Last Wednesday, the Seattle Bombers lost to the Ridgecrest Desert Dawgs on the first day of the United States Amateur Baseball Association (USABA) World Series.
The Bombers have played near flawless baseball since then, and on Sunday afternoon, they came from behind to turn the tables on Ridgecrest, winning 6-5 in eight innings during a World Series winners bracket action at Governor's Field.
Seattle rallied from a 5-2 deficit, tied the score on Kevin Dvorak's three-run homer with two outs in the sixth inning and then won the game when Ryan Amos drove Justin Shorts home with a sacrifice fly in the bottom of the eighth.
By winning, the Bombers joined the Calgary Dawgs, the San Jose Giants and Triple Play as the four unbeaten teams remaining in the tournament's double elimination championship bracket play. Calgary breezed past the Fairfield Yankees 13-1, San Jose got past the Central Valley All-Stars (Fresno) 5-3 and Triple Play knocked off defending tournament champion West Oahu, 10-2.
Seattle faces Calgary at 9 a.m. today and San Jose takes on Triple Play at 1 p.m., with both games scheduled for Field 1 at Governor's Field.
Since losing their opener to Ridgecrest 6-4 last Wednesday, the Bombers have bounced back to post a 6-0-1 record in the tournament.
"I'm ecstatic. We've got some guys with big hearts," Bombers manager Mark Potoshnik said. "They battled and battled and never gave up.
"This has been a wonderful experience for us so far," he added. "We're enjoying it. The tournament's running good, we're seeing good competition. It's what you play the World Series for; to get in games like this and hopefully come out on top."
Ridgecrest scored six early runs and held on to beat Seattle 6-4 on the tournament's opening day behind Vince Tamez, who pitched six innings of no-hit ball.
"The first game of the tournament we faced the Dawgs and they threw that same pitcher, and he's tough. He's a really good pitcher, we were just lucky to be able to come back there at the end," Potoshnik said.
Seattle's Shorts walked and Amos singled in the sixth to set the stage for Dvorak, who hit a drive over the left-center field fence to tie the score.
Shorts singled to lead off Seattle's eighth, then stole second and third and scored when Amos hit his sacrifice fly to left field.
CALGARY 13, FAIRFIELD 1
The Calgary Dawgs scored 12 runs in the first three innings then coasted to their win in a game called in the fifth inning due to the tournament's 10-run rule.
Calgary had some big hits along the way. Jeff Werhun delivered a two-run triple in the first inning as the Dawgs took a 3-0 lead. They scored five more runs in the second, highlighted by Jim Henderson's bases loaded triple. Travis Drader's three-run homer to right field extended Calgary's lead to 12-0.
Justin Cardinal pitched five innings of six-hit ball to pick up the win. The 6-foot-5, 225-pound right-hander struck out five and walked none.
HAWAII 10, DOUGLAS 0
Hawaii got a two-hit, nine-strikeout pitching performance to defeat the Douglas Tigers in a game played at Douglas High School in Minden. Tommy Hoyle pitched all the way for Douglas.