Selects vs. Kings
Thursday, June 2, 2016
The Selects' offense came alive on Thursday night, grinding out at-bats for seven hits and eight walks in a 9-8 wire-to-wire victory over the Kings.
After free passes to Kevin Ryrie and Brad Cleasby in the top of the first, Brett Pfeifer grounded into a fielder's choice to score Ryrie, who had stolen third. Two-out RBI singles from Shayne Riepert and Glen Hall then gave the Selects a 3-0 advantage. The Kings came right back with two of their own in the bottom half, but the Selects answered with two more, thanks to three walks and a couple Kings' errors. The Kings then added an unearned run to make it 5-3 after two long innings.
The Selects kept coming in the third, as Scott Clark helped his own cause with a two-run single, cashing Dan Clark and Tim Coverdale, before coming in to count on a Cleasby groundout. But the Kings got to Clark in the bottom half, putting up four to shave the lead to 8-7. Exhausted after throwing seven innings the night before, Clark would give way to Pfeifer. But not before the Selects added a crucial insurance run, as singles by Pfeifer and Riepert and a hard-fought walk by Dan Clark loaded the bases with one out for Coverdale. After falling behind in the count early, he battled back and hit a chopper to second to plate pinch-runner Tom Allan.
Pfeifer did the rest. Despite having thrown just three innings total in his two-plus seasons with the squad, he came up big in a high-leverage spot, retiring six of the seven batters he faced. Fred Follings tripled and scored, but Pfeifer induced a grounder to third to record the two-inning save.
MVP: Scott Clark, P/SS