Desert Dawgs eliminated by Triple Play

Ridgecrest lost a 2-1 lead in the sixth when Triple Play scored seven runs in the inning, and the Desert Dawgs were eliminated after an 8-4 loss Wednesday at the United States Amateur Baseball Association World Series.

Tyler Curran's RBI single in the top of the sixth gave the Desert Dawgs their second lead of the game. But the Hornets stormed back later in the inning with three home runs that surprised Ridgecrest coach John Bradley.

"I never envisioned that to happen, but they're a good team," Bradley said.

In the pivotal sixth inning, Matt Larson started things off with a two-run homer off pitcher Caleb Crow, who allowed only three hits prior to the sixth. Crow gave up a single to Jeremy Koenig, walked Aaron Trolia and then hit Josh Wolfram with a pitch to load the bases.

Matt Freese replaced Crow on the mound, but that didn't alleviate the Desert Dawgs' problems. Koenig came into score after a Freese passed ball.

With two outs, David Shoemaker's three-run blast that flew over the center field wall increased Triple Play's lead to 7-2. That was followed by Nolan Antonoff's solo homer to make it 8-2. The three Hornet home runs in the sixth were most hit by any team in an inning during the tournament.

"You know, that can happen at any given time. Any team can do that," Bradley said.

In the seventh, Casey Groves had a two-run homer of his own that finished the scoring at 8-4.

The Desert Dawgs' first lead came in the fifth. Groves hit a RBI double that scored Vince Tamez and made the score 1-0. But the Hornets tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the fifth after Josh Wolfram's double.

The Desert Dawgs finished sixth out of 12 teams in the World Series, which Bradley is somewhat pleased about.

"It's satisfactory, because when we started there were 12 teams and we were right in the middle of the pack," said Bradley, who mentioned that people didn't even know where Ridgecrest was before the tournament.

"Nobody gave us a chance to finish towards the top," Bradley said. "We came in and we were going to show people that we can play. We didn't come out on top where we wanted to, but I think we earned a little bit of respect."