Heat sizzles in title game

July 06, 2008 11:13 pm

— By Jim Henry
jhenry@joplinglobe.com
With temperature near 90 and bases loaded with nobody out in the top of the first inning, the Houston Heat felt heat everywhere.
However, the Heat escaped with minimal damage and trimmed the Bayside Yankees 4-2 Sunday afternoon in the championship game of the Premier Baseball Incoming Freshman Championship tournament at Joe Becker Stadium.
The Heat improved its record to 62-5 while claiming its 10th title in 12 tournaments this year. The Yankees, from New York City and in no way affiliated with the American League Yankees, saw their record drop to 12-5.
Heat left-handers Michael Bouribon and Hayden Jones combined to pitch a two-hitter. Bouribon allowed both runs (one earned) and one hit — Johnathan Gonzalez’s run-scoring single in the second inning — in four-plus innings. Bouribon walked eight batters and fanned six while throwing 87 pitches.
Jones retired nine of the 11 batters he faced — four on strikeouts — during the last three innings. He allowed one hit, Andrew Rosas’ roller into shallow right-center, with two outs in the seventh.
“Good pitching and good defense, that’s what they did,” Yankees coach Diego Garcia said. “That beats good hitting. ... We competed hard with a good ball club. I can’t ask my guys to do any more.”
Bouribon hit Sal Ciccone in the back with the game’s first pitch, then walked the next two hitters to fill the bases. But Bouribon, effective with his breaking pitch, gave up just one run on Alex Bernstein’s sacrifice fly to left. Catcher Boomer White ended the inning by picking off a runner who strayed too far away from second base.
“Bases loaded and no outs, we’re playing for our lives right there,” Heat coach Charlie White said. “We were one pitch away from taking (Bouribon) out. ... That back-door play by the catcher, that was huge.”
The Heat grabbed the lead with two runs in the bottom of the inning on an infield error and consecutive singles by White, Jones and Ben Carl. White’s hit to right and Carl’s single to left each scored a run.
Houston added two more runs in the second on White’s single to right and Jones’ sacrifice fly to left. White went 4-for-4 with three singles and a double to account for half of the Heat’s hits.
Yankees starter Stephen Shoemaker gave up five hits and four runs (three earned) in 3 1/3 innings. He walked five and fanned one. Chris Goetz allowed three hits, walked one and fanned one in 2 2/3 scoreless innings.
“Both my pitchers were coming back off three days rest,” Garcia said. “My hitters battled, we just didn’t catch the breaks. That happens sometimes. That’s the game.”
Texas teams also prevailed In the other two bracket finals.
The Arlington A’s Red beat the Wichita Sluggers 4-1 in the Silver Bracket, and the Fort Worth Cats downed the Southwest Longhorns from Nevada 10-1 in five innings in the Bronze Bracket final.
The Longhorns reached the final game with a 7-6 victory over the Southwest Missouri Miners from Joplin.
The Miners, who didn’t win a game in pool play, won their first Bronze Bracket game 9-8 over the Rawlings Prospects Mach from St. Louis on Saturday night. Preston Ryser singled to right field to score Jeff Terry with the winning run in the bottom of the seventh.
Payton Walker went 3-for-4 for the Miners, and Drew Bilke hit a triple. Darrell Brisco was the winning pitcher.

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