Sting Gold Takes Second at Halloween Tournament
Posted by kenmoore on Nov 03 2007 | Tagged as: 12-LBA
Albany-Berkeley Sting Gold 12U took second place in a field of fourteen teams at the 12b/13b Halloween 2007 Leg 2 Tournament at the Alden Oliver Sports Complex in Hayward on October 27-28, 2007. Sting lost a hard-fought championship game, 3-2.
Sting dominated in pool play on Saturday, scoring 31 runs while allowing a total of only one run to three opponents. In the first game, Sting faced a familiar opponent, the Pleasanton Phantom. Sting struck early, as Clara Obstfeld and Anna Moore led the game off with a double and a single. Sting went on to score three in the inning with RBI contributions by Jordan Baker and Izzy Lubin-Brown. Phantom threatened early, as Phantom star Krista Williams led off the bottom of the first with a single. On the first pitch to the next batter, she took off for second, only to be gunned down by catcher Obstfeld. With the help of two walks, Phantom then loaded the bases, but pitcher J. Baker ended the threat with a strike out. Leading 4-1 in the fourth, Sting produced a four run outburst. Lindsey Baker led off the inning with a walk. Obstfeld and A. Moore followed with singles. Two runs scored when the Phantom center fielder dropped Kate Moore’s fly ball to center. Lubin-Brown followed with another RBI single. There was some confusion after four innings when the umpires called the game for time. The Phantom coach came out on the field to point out that we had only played for 72 minutes in a 75-minute time limit game. Back on the field, both teams went down 1-2-3 in the fifth for an 8-1 finish.
In the second game, Sting played the east county hotshots. (This organization from Oakley, CA had two teams in the tournament, one using capital letters in their name and the other only lower-case.) Sting again struck early, scoring six runs in the bottom of the first inning. Singles by A. Moore, K. Moore, and Katie Nordahl and triples by J. Baker and Molly Cohen highlighted the first inning attack. A. Moore and J. Baker both went 3-3 in the game and combined for six RBI’s. Sting added three runs in each of the second and third innings to reach a score of 12-0 invoking the run rule. Pitcher K. Moore allowed only one hit in three innings and struck out five.
In the third pool play game, Sting continued their habit of striking early, with three runs in the first inning against the San Jose Magic. A. Moore continued her hot hitting (7-9 on the day) with a single while Annie Smith delivered the big blow in the inning with a two-RBI single. In the third inning, Sting sent eleven batters to the plate scoring six runs on singles by Obstfeld, A. Moore, K. Moore, Smith, Alex Hickey, Cohen and J. Baker. In the fourth inning, Sting added two more runs, to again claim a run-rule victory, 11-0. Pitcher Lubin-Brown overpowered Magic batters, allowing no hits and striking out nine through four innings. Magic’s only threat came in the third inning as two walks and an error loaded the bases. Catcher Obstfeld then picked off the runner at third with a snap throw to J. Baker and Lubin-Brown struck out the next two batters to end the inning.
Placing first in the pool, Sting had the luxury of a 12:30 PM start on Sunday. The first game was against East Bay Thunda Stryke 13. Thunda Stryke scored first eking out one run in each of the first two innings. Down 0-2, Sting loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the third on consecutive walks to Obstfeld, A. Moore and J. Baker. After a force out at the plate and a strike out, Smith came to bat. With two strikes and two outs, Smith swung at a pitch that got away from the Thunda Stryke catcher. Smith raced to first base as A. Moore came in to score Sting’s first run of the game. Hickey and Nordahl followed with back-to-back two-RBI singles. The final score was Sting 5, Thunda Stryke 2.
In the semi-final game Sting faced Concord Glory. Pitcher J. Baker stymied the Glory offense facing only four batters over the minimum through seven innings. The Sting defense shined. In the first inning, catcher Obstfeld gunned down a runner attempting to steal second base. In the second, Sting recorded a double play as a bunt attempt was popped up and the runner was doubled-off at first. In the fifth A. Moore, playing third base, made a leaping catch of a line drive that was a sure hit. In the sixth, A. Hickey threw a runner out at second from right field as she tried to stretch a single into a double. The Sting offense did not get going until the top of the third inning. A lead off walk to Nordahl, a bunt single by a L. Baker and two run double by Obstfeld got Sting on the board first. Sting finally put the game away in the top of the seventh. Up 3-1, Hickey and Nordahl walked setting the stage for RBI singles L. Baker and Obstfeld. A third run scored on a ground out by A. Moore, for a final score of Sting 6, Glory 1.
Sting met Castro Valley Synergy Black in the championship game. Synergy struck first, scoring one run in the first inning, benefiting from a walk, a passed ball, a stolen base and a RBI ground out. In the top of the second down 1-0, with two outs Sting was robbed of an opportunity. With runners at first and second, Nordahl hit a hard grounder to the short stop, who elected to toss to third for the force out. The third baseman could not handle the throw as Lubin-Brown slid in hard, but the umpire called her out while the ball was on the ground. Synergy scored two more runs in their half of the second on two Sting errors. With two outs and down 3-0, Coach Leah switched the defensive line up and put J. Baker in to pitch shutting the Synergy offense down the rest of the way. Sting scraped their way back. In the third inning Obstfeld singled with one out. She then went all the way from first to third on A. Moore’s single, and scored when the Synergy third baseman dropped the ball. In the sixth, a pair of singles by A. Moore and K. Moore and an RBI ground out by Lubin-Brown scored Sting’s second run. The final score was 3-2.
