Flat finale: Rockets roasted (07/28/03)

Even the staunchest of horror movie fans would not have enjoyed the debacle at Runkle-Miller Field Sunday. It was simply too grotesque.

The Portland Rockets were on the losing end of a 23-1 drubbing, which included 19-batter, 15-run second inning by the South Bend Indians in the loser’s bracket final of the American Amateur Baseball Congress state tournament.

The game provided an all too anticlimactic ending to the tournament. Having already earned a spot in this week’s regional with their second place finish, the Indians chose not to play the tournament’s final game, thus handing the championship to the Indiana Mavericks.

The Mavericks earned the title with a 9-0 win over the Goshen Diamondbacks, and 6-3 defeats of the South Bend Indians and the Rockets.

The South Bend Indians followed their loss to the Mavericks with a 7-5 win over the Diamond backs and the crushing of the Rockets.

Both teams will play in the Cincinnati regional beginning Thursday.

For Portland, the Sunday loss marked a second straight year of disappointment after winning the state tournament in 2001. The Rockets have a record of 28-6, and will get one more chance when they play in the National Amateur Baseball Federation tournament in two weeks.

Portland knew the Indians would be tough — the teams split a double-header the weekend before — but had a 1-0 lead after the first inning.

Starter Mike Hale retired the side 1-2-3 in the first inning, and leadoff man Josh Mayfield walked and scored on a James Nowicki RBI single in the bottom of the frame. But that was all the scoring the Rockets would do, and South Bend simply refused to stop putting runs on the board.

Each of the first 11 Indian batters reached base and scored in the second inning, chasing Hale before he could record an out. Finally Adam Johnson struck out Dennis Ryans — the fourth batter he faced — for the first out of the inning.

However, back-to-back walks sent Johnson packing as Cory Heppard became the third pitcher in the long inning. He allowed three hits and a sacrifice fly to the first four batters he faced before finally striking out John Kehoe for the third out.

When it was all over South Bend had scored 15 runs — seven of which were earned — on nine hits. There were also two Rocket errors in the inning, one passed ball, two wild pitches, three walks and one batter hit by a pitch.

It was all more than Portland could hope to overcome, and the Indians didn’t stop.

Heppard allowed hits to five of the six batters he faced in the third inning, giving up three runs before he was ushered off the mound.

Phil Ernst replaced Heppard and was doing a decent job in mop-up duty until the meaningless fifth inning. He had given up one run and no hits through his first eight batters, and was one out away from mercifully ending the game when his day crumbled.

He allowed back-to-back hits to Javier Jiminez and John Ryans, and a walk to Dave Ryans. John Kehoe then put an appropriate exclamation point on the defeat, blasting a grand slam over the fence in left field as center fielder Brandon Dillon and left fielder Luke Momrik just stood and watched.

In all, South Bend scored 23 runs on 17 hits, only four of which went for extra bases.

The Indians had scored 10 runs and sported a .216 batting average through the tournament’s first two games. When they were done with the Rockets they had scored 33 times and lifted their average 117 points.

Cory Leppelmeier was the beneficiary of the easy win, allowing one run on four hits in five innings. He struck out three and walked three.

Hale took the loss, allowing eight runs — seven earned — one five hits in one-plus innings. He struck out one and walked one.

Mavericks 6, Rockets 3

The Rockets at least had a chance in their tournament loss Saturday, but couldn’t rally as they had the night before.

Portland lost to the Indiana Mavericks by three, a night after rallying from a 7-1 deficit to defeat the Goshen Indians 14-7.

Saturday saw a different story as the Mavericks scored three first-inning runs and added two more in the third for a 5-0 advantage. The Rockets scored once in the fourth inning, but would not get on the board again until Brad Buckingham and Josh Mayfield delivered solo home runs in the bottom of the seventh inning.

John Pettibone took that loss, giving up six runs on seven hits. He struck out 10 and walked three.

Bryan Vickers — who went 6-for-11 in the tournament with five runs and seven RBIs — torched the Rockets for three hits, including a home run, two runs and four RBIs in the win.[[In-content Ad]]