Jun 27 2008
Best of the West Summer Baseball Focus - Bay Area Giants
This weekend is the Best in the West Tournament. Hosted by the Maxim Yankees the tournament is described as the “2nd largest summer collegiate wood bat tournament in the country (next to the NBC World Series) and is considered one of the best in the U.S. This year’s winner could possibly win a bid to the 2008 NBC World Series in Wichita, Kansas. The tournament fields the top players and teams along the West Coast including NBC 2007 World Series participants; Maxim Yankees, Santa Barbara Foresters, San Diego Stars, Santa Maria Indians.
Other notable teams in the tournament are; San Jose Fontanetti’s, Novato Knicks, Humboldt Crabs, Redding Colt 45’s, Reno Astro’s, Tinsel town Terror and the BC Cave Ducks. There are teams from nearly every state along the West Coast; including Canada and Nevada.” - Maxim Yankees The Bay Area Giants are also in the tournament and we will be tracking their progress from the first person perspective of LHP/1B/DH Charlie Baker, he writes:
Last night at Santa Clara University, the Bay Area Giants were on their way to an unlikely upset over the top ranked team in the bracket, the Maxim Yankees. The Giants were leading 5-4 due to some clutch and timely hitting by the Giants’ offense and some strong starting pitching by Giants pitcher Nick Gorman. Sam Stewart came into relief for the tired Nick Gorman.
It was top of the 7th inning man on 2nd and 3rd two outs 1-2 count and Stewart threw an off speed in the dirt where the Yankees hitter chased it for strike three and three outs. However, Giants catcher Clint Bartizal thought the umpire said catch and then panicked under pressure when he saw the runner heading to first and the umpire not signaling an out and he rushed his throw and airmailed into the right field foul territory for a huge throwing mistake and costly error. Two runs came in and scored and the Yankees took the lead 6-5.
They added a couple more runs that inning to make it 8-5. In the top of the 9th with the bases loaded, the Yankees threatening for more runs, the sprinklers came on in an untimely fashion and caused a major delay, that end up calling the game and postponing it for a future date if needed.
Updates to come!
