning pitcher in the championship game of both tournaments.