The Oaks raise Palo Alto Babe Ruth trophy
By Vytas Mazeika, Palo Alto Daily News, Calif. | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
The challengers almost pulled it off, nearly winning Game 1 via mercy rule in a 15-6 rout. But at the end of the night, after more than five hours and 14 innings, it was The Oaks who were crowned champions with an 8-3 victory in the winner-take-all contest.
"Going out with a championship is the way to go out," said The Oaks shortstop
Runs were hardly scarce, except in one scenario. The league leader in runs scored,
"It was kind of this thing, that if you want to beat us just load the bases and we'll figure out a way of not getting the big hit to finish it off,"
Tied 3-all in the top of the fourth of Game 2,
"Without the defense, nothing would have happened," Stern said. "I'm not like a strikeout sort of pitcher anyway, so it was good defense."
The Oaks rallied to take the lead in the bottom of the frame, with
"Everything was working, so I felt a connection," said Pruhsmeier, who will be a freshman at
"Those guys are just going to beat you up," Fried said of the top of the lineup for the The Oaks of Cleasby, Stern and Pruhsmeier, who combined to go 6 for 10 with two walks in Game 2. "And one of the things I told our guys was, 'Try to minimize the damage. Try and focus on the other half of the lineup.' "
That strategy worked in the opener. Stern scored on a wild pitch in the bottom of the first, but
"One thing we stressed on was put pressure on them early in the game and then see what happens," said Fried, who sent Chang to the mound for Game 1 and the veteran responded by scattering nine hits in a complete-game effort. "And that's what we did in the first game, we got some runs and we kind of built on that. ... And I thought we were going to carry that same kind of momentum over to the second game, and it's just one of those things of baseball. We hit the ball hard, hard, hard and we were hitting it right at somebody. And they seemed to find every hole that you can imagine when they were hitting."
The Oaks added three insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth, but
Stern was pulled after 5 1/3 innings in which he allowed six hits and walked five. In came Cleasby, a southpaw who quickly induced the last two outs to strand the base runners.
"In that first game, you could tell the energy for us wasn't there and just things weren't going for us," Cleasby said. "We just regrouped, got our energy level, came out and things just started working."
Pruhsmeier added: "Played good, clean baseball."
As if that wasn't enough, Cleasby struck out the side in the top of the seventh, securing the championship with an outside fastball on an 0-2 count as the final batter whiffed.
"I'm actually pumped for this," Cleasby said.
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