CMWS 2014: Midland Redskins beat D-BAT Leach in Game 17 to move one win away from the title

Aug. 08--FARMINGTON -- The Midland Redskins are one win away from yet another Connie Mack World Series title.

The East Central Regional champs knocked off D-BAT Leach 7-4 on Thursday at Ricketts Park to remain unbeaten in the tournament.

"The team is extremely motivated," said Midland starting pitcher Zack Shannon, who is in his third CMWS. "I think I'm on another level though, being my third year out. This is my 10th or 11th year with Midland, and it's the last chance I get to play here and play with the team."

Midland looked to be cruising -- the Cincinnati-based team was up 5-0 in the fifth -- before its opponent from Dallas put up a fight over the next few innings.

D-BAT scored its first run of the game in the bottom of the fifth. Darien Simms reached on a two-out walk and then was driven in by Nate VanDyke on a triple to left.

Leach's squad could have added a second run in the inning on a wild pitch, but VanDyke didn't move from third.

D-BAT cut into the Midland lead further with three runs in the sixth.

Shannon was chased from the game after loading the bases with no outs.

Travis Stone drove in the first run of the inning on the first pitch from reliever Grant Macciocchi, scoring Blake Adams.

Pinch hitter Matt Bernstein ground to third with one out, allowing Noah McGowan to score from home.

Simms drove in Stone with a single to left to put D-BAT within a run of tying the game before VanDyke popped to the shortstop to end the inning.

"We got a little more selective at the plate," D-BAT manager Pat Leach said. "We laid off the bad pitches and took what they were giving us but just couldn't get that big pitch."

Midland added two insurance runs in the seventh but didn't need to do much work for them.

Three D-BAT pitchers walked four consecutive Redskins hitters during the inning to help Midland secure the victory.

"That gets frustrating, but they did a great job for us all year," Leach said.

The National qualifier came up with a lead-off double in the bottom of the seventh, but Brad Kirschner struck out two of the next three D-BAT hitters to get the save.

"That's a good team over there, and they were just better than us today," Leach said. "I'm proud of our guys though. They battled all year."

Midland struck for three runs in the top of the fourth.

A lead-off walk from Brandon Montgomery was followed with singles by Greg Deichmann and Justin Smith to score the first run, knocking Leach starter Jacob Patterson out of the game.

Austin Gehle came on in relief, giving up an RBI single to Jeren Kendall, along with a wild pitch for the other two Midland runs in the inning.

The Redskins tacked on two more runs in the fifth inning with the help of a couple of D-BAT errors.

Deichmann drove in a run on a sacrifice fly to left field and then Smith laced a double to the right field gap to put Midland up 5-0.

Shannon got the win on the mound for Midland, allowing three runs in five innings while reaching a series-high 96 MPH on radar gun.

"It was just the adrenaline flowing," the Redskins pitcher said.

Midland will face D-BAT Gallegos for the championship at 5:30 p.m. today. Gallegos will need to beat Midland twice to win the title.

"I'm on a mission, and I hope these guys are on that same mission," Shannon said.

Joshua Perry is the sports editor of The Daily Times. He can be reached at 505-564-4577 and jperry@daily-times.com. Follow him @jperrysuu on Twitter.

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