Fallon Phillies league champions at last

The Fallon Phillies, a team from the Babe Ruth baseball league notorious for hosting future Greenwave talent, has now earned a little more notoriety just when Fallon thought prep sports hype was over.

Coach Ernie Gonzalez, who took a five-year leave of absence from the team before returning to action this year, brought the luck with him and led the Phillies to win the inner-league tournament in Sparks against the South Reno Angels, 8-7, as well as the Babe Ruth championship in Fallon against the Fallon Tigers, 7-5.

“After 40 years of coaching I stopped, but I caught the baseball withdrawal and came back,” Gonzales said of his return. “This is the first time I have ever been to an inner-league tournament (Sparks). We went up there and we know they’re really tough since normally when we would make it to that tournament in the first two games we’d be out already.”

Gonzales, well known for nurturing past Greenwave stars including a 15-year old Lester de Braga decades ago, said the first game of the inner-league tournament against the Sparks Tigers was a well-known surprise. The Phillies won 9-3, in a victory Gonzales attributed to teamwork.

“I’ve got a patch I wear on my sleeve which says ‘Teamwork is an attitude: yours’ and every time somebody’s attitude goes down, I take them aside and I point to this, and then all of a sudden we start coming back,” Gonzales said.

Though team effort was undeniable, Gonzales commended team leader Noah Krog along with Josh Marin and Emily Marshall, the top of the batting order stacking on the runs.

“(Emily) did really excellent,” he said. “For me to put her there in the batting order and second base, she was the kind to bring out the best in everybody,” Gonzales said, adding Marshall was key in turning double plays. At-bat Marshall had a key single after a double by Marin, both scoring runners before Krog had the hit of the game, a two RBI triple.

The Phillies met the Reno Angels in the second game before their rematch in the finals and won with an unexpected shutout, 5-0, thanks again to two runs brought in by Marin and Marshall.

“The attitude was great,” Gonzales said of the winning streak. “They didn’t give up once.”

The Phillies’ third game against the Sparks Angels, though dominant at a 17-3 victory, was a controversial one after one of Fallon’s assistant coaches and the head coach of the Angels were thrown out due to an exchange of words and an accusation of cheating against Fallon.

“I took the kids real quick and saw there was an attitude and said, ‘we need to keep it up no matter what the umpire does or the other coach does because we have to play as a team,” Gonzales said.

The accusation was due to Gonzales choice to pitch Neil Marin, Josh Marin’s 13-year old younger brother who had pitched no more than seven innings all season. Neil Marin was brought up due to the absence of veteran Ethan Martinez and Marshall this game. Despite being on the low end of the team’s age gap with players between 13 and 17, the younger and less experienced pitcher held the Sparks Angels to three runs.

“He was a young guy; (he) came out of nowhere,” Gonzales said of Neil Marin. “I asked him even at the end if he needed a rest and he still finished it out in the last inning, four up and three down with only one steal. It was something.”

The inner-league championship rematch with the South Reno Angels was a much different story from the previous encounter, though, the Phillies led for six innings straight even with Martinez and Marshall still absent.

The Phillies needed one more out and had Reno 7-2 until the Angels came back with five more runs. Fallon’s last hit was by Joe “Jojo” Hill who brought in Marin from second with an RBI to cinch the regional title.

“It was great,” Gonzales said. “I’ve always told the kids, ‘I want the golden ring but even if I don’t get the golden ring or the bronze or the silver it doesn’t matter.’ You know you’ve done something good when your team pulls together and has a good attitude.”

Returning home on Monday for the league championship with fellow locals the Tigers, the Phillies came away with another close victory at 7-5 at the regional field on Sheckler Road. Fan and parent turnout was fantastic according to Gonzales, who returned Krog to the mound and won the game by a narrow two runs in the last inning. It was, Gonzales said, the first time in 40 years he ran out of room in his playbook.

“(Not) taking away from the Tigers or from the coaches,” Gonzales specified. “(Not) taking away from Ralph Hammond who did an excellent job. The kids played 100 percent, mine just played that half percent more.”

The title game was the last before the All-Star season begins July 14, a travel team comprised of players from the three Fallon teams the Phillies, Tigers and Giants.

“I know how to dig into the heart and soul and make them believe in themselves,” Gonzales said on the end of his first victorious season, “and I love it.”