Rockets miss WBC title

The Portland Rockets won on their last at bat four times during their 10-game winning streak.
They were hoping to continue the trend, but weren’t able to get the key hits they needed. Portland dropped the final two round-robin games of the World Baseball Congress tournament Saturday at Runkle-Miller Field.
“Extra-inning games are tough, especially when they go against you,” said Rockets coach Randy Miller, whose team went into extras in all three games. Portland beat the Miami Valley Wolverines 4-2 in eight innings Friday before losing 3-2 to the Fort Wayne Jackers in nine and to the Summit City Sluggers in eight by the same score. “We had some breaks that didn’t go our way, but you’ve got to be better than that.”
It was the first time since 2009 that Portland was left out of the championship game of the tournament it hosts. The Jackers defeated Summit City 5-1 Sunday for the tournament title.
With a win over Summit City, the Rockets, Jackers and Sluggers would all be tied with 2-1 records. The tiebreaker would come down to run differential. Since Portland only scored seven runs through its first two games, it needed to beat the Sluggers by eight to lock up a berth in the title game.
In the final game of pool play, however, the Rockets managed only three hits against the Sluggers after tallying 10 hits against the Jackers.
Portland tied the game at two in the fifth inning and nearly took the lead, but a mental error negated the threat.
Billy Geeslin drew a two-out walk and reached third on a stolen base and a balk by Sluggers pitcher Cody O’Neal. He scored on an error by third baseman Evan Brown.
The Rockets had a chance to take their first lead of the contest with runners at the corners and the hard-hitting Justin Marrero at the dish, but Geoff Bowers tried to steal home and was thrown out at the plate to end the inning.
Portland had a chance in each of the next two innings as it got its leadoff man on base. Unfortunately, both opportunities were spoiled by double plays. T.J. Lindstrand bounced into a 3-6-3 double play in the sixth, and Conner Milligan lined a shot on a hit and run to Sluggers shortstop Zach McKinstry, who doubled off Dalton Tinsley at first.
After the Rockets went down in order in the top of the eighth, McKinstry drew a leaoff walk and reached second on a fielder’s choice. Zach Pfafman then hit a weak ground ball to 2014 Jay County High School graduate Kyle Selvey at short, whose throw to Conner Milligan at first was off the mark, allowing McKinstry to score the game-winning run.
“It’s going to be a tough play … tough throw, tough dig at first,” Miller said. “I don’t think you can say anyone in particular is at fault.
“We didn’t get the big hit either. This is a game we knew we had to score a big amount of runs and we didn’t.”
Justin Miller took the loss in relief of Tyler Reynolds, who scattered four hits over six innings while allowing two runs — one earned — and striking out five.
Earlier Saturday, the Jackers broke a scoreless tie with a run in the sixth and seventh innings, but the Rockets (25-13) answered right back to tie the score in the bottom of the seventh.
Portland loaded the bases on a hit by pitch and two singles. Alex Delk scored when Logan Hug bounced into a double play, and Tinsley tied the game on an RBI single past a diving Zach Hosier at second base to send the game into extras.
After a scoreless eighth, Fort Wayne plated the game-winning run with the help of a couple Portland errors.
Allen Gordie reached base on a fielding error and advanced to third on a fielder’s choice and a throwing error. He scored on a single by Sammy Nolan, and the Jackers almost added an insurance run on the play, but courtesy runner Kyle Santilli was cut down at home when he collided with Portland catcher Justin Marrero, who held on to the ball after Santilli tried to run him over.
Santilli was ejected on the play, which led to a benches-clearing altercation at the plate.
In the bottom of the ninth, Portland had runners on second and third with two outs but Tinsley wasn’t able to repeat his game-tying performance and popped out to end the game.
South Adams product Dan Bollenbacher took the loss against the Jackers, scattering eight hits over nine complete innings while striking out nine and not allowing a walk. The big right-hander tossed 146 pitches, one game after Mitch Waters (Jay County) hurled 134 pitches and struck out 13 in the win against Miami Valley.
“Those guys are horses, man,” Miller said of Bollenbacher and Waters. “They don’t want to come out. They’re competitors, they are here to win and they’re going to give it their all to get it done.”