14U Elite World Series – Day 5

Pitching was the name of the game in this low scoring affair between the D-Bat Mustangs – Southwest and the Utah Horns. The starting hurlers were Riley Gates for the Horns and Zach Gilbreath for the D-Bat Mustangs.

In the top of the first after getting into early trouble, Horns pitcher Riley Gates gets out of a jam when a passed ball leads to a put out at the plate by a fine play between the catcher and the pitcher to get the advancing runner.
 
In the top of the third inning with the D-Bat Mustangs batting, Horns pitcher Riley Gates surrenders the first run of the afternoon when D-Bat's second baseman Quinton Rohrbaugh hits into a fielders choice. However, the out was a small sacrifice as he brings in Dalton Howder from third.  After the run the Horns are feeling the pressure of the game breaking open and bring in a new pitcher, Dalton Carroll, and he shuts the door on the Texas boys.

As for the D-Bats, starting pitcher Zach Gilbreath cruises through the first four innings of almost perfect baseball.
 
But in the bottom of the fifth inning, Zach got into a little bit of trouble with runners on the corners. Zach wanted to work low in the strike zone in an effort to force a ground ball and hopefully a double play. He got what he wanted, a double play to end the inning unscaved.
 
In the top of the sixth the Mustangs get a leadoff double from Quinton who would eventually score when clean-up hitter, Drew Dowdy, knocks a double of his own. That put the Mustangs up 2-0. Drew was left stranded and the score remained 2-0 after six. 
 
In the top of the seventh Carroll of the horns walked the first two batters and then surrendered a single. That brought up a hot hitter in Mr. Rohrbaugh who connected on the first pitch for yet another RBI hit. The Horns would bend but not break and got out of the inning only surrendering two runs and trailing 4-0, still in striking distance.
 
In their last at bat, the Horns made it really interesting with a lead off walk and then a triple by Bronson Larson to cut the deficit to three runs. The next batter, Zac Willis, hits a lazy line drive to left to bring home Larson and cut the lead down to two. The Mustangs then relieve Gilbreath with Garrett Easton. Easton gets the first batter he faces to ground out only to have the next batter, Riley Ottsen, step up and single to right. With the tying run at the plate, the tension was mounting and both sides were holding their breath on every pitch. In the end it was Easton who won as he struck out the batter for the final out.
 
This game was very well pitched on both sides a few walks by the Horns and a couple of timely hits by the Mustangs and they are the victors by the score of 4-2.

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