Brownsville topples Washington County in elimination game
Washington’s Justin Naylor delivers a pitch Monday against Brownsville during a Pony League World Series game at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington.
Brownsville, Texas' Marco Martinez jumps over Washington catcher Mekos Mantalis in the eighth inning to score the game-winning run in a Pony League World Series game at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington.
Washington’s Brandon Adams slides into second base under Brownsville’s Derick Ramirez during a Pony League World Series game Monday at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington.
Celeste Van Kirk/Observer-Reporter YoungstownþÄôs Ronnie Howard III gets run down by MexicoþÄôs Pedro Cervantes,left, and Nomar Valder and during the Pony League World Series at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington on Monday, August 14, 2017.
Washington’s Blake Stanton scores a run Monday in front of Brownsville catcher Heriberto Maldonado during a Pony League World Series game at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington.
As errors on both sides turned into a pitching duel that stretched into the late afternoon hours, Marco Martinez grew tired of playing extra innings.
He and the Brownsville, Texas, team grew frustrated with every at-bat as they failed to solve Washington County lefty pitcher Justin Naylor.
The irritation as Martinez jaunted to first base after being hit by a pitch with one out in a 3-3 tie in the bottom of the eighth inning still existed.
Moving to second base after an error by Washington, the only thing Martinez was eyeing was home plate.
When Brownsville leadoff hitter Darren Ramirez went with a pitch, sending a ground ball between first and second base and into right field, Martinez wasn’t going to have manager Fernando Torres hold him from going the last 80 feet.
Blowing through the stop sign given by Torres at third base, Martinez, still several strides away from home plate, saw Washington catcher Mekos Mantalis waiting after collecting the relay throw.
As Mantalis leaned forward and prepared to apply the tag, Martinez did what nobody at Lew Hays Pony Field expected.
He jumped.
Hurdling over the tag, Martinez landed on a corner of home plate to give Brownsville a 4-3 win in eight innings Monday afternoon to survive and advance to today’s elimination game at 12:30 p.m.
“I heard the crack of the bat and felt it was do or die,” Martinez said while trying to catch his breath minutes after the game-winning play. “I passed third, and out of the corner of my eye saw they cut the ball off and were sending it home. It was either be out by a mile or just do what I could. I saw the tag, jumped and landed on home plate. I’ve never jumped that high in my entire life.”
For Torres, who stood nearly emotionless after the game-winning run scored, he didn’t really know what exactly to think or feel.
“I don’t know what my feeling was,” he said. “I told him to stop and then saw the umpire call him safe. The guy threw a hose and he was toast at home. He was just able to avoid it. I didn’t know if I should have gotten upset because he just ignored my signal or happy because we won the game.”
The heartbreaking loss eliminated Washington County from the tournament.
“That’s a great baseball game,” said Washington manager Scott Downer. “Everybody was expecting him to go down and he went up. That’s what it boils down to. It’s a tough way to lose but that’s a very good team we played. I have never seen a game end like this.”
But with what ended to be a thriller began as a clunker.
Washington County opened the scoring in the top of the first inning when leadoff hitter Zane Freund was hit by a pitch, Brownsville committed an error and Nicholas Popielarczyk hit an RBI single with another self-inflicted mistake from the South Zone champions gave Washington a 2-0 lead.
Brownsville answered in the bottom half of the inning when Jose Banda singled to center field, scoring Derick Ramirez, to cut the lead in half. Brownsville then capitalized on three Washington errors in the second inning, including a catcher’s interference call that negated a fielder’s choice play, to take a 3-2 lead.
It would be the last scoring for several innings as Downer called on Naylor to shut down the potent Brownsville offense, which averaged 11 runs per game through the South Zone tournament.
Naylor struck out eight and only allowed one hit in 5 1/3 innings of relief after entering in the third.
“He did an outstanding job of keeping us off balance with his offspeed pitches,” Torres said as he sought Naylor’s father in the crowd to congratulate him on his son’s performance. “He shut us down with his changeup and his curveball just falls off. Once they took him out near the end it was just a sigh of relief.”
Washington County tied the score at 3-3 in the sixth when Blake Stanton stole second base after being drilled between the numbers with a pitch and scored on a Popielarczyk line-drive single to right field.
The jitters from the host team wore off with the performance of Naylor. Shortstop Ben Hardy made a diving catch to end the sixth inning and Brent Kurtz kept the score deadlocked with a diving stab of a line drive at third base in the bottom of the seventh.
“It’s been a great ride,” Downer said. “The Pony League World Series holds a special place in my heart. It’s the first time I’ve been back since my father passed away from cancer. It’s been approximately four years. We went to this event every year; it was just the two of us. I refused to come back until I was asked to coach this team. I’ve been coaching baseball for over 18 years and this is one of the finest groups of kids I’ve ever had. I couldn’t have asked for a better experience.”
After beginning the tournament with little offense – only three runs in their first two games – Youngstown didn’t forget to leave its bats at the motel Monday morning.
Scoring a run in each of the six innings it came up to bat, Youngstown collected 15 hits and held off a late rally to defeat Mexico 11-8 in an elimination game.
Led by catcher Ronnie Howard III, who went 4-for-4 with three doubles and four RBI, Youngstown advances to play Seoul, Korea/Hagerstown, Md. in another elimination game at 10 a.m. today.
“He’s great defensively, so even when he doesn’t hit well on certain days it’s hard to take him out of the lineup,” said Youngstown manager Randy Dominguez. “But when he’s on, he’s on.”
The four RBI for Howard III were important as Mexico scored four runs in the seventh inning and had the potential game-tying run step into the batter’s box twice in the seventh inning after loading the bases.
Trey Pancake, who allowed four runs on seven hits on the mound, helped his own cause with three hits and scoring four runs.
Jacob Gehring and Austin Vogt each had two of the 15 hits for Youngstown.
“We are a very good hitting team but haven’t showed it to this point,” Dominguez said. “I knew if we could stay in this tournament long enough to where the kids could start relaxing, then we would be competitive.”