Cincinnati Steam

DOUBLE DIP!!!!
Steam Capture Both Regular Season and Tourney Titles

Columbus Takes the Steam out of Cincinnati with a come from behind Victory in Game 1

(Xenia, OH) – As the regular season champion Cincinnati Steam looked to take the post season crown away from the 2007 defending GLSCL tournament champion Columbus All American it became a pitchers duel early as Brian Sand and Matt Shoemaker went head to head. The game remained scoreless through five full innings only to have the offense for both teams come alive in the 6^th, 7^th and 8^th innings.

The Cincinnati Steam took a 3-0 lead in the 6^th and 7^th inning only to have Columbus take the lead in the bottom of the 8^th inning and take game 1 and force the if game against the Steam.

After five scoreless innings Cincinnati dented the scoreboard in the top of the 6^th inning putting together four straight base hits and scoring 2 runs. Nate Fields led off with a single to right and went to second on a bunt single by Ryan Strausborger. Fields and Strausborger advanced to third and second respectively as Matt Shoemaker throws a wild pitch. Zach Hurley laces an rbi base hit thru the left side scoring Fields from third, advancing Strausborger to third and on the throw to the plate that was cut off Hurley was thrown out at second trying to advance. With runner on third and one out, Tommy Nurre smashes a hit to right center past a drawn in infield scoring Strausborger to give the Steam a 2-0 lead.

The Steam added one insurance run in the top of the 7^th inning. Billy O’Conner led the inning off with a double that bounced off the left center field wall. After a line out and fly out, O’Conner scored from second on a ground ball that was hit by Brad Gschwind and thrown by the first baseman for the All American’s second error of the game.

Columbus took the lead in the bottom of the 8^th as the All Americans loaded the bases off two hits and a hit batsman off starter Brian Sand. Eric Braeckel came on to relieve for Brian Sand to try and preserve the 3-0 lead. Chris Lewis hit a single to left scoring Tyler Rogers from third and moving everyone up a base. Ryan Dew plated the second run of the inning and game for Columbus on a sacrifice fly to right scoring Cory Rupert from third and moving Hayden Johnston up to third. With one out Zach Dygert walked to load the bases for Robert Maddox III. Maddox hit a chopper to Tommy Nurre at first base, Nurre’s attempt to force Johnston at home is wide of home and pops out of catcher Billy O’Conner’s mitt when he tries to make a swipe tag, as the ball scoots away Chris Lewis scored to make it a 4-3 ball game. Kevin Mementowski would come on in the 9^th for a save thus propelling Columbus to the final and deciding game.

Game 1 Line Score

123 456 789 R H E
Cincinnati 000 002 100 3 8 1

Columbus 000 000 04x 4 7 2

WP – Shoemaker LP – Braeckel Sv – Mementowski

Hitting Leaders:

Steam – Strausborger (2-4, run scored), Hurley (2-4, rbi), Nurre (rbi), O’Conner (double)

Columbus – Johnston (1-2), Lewis (rbi), Dew (rbi)

Steam Roll to Championship In Game 2

Game 2 of the day would mark the 7^th meeting of the season between Cincinnati and Columbus. Cincinnati had won the first five contests, four in the regular season and the one yesterday that knocked Columbus into the loser’s bracket. The All Americans only victory coming in game one of today with a 4-3 come from behind victory forcing this deciding contest of the 2008 season.

Columbus dented the plate first in the top of the 2^nd inning when Zack Leonard scored on a two out rbi double by Tyler Rogers off Steam starter Bryan Earley. Cincinnati saw their one and raised them three by putting a four spot on the board in the bottom of the 2^nd inning off the Columbus starter Kevin Mementowski, who had been the closer in game 1 of the day. Brandon Besl led off the bottom of the 2^nd inning with a smash to the right field corner that was misplayed by Ryan Dew allowing Besl to go all the way to third. Billy O’Conner walked to put runners on first and third for Jon Edgington. Edgington hit a come backer to the mound that caught Besl to far off third for the first out of the inning. With runners on first and second and one out Steve Brown hit a single to right to load the bases. Brad Gschwind hits a laser to the right centerfield gap clearing the bases to give the Steam a 3-1 lead. Nate Fields hits an rbi groundout scoring Gschwind from third to extend the lead to 4-1. Ryan Kruzska came in to face Columbus in the top of the third replacing Earley. Kruzska started on Tuesday against the Lake Erie Monarchs and is working on two days rest. Cincinnati added one in the bottom of the third off a one out triple by Tommy Nurre and a sacrifice fly by Brandon Besl to make it a 5-1 game. Kruzska went four innings, faced sixteen hitters (retired the first 9 out of 10 batters he faced), walked one, hit two batters, struck out two and only gave up one hit. He encountered problems in his fourth inning of work, the top half of the 6^th inning but worked out of the jam when Columbus left the bases load. Kruzska’s day was done and he did just what the Steam needed to set up the relief core for the rest of the contest. David Middendorf came on in the seventh to face the pesky All Americans.

The game remained the same until the top of the 8^th when Robert Maddox hit a solo home run off David Middendorf with one out to make it 5-2. With that Coach Mike Maundrell decided it was time to bring in Steven Davis. Davis set down the two batters he faced to end the 8^th and the ball was handed over to closer specialist Steve Matre out of the College of Mount St. Joseph. When Matre was signed by the Steam this was the situation that he was signed for but after a doubleheader at Southern Ohio earlier in the season, not only closing, but pitching at all the remainder of the season was in question. Matre went through about a month of therapy and had not been actively pitching until last week. So in the top of the 9^th of the Championship game, Matre was called on to face the 9-1-2 hitters of the All Americans. Tyler Rogers was Matre’s first victim. Rogers took the count full but struck out swinging for the first out of the 9^th. The Steam were two outs away from the title. Next up for Columbus was Cory Rupert. Rupert as well took the count full, net end same result, strike out swinging for the second out of the 9^th, one out remained between Cincinnati and the Championship Title. Hayden Johnston would be that challenge. He was 2-4 coming into this plate appearance. Johnston took the count to 2-0 versus Matre, the wind up and the pitch, ground ball hit to Brad Gschwind who fields and throws onto Tommy Nurre at first base and The Cincinnati Steam have become the first team since 2004 to win both the regular season and tournament titles.

Cincinnati finishes the 2008 campaign with a 34-11 record (30-10 regular season and 4-1 in the playoff) and the most regular season victories since 2003 when the Northern Ohio Baseball Organization went 32-9. The Steam are presently 8^th in the nation and with the tournament championship looking to increase on their stellar summer.

123 456 789 R H E

Columbus 010 000 010 2 7 1

Cincinnati 041 000 00x 5 7 0

WP – Kruzska LP -- Mementowski Sv – Matre

Hitting Leaders:

Columbus – Johnston (2-5), Lewis (2-4), Maddox (HR, rbi), Rogers (double, rbi)

Cincinnati – Nurre (2-4, triple), Besl (double, rbi), O’Conner (double), S. Brown (2-3), Gschwind (double, 3 rbi)