NBC World Series Day 10

Upsets and controversial plays dominated the headlines of yesterdays games at the NBC World Series in Wichita.

....For the first eight innings, the El Dorado (KS) Broncos looked like they were in a great position to put away the Santa Barbara (CA) Foresters. Then came the ninth inning, and things got a little shaky from the El Dorado defense. The Foresters were able to put their first four batters on in the bottom of the ninth and were able to plate two runs before El Dorado put the game away with a late pop up from James Meador at the plate to end the game.

Starter Bryant Cotton got the win for the Broncos pitching a very strong game. Cotton came out of the gates dealing and only allowed three hits, one walk, and one earned run in his start, putting the El Dorado (KS) Broncos in a great situation to close out the contest. As for Santa Barbara (CA), Matt Hutchinson took the loss as the Foresters starting pitcher, throwing 4 1/3 innings giving up all four runs of the game. At the plate, shortstop Kyle Tiernan led the Broncos in hits going 2 for 5 at the plate. Duplicating Tiernan's performance was Santa Barbara's shortshop, Brandon Loy, who also went 2 for 5. With the win, the El Dorado (KS) Broncos will advance to the 5th round and will face the winner of the Liberal - Conejo game and will play on Wednesday. The defending NBC World Series champion Foresters will wait and play again in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

....Last nights nightcap, started two hours and twenty two minutes after it was originally slated to start, due to heavy rainstorms. Despite the late start, this game was worth sticking around for with the late inning theatrics.

After Conejo (CA) built a 5-0 lead in the bottom of the 4th, it looked like the Oaks were going to run away with the victory in the second winner's semifinal bracket game of the night.

The fun started in the top half of the 9th when Liberal got their first three batters on base. As Conejo held onto a two run lead with two outs, Liberal lined a pitch up the middle. Two runners were on at the time of the clutch hit, with the first scoring easily with the second runner being challenged with a throw at the plate.

In a controversial call, the home plate umpire signaled the Liberal runner safe, stating that he beat the throw and tag, enabling Liberal (KS) to tie up the game.

To no ones suprise in a bang bang play like this, Conejo's manager Riley was ejected for arguing the call. Shortly after that, the Oaks also lost rightfielder Kyle Jones to an ejection.

The BeeJays then were able to score the go ahead run with two outs to take the lead and hold off the Oaks final rally in 9th to take the win. With the win, Liberal (KS) advances to the 5th round to play El Dorado (KS) Broncos on Wednesday. As for the Conejo (CA) Oaks, they will play in the quarterfinals on Thursday.

....It was heated a battle between the Sedalia MO Bombers and the Hays KS Larks with neither team scoring in the first inning. In the second inning the Larks scored two runs going up 2-0.

After the completion of the bottom of fifth inning, it became clear that the Hays KS Larks were in control of the fight scoring three more runs giving them a total of five runs bringing the score to 5-0. The Hays KS Larks ended up taking it with a final score of 6-2. With this final defeat, the Sedalia Bombers are now eliminated from the tournament.

....Illinois' Crestwood Panthers were able to eliminate the Gunnison Colts of Colorado with a score of 6-5 in today's fourth game at Lawrence Dumont.

In the bottom of the first the Colts' Mark Sayes was able to put up the first run for the Colts after Jason Fobes single. While the Panthers had a slower start they were able to put up three runs in the top of the fourth. Bill Storrs hit a single allowing Marc Albano to run in and put the Panthers on the board.

This was soon followed by Randy Molina and Bill Storrs both adding runs to the Panthers score to round out the top of the inning. The top of the sixth brought a Panthers' single from Eric DeBlank to allow both Matt Kucharski and Brycen Bell to score.

The Colts' started a comeback in the bottom of the eighth after adding two runs to the board from Tyree Abshire and Jason Fobes.

Things heated up in the bottom of the ninth with bases loaded for the Colts and the Panthers' pitcher walked Mark Sayes allowing Eric Mattingly to score. Next up to bat for the Colts' was Jason Fobes who hit down the right field line allowing Ryan Stukey to tie up the score at 5-5. Eric Deblank came out strong in the top of the tenth for the Panthers, hitting a double down the left field line allowing for the run and the win by Joe Malia. The Crestwood Panthers will advance on and play at 5:00 on Wednesday against the Hays Larks.