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Blue Dragons'
World Series run
comes to an end
By Steve Carpenter
HCC Sports Information Director
Monday, May 30, 2005
GRAND JUNCION, Colo. – Just when it
looked like there was one more comeback left in them, the Hutchinson
Blue Dragons’ season came to an end on Monday.
Trailing by as many as eight runs to
South Mountain, Ariz., in an
elimination game of the 2005 NJCAA World Series on Monday at Suplizio
Field, the Blue Dragons nearly came all the way back, but lost 11-8,
ending HCC’s first appearance in the World Series with a 1-2 record.
Hutchinson, which won its first
regional baseball championship in 30 years, completes head coach Kyle
Crookes’ first season at 38-22, and as Jayhawk West and Region VI
champions.
Of their eight postseason wins, six
were of the come-from-behind variety, including Sunday’s 7-5 win over
Walters State, Tenn. The Blue Dragons were also 4-0 in elimination
games this season. When the Dragons fell behind 10-2 in the fifth
inning, it looked like South Mountain might run-rule HCC.
But as they have all season, especially
in the postseason, the Blue Dragons battled back and gave themselves
an opportunity to win the game.
The Blue Dragons scored in five of
their final six at-bats and the bullpen of Adam Cornejo, Andy Dirks
and Iban Ramirez quieted down the Cougar bats, allowing only one run
and just five hits over the final 4 2-3 innings.
A big downfall for the Dragons on
Monday was defense. HCC committed four errors that led to nine
unearned runs. Blue Dragon starting pitcher Thad Weber gave up nine
runs, but only one was earned, in 4 1-3 innings.
Hutchinson out-hit South Mountain 13-12, getting
career-high three hits each from sophomore left fielder Andrew
Prignitz and freshman third baseman Like Naccarato. Freshman Lindy
Wray was 2 for 3 and finished the World Series with a .500 batting
average (5 for 10). Prignitz and Noah Krol drove in two runs each and
Prignitz scored a pair of runs. Sophomore Balin Bergman hit HCC’s only
home run of the World Series, a mammoth homer over the left-field
wall.
The HCC pitching staff did manage to
hold down South Mountain first baseman Luis
Nieblas, who started the World Series by going 7 for his first 7.
Nieblas was 1 for 5 on Monday. Anthony Franco and Isiah Ka’aihue led
the Cougar offense, each going 3 for 3. Ka’aihue also hit his second
home run of the tournament, a solo shot in the sixth off of Dirks.
HIGHLIGHTS
The Dragons got some good early
defense. Catcher Torey Williams threw out South Mountain’s Franco on a steal
attempt of second base. In the second, Naccarato made a tough fielding
play to erase Ka’aihue in a rundown between second and third.
But a leadoff walk in South Mountain’s
half of the third started a downward spiral for the Blue Dragons. A
throwing error by Naccarato allowed two runs to score, then Ka’aihue
doubled to give the Cougars a 3-0 lead. South Mountain plated three more runs
in the fourth on a two-run double by C.J. Retherford and a Franco RBI
single for a 6-0 lead.
HCC cracked the scoreboard for the
first time in the fourth. Naccarato singled to scored Prignitz, who
reached on an error to lead off the inning. Wray scored on the back
end of a double steal to cut the South Mountain lead to 6-2.
Two more Blue Dragon errors in the
Cougar fifth led to four more runs and a 10-2 lead and things really
looked bleak for HCC at that point.
HCC scratched out two more runs in the
fifth on a Dirks groundout and a Prignitz single to score pinch hitter
Johnny Mitchell. Ka’aihue hit a solo homer off of Dirks in the sixth
to give South Mountain an 11-4 lead.
The Dragons got a two-out rally going
in the seventh when Krol broke out of his hitting slump with a ringing
double off the right-field wall to score Prignitz and Clint Elkins to
trim the deficit to 11-6.
Bergman homered with two outs in the
eighth inning to slice to South Mountain lead to 11-7.
After Iban Ramirez pitched out of a
small jam in the top of the ninth, the Dragons took their final shot
against Retherford, South Mountain’s starter who went the
distance for the Cougars.
With one out, Dirks doubled to left
center and scored on a Prignitz single to cut the deficit to 11-8.
Krol hit another smash to left, but the Cougar defense had him played
perfectly for the second out. The game ended when pinch hitter Todd
Schonhoff was called out on strikes.
QUOTES
Head coach Kyle Crookes
Discussing South Mountain’s
ability to jump on HCC errors …
“You give teams like that additional
opportunities with errors, they take advantage. It’s not just an error
and you’re out of the inning. It’s an error and two or three runs. It
happens every time. They had more big innings than us.”
On giving up only one earned run
to South Mountain’s potent lineup …
“When I looked up and down that lineup,
there wasn’t a guy who I would want to throw to ever again. Those guys
have been swinging with a wood bat all year and now they have aluminum
in their hands. They are feasting on anything they see. Thad (Weber)
made quality pitches today. If you don’t get every single out in every
single opportunity, they are going to make you pay. All of their guys
are scary up and down the lineup.”
On the Blue Dragon late-game
rally falling short …
“This is bittersweet (to end the season
like this) because we want to win. It doesn’t ever feel good to lose.
I want more for my kids. They play hard enough to win all the time and
when you don’t, it hurts.”
On the offense finding its stride
vs. South Mountain …
“The guy we faced today wasn’t throwing
quite as hard, but he was throwing three pitches for strikes. I think
they were getting used to the atmosphere and the field and acclimating
yourself. That had something to do with it. If we would have stayed
around longer, I would have liked to think we would have gotten even
better. We just didn’t give ourselves that opportunity.”
On some little-used reserves
coming through in Monday’s game …
“We’ve got the ability up and down the
lineup. Sometimes it just becomes a numbers game. Balin came up big
and has that ability. Mitchell’s always been able to hit. I’m proud of
those guys and the way they came through like they did.”
On his thoughts about the 2005
season …
“I couldn’t be more proud of the kids
and what they’ve done. I am extremely happy with the end result. If
you have to end your season on a loss, this is the place to do it. It
softens the blow a little bit.”
Left fielder Andrew Prignitz
On South Mountain getting a big,
early lead and the Blue Dragons rallying late …
“We didn’t panic. We’ve gone through
this all year long. A lot of times this year we’ve won them, but this
time we came up short.”
On out-hitting South Mountain and
getting the offense going …
“Today we swung (the bats) really well.
At first, we didn’t. Their pitcher did a really good job of changing
speeds on us. He didn’t have the best stuff, but he did a good job of
changing speeds and location. We finally got on him and stopped
chasing his curveball and got familiar with him a little bit and
started to recognize what he was throwing.”
On ending the season …
“It’s bittersweet. It’s awesome that we
made it this far, but we realty wanted to come out on time. It was
nice to get here, but once we got here, we really wanted to win the
whole thing.”
Third baseman Luke Naccarato
On getting the offense going …
“It’s a frustrating way to end the
season, but all-in-all it was a successful year. If a few balls would
have bounced our way, it could have been different. Everyone came out
and swung the bats really well. If you are going to go down, go down
swinging.”
On the four errors committed
against South Mountain …
“It was definitely a bad time to start
overthrowing first base.”
On his thoughts about the 2005
season overall …
“The season’s been great. The Region VI
title was probably more than most people expected. We came out here
and for the most part, we performed well. It’s been a trait of this
team to fight back when we were down. We’ve done it all year. We just
came up a little short today.”
Right fielder Lindy Wray
On the 2005 season …
“We had a lot of new faces and the
coaching situation happened over the summer. We knew we were going to
have to do the small things to be successful. Early in the season, it
took a while for us to adjust to college level and the new coaches.
But as the season went on, we just kept getting better and better. Our
confidence just kept getting better and better and it got us to this
points. That’s pretty good from where we started from.”
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