GLSCL Championship Game 2 – Steam Roll to Championship

Game 2 of the day would mark the 7^th meeting of the season between Cincinnati and Columbus.  Cincinnati had won the first five contests, four in the regular season and the one yesterday that knocked Columbus into the loser’s bracket.  The All Americans only victory coming in game one of today with a 4-3 come from behind victory forcing this deciding contest of the 2008 season.

 

Columbus dented the plate first in the top of the 2^nd inning when Zack Leonard scored on a two out rbi double by Tyler Rogers off Steam starter Bryan Earley.  Cincinnati saw their one and raised them three by putting a four spot on the board in the bottom of the 2^nd inning off the Columbus starter Kevin Mementowski, who had been the closer in game 1 of the day.  Brandon Besl led off the bottom of the 2^nd inning with a smash to the right field corner that was misplayed by Ryan Dew allowing Besl to go all the way to third.  Billy O’Conner walked to put runners on first and third for Jon Edgington.  Edgington hit a come backer to the mound that caught Besl to far off third for the first out of the inning.  With runners on first and second and one out Steve Brown hit a single to right to load the bases.  Brad Gschwind hits a laser to the right centerfield gap clearing the bases to give the Steam a 3-1 lead.  Nate Fields hits an rbi groundout scoring Gschwind from third to extend the lead to 4-1.  Ryan Kruzska came in to face Columbus in the top of the third replacing Earley.  Kruzska started on Tuesday against the Lake Erie Monarchs and is working on two days rest.  Cincinnati added one in the bottom of the third off a one out triple by Tommy Nurre and a sacrifice fly by Brandon Besl to make it a 5-1 game.  Kruzska went four innings, faced sixteen hitters (retired the first 9 out of 10 batters he faced), walked one, hit two batters, struck out two and only gave up one hit.   He encountered problems in his fourth inning of work, the top half of the 6^th inning but worked out of the jam when Columbus left the bases load.  Kruzska’s day was done and he did just what the Steam needed to set up the relief core for the rest of the contest.  David Middendorf came on in the seventh to face the pesky All Americans.

 

The game remained the same until the top of the 8^th when Robert Maddox hit a solo home run off David Middendorf with one out to make it 5-2.  With that Coach Mike Maundrell decided it was time to bring in Steven Davis.  Davis set down the two batters he faced to end the 8^th and the ball was handed over to closer specialist Steve Matre out of the College of Mount St. Joseph.  When Matre was signed by the Steam this was the situation that he was signed for but after a doubleheader at Southern Ohio earlier in the season, not only closing, but pitching at all the remainder of the season was in question.  Matre went through about a month of therapy and had not been actively pitching until last week.  So in the top of the 9^th of the Championship game, Matre was called on to face the 9-1-2 hitters of the All Americans.  Tyler Rogers was Matre’s first victim.  Rogers took the count full but struck out swinging for the first out of the 9^th.  The Steam were two outs away from the title.  Next up for Columbus was Cory Rupert.  Rupert as well took the count full, net end same result, strike out swinging for the second out of the 9^th, one out remained between Cincinnati and the Championship Title.  Hayden Johnston would be that challenge.  He was 2-4 coming into this plate appearance.  Johnston took the count to 2-0 versus Matre, the wind up and the pitch, ground ball hit to Brad Gschwind who fields and throws onto Tommy Nurre at first base and The Cincinnati Steam have become the first team since 2004 to win both the regular season and tournament titles.

 

Cincinnati finishes the 2008 campaign with a 34-11 record (30-10 regular season and 4-1 in the playoff) and the most regular season victories since 2003 when the Northern Ohio Baseball Organization went 32-9.  The Steam are presently 8^th in the nation and with the tournament championship looking to increase on their stellar summer.

 

 

 

                                      123        456        789        R            H            E

Columbus                    010        000        010        2             7             1

Cincinnati                    041        000        00x         5             7             0

 

WP – Kruzska             LP — Mementowski           Sv – Matre

 

 

Hitting Leaders:

 

Columbus – Johnston (2-5), Lewis (2-4), Maddox (HR, rbi), Rogers (double, rbi)

 

Cincinnati – Nurre (2-4, triple), Besl (double, rbi), O’Conner (double), S. Brown (2-3), Gschwind (double, 3 rbi)