by Thommy Brolin
Karlskoga won the first game of the Swedish Finals 7-0 against Sundyberg after excellent pitching and an offensive outburst in the ninth inning. Karlskoga’s ace Adam SOWELL returned to the rotation after missing the semi-finals with an hand injury.
And what a comeback it was…
He recorded six innings pitched, no runs, no walks, six strikeouts and five hits. Sundbyberg threatend big time in the sixth inning, but apart from that Adam Sowell was cruising.
Karlskoga got things going in the first inning with a basehit from lead-off Petter LUNDBERG, when he hit a fly ball towards the foul-line that the Sundbyberg leftfielder lost in the sun. Sundbyberg erased this initial setback with a beautiful doubleplay by Eric MERCADO, Oliver GAJZLER and Robert PORSKLINT on Joe ROVIROSA’s sharp grounder to short. Third batter SOWELL drew a walk, Shawn VANCE singled to move SOWELL to second, and when Stefan FAHLIN hits another flyball to leftfield that is also lost in the sun, Karlskoga can take the lead as SOWELL scores from second.
This 1-0 lead remained through eight innings, as SOWELL and Sami SÄKKINEN for Karlskoga, and Will RIKARD and Rickard LJUNG for Sundbyberg all pitched flawlessly.
In the sixth inning Sundbyberg mounted a big threat on the Karlskoga lead. LJUNG leads off with a basehit, Will RIKARD lays down a perfect dragbunt to third to put runners on first and second. Philip GAJZLER hits a basehit to centerfield to load the bases. A perfect throw from Karlskoga centerfielder Christoffer JOHANSSON prevents LJUNG from trying to advance beyond third base.
This means Sundbyberg has bases loaded, no outs and a golden opportunity to take the lead in the game.
But SOWELL had other plans. First he gets Per Lindgren to strike out swinging, after Adam falls behind 2-0. Next batter is Robert PORSKLINT who hits a flyball to rightfield, but too short to tempt LJUNG to score from third.SOWELL goes on to strike out MERCADO, and the inning and also Sundbybergs chances to swing the game is gone.
In the eight inning, with SÄKKINEN pitching, Sundbyberg has LINDGREN on first base when PORSKLINT hits a liner in the leftcenter gap.
Karlskoga outfielder LUNDBERG makes an almost impossible diving catch and stops the possible rally from Sundbyberg. If Petter had missed this catch, LINDGREN had almost certainly tied the game from first base.
In the top of the ninth inning Karlskoga adds six runs to their tally with five hits (two doubles and a triple) and aided by two Sundbyberg errors.
Stefan FAHLIN and Olle ÖIJEN both had two hits for Karlskoga, and were the most productive hitters for their team. SOWELL, SÄKKINEN and Ronny FRID, who pitched a perfect ninth, all pitchted outstanding for Karlskoga. Elias SÖLVELING at second base reached anything that was hit in his direction, and made a couple of very good defensive plays. For the home team catcher Peppe ELFWING played very solid defense and caught the only Karlskoga player trying to steal a base.LJUNG played good defense too, and caught a superb fly ball in the third inning.