Austin gets in on the action at NBC World Series
Austin-based Action Baseball opened play in the National Baseball Congress World Series on Saturday by coming up with all the timely answers.
Once the Inland Empire (Calif.) Golden Bears broke through against Action starter Stephen Greenlees, his offense countered with a pair of three-run innings to give Action Baseball a 9-6 victory in pool play at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium.
Action Baseball, coached by former major league catcher Chris Bando, scored three in the bottom of the sixth against recent Newman signee and Independent graduate Avery Reidmiller for a 6-1 lead. Then, after Inland came up with four runs on five hits in the top of the seventh, Action plated three runs – one unearned – against reliever Brian Yount.
All nine batters in Action’s lineup either hit safely or drove in a run. Shortstop Stephen Pena went 2 for 4 with two RBIs, including a run-scoring double in the sixth that fell just out of the reach of Bears first baseman Kristian Scott. Center fielder Kyle Gray followed Pena with a triple off Reidmiller, and catcher Cory Gallegos singled home Pena to make it 6-1.
Inland Empire pieced together four consecutive hits to chase Greenlees, a tall left-hander who has pitched the last two seasons at Texas Lutheran. The Bears cut their deficit to 6-5, but Action Baseball’s Jacob Barfield reached on a throwing error to start the bottom of the seventh. Tyler Flores followed with an RBI triple up the right-field line, Cullen Vaught added a sacrifice fly and Blayton Magana singled home Tristan Alkis for a 9-5 lead.
Gray relieved Greenlees in the seventh and pitched 2 2/3 innings for the save, allowing one run.
Inland Empire | 000 | 001 | 401 | — | 6 14 1 | |
Austin | 200 | 103 | 30x | — | 9 10 10 |
W — Greenlees. L — Hilo. S — Gray
Inland Empire batting: Riveroy 2-5, McNicholl 2-5, Segat 3-5, Gibson 1-4, Squire 2-5, Avalos 1-4, Kelson 0-0, Carroll 0-4, Valdez 2-3.
Action Baseball batting: Gray 1-4, Gallegos 2-4, Benavidez 1-4, Barfield 0-5, Flores 1-4, Vaught 0-2, Alkis 1-3, Magana 2-3, Pena 2-4.
Inland Empire pitching: Hilo 4 IP-3 ER, Proctor 1-0, Reidmiller 2/3-3, Ekenbarger 1/3-0, Yount 1/3-2, Crank 2/3-0, Redman 1-0.
Action Baseball pitching: Greenlees 6 1/3-5, Gray 2 2/3-1.
Late Friday
Liberal Bee Jays 17, Laurel (Miss.) Black Cats 1, 5 innings – Cale O’Donnell and Brady Cox drove in four runs apiece and Liberal scored 12 runs in the third inning to spoil Laurel’s NBC World Series debut.
Liberal | 30(12) | 02 | — | 17 9 0 | ||
Laurel | 100 | 00 | — | 1 3 4 |
W—Smith. L—Page.
Liberal batting: Reinschmidt 1-4, Mumper 1-3, Knauth 1-2, O’Donnell 1-1, Brewster 0-3, Cox 2-3, Bogart 0-1, Robinson 3-4, Urquizo 0-4.
Laurel batting: Bailey 0-2, Marshall 1-2, Hardy 1-2, Woodland 1-2, Morgan 0-2, Lindsey 0-2, Hinton 0-2, Graham 0-1, Parrish 0-1, Tait 0-1.
Liberal pitching: Goldsberry 3 IP-1 ER, Smith 1-0, Cook 1-0.
Laurel pitching: Page 2 2/3-5, Caruth 0-3, McGee 2 1/3-3.
Cape Girardeau (Mo). Capahas 3, Colorado Cyclones 2 – Alex Heuring drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the eighth to score the go-ahead and run and Brady Wright struck out 10 in a complete-game victory for Cape Girardeau.
Colorado | 000 | 101 | 000 | — | 2 10 0 | |
Cape Girardeau | 010 | 010 | 01x | — | 3 7 2 |
W—Wright. L—Buchanan.
Colorado batting: Richardson 0-4, Buchanan 4-5, Jurney 0-5, Bladt 1-4, Walter 1-3, Graff 1-2, Duran 0-1, Lundeen 2-3, Fallon 0-3, DeNovellis 0-1, Huber 1-4, Porreco 0-0.
Cape Girardeau batting: Haggerty 0-4, Morecraft 1-4, Qualls 1-3, Heuring 1-3, James 2-4, Conner 0-3, Harper 0-2, Womack 1-2, Brown 1-3.
Colorado pitching: Parriera 7 IP-2 ER, Buchanan 1-1.
Cape Girardeau pitching: Wright 9-1.
Park City Rangers 13, Fort Worth Whitetails 2, 8 innings – Parker O’Dell’s went 3 for 5 with five RBIs, including a fourth-inning grand slam, and Park City finished with 16 hits to win its pool play opener.
Park City | 210 | 510 | 04 | — | 13 16 1 | |
Fort Worth | 001 | 000 | 10 | — | 2 5 1 |
W—Lee. L—Novak.
Park City batting: Arnold 3-5, Williams 2-6, Jones 2-4, Herrington 1-4, Klusener 1-2, O’Dell 3-5, Frias 0-5, Dibbens 2-5, Stober 1-3, Lacy 0-1, Gowing 1-1.
Fort Worth batting: Duncan 2-4, Hibbeler 1-4, Jones 0-2, Cleveland 0-1, Hartsburg 0-3, Garrett 0-1, Lighthall 1-3, Sloma 0-1, Nunez 0-3, Jackson 0-2, Raburn 0-0, Moore 0-0, Wilson 1-3.
Park City pitching: Lee 7 IP-2 ER, Charles 1-0.
Fort Worth pitching: Novak 3 2/3-7, Steward 2-2, Averitt 1 1/3-0, Ventura 1/3-3, Eggleston 2/3-0.
This story was originally published July 30, 2016 at 7:32 PM with the headline "Austin gets in on the action at NBC World Series."