by PONY League World Series
WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania – Game #10 pitted Paderborn, Germany against Bay County, Michigan, in elimination game action at the 2016 DICK’S Sporting Goods PONY League World Series.
Coming off a 12-5 victory against Washington County, Bay County kept its hot bats rolling early against Paderborn. In the top of the second, third baseman Darren LaBean hit a three-run home run off Paderborn starting pitcher Nicolai Kirchoff to make it a 3-0 game.
The deficit didn’t stop Germany, as it managed to drop a crooked six spot in the bottom half of the inning to take a 6-3 lead. Colin Holzwarth started the scoring with a two RBI double to right center, scoring right fielder Marco Iberle and second baseman Joshua Steigert. Left fielder Mel Boerner tacked on two more runs, giving Paderborn a 4-3 lead, on a two RBI single, scoring Holzwarth and catcher Leon Still. Kirchoff drove in one the last two runs on a fielder’s choice, scoring Boerner. Also on the play, center fielder Elian Gentner scored on an error by Bay County shortstop Clay Weiss.
In the same inning, Bay County starting pitcher Carson Kwapiszewski was pulled after allowing six runs, all earned, four hits and three walks.
If anything has been learned during the 2016 DICK’S Sporting Goods PONY League World Series, it’s that no lead is ever safe.
After the six spot in the second inning, Bay County was right back at it with the bats spotting three more runs to tie the game at 6-6. Catcher Taylor Popp notched a single to left center scoring Logan Hugo and Blake Mitrzyk. Anthony Bernard scored the third run of inning, crossing the plate on a passed ball.
The book on Paderborn’s Kirchoff ended after allowing six runs, all earned, seven hits, two walks and a strikeout, over two innings. Paderborn had a golden opportunity to regain its lead, but left the bases loaded in the bottom half of the third.
Ben Cnudde was relieved of his duties in that inning after allowing no runs, two hits, two walks and two strikeouts in one and one-third innings. Bay County regained the lead in the top of the fourth inning when Hugo drove in Mitrzyk to go ahead 7-6.
In the sixth inning, Bay County added three more runs to bulk its lead to 10-6.
All runs in the inning were scored by way of extra base hits, as Hugo drove in another run with an RBI double, as well as Popp adding to his RBI total with an RBI double. Bernard also added an RBI triple in the mix. In the inning, Gentner was relieved of his duties as well after allowing four runs, all earned, five hits and three strikeouts.
After going scoreless three straight innings, Paderborn found the box score again with a three clip in the bottom of the sixth. Steigert and Iberle both contributed the first and second runs of the inning with RBI singles, while Still drove in the third run on a groundout to the shortstop.
Bay County added insurance in the seventh when Hugo drove in two runs on a two RBI double to make the score 12-9. For Hugo, it was his third and fourth RBI of the game.
In a last ditch effort in the bottom of the seventh, Paderborn left two runners stranded and lost 12-9.
Gentner picked up the loss for Paderborn, while Bernard picked up the victory for Bay County, allowing three runs, all earned, five hits, two walks and seven strikeouts over four and one-third innings.
With the victory, Bay County moves on in the loser’s bracket to face the loser of Game #12 tomorrow at 12:30 p.m. For Paderborn, its road toward the 2016 DICK’S Sporting Goods PONY League World Series comes to an end after a 12-0 victory of host Washington County, a 9-0 loss to Maui, Hawaii and today’s loss to Bay County.