Rockets KO the Muskies

KANKAKEE, Ill. — The Rockets weren’t quite ready to let their season end. Even the defending champions couldn’t send them home.
Portland scored three times in the first inning of its National Amateur Baseball Federation regional tournament elimination game Friday and knocked out the 2014 champion Beecher Muskies 4-2.
“Today we had a couple double plays. We had veteran luck. The baseball gods were smiling,” said Rockets manager Randy Miller. “Line drives were directly at people. … We got ahead and it came time for a pitching change and we made it. And it worked this time.
“We kind of gamed up knowing this was all or nothing against the best team.”
Portland (20-7) advances to play another elimination game at 11 a.m. today against the Michigan City Lakers. A victory would lead to a 4 p.m. contest against the Joliet Dirtbags, and the championship is scheduled for Sunday.
The Rockets, playing as the home team, jumped on the Muskies right away as leadoff hitter Dalton Tinsley opened the game with a single. Brandon Reamon was hit by a pitch, and after a pop out on the infield Alex Delk put Portland ahead for good with an RBI single.
Billy Geeslin added an RBI single in the inning as Reamon and Delk also scored.
It was the second consecutive game in which the Rockets posted a three-run first inning, but this time that lead held up.
“We call it ‘get off the bus, Gus’ and we are on a roll,” said Miller, whose team fell 7-4 to the Chicago Angels in its tournament opener. “We scored three times yesterday in the first inning, and the same recipe was very tasty today.”
Mitch Waters and Geeslin made sure the Muskies wouldn’t pull off another comeback.
Despite allowing base runners in each of the first three innings, Waters escaped unscathed. A double play ended the first, and he struck out back-to-back batters with two runners on in the second.
He sat down the side in order in the fourth inning before a leadoff double led to Beecher’s first run in the fifth. Portland responded with a run of its own in the bottom of the frame, and Waters got the first out of the sixth inning before giving up consecutive hits.

The veteran went 5 1/3 innings despite shoulder pain that began early in the game, giving up five hits while striking out two to earn the win.
“He gave us a gutsy effort,” said Miller. “He’s a bulldog. He manned up, got us to where we needed to be.”
Geeslin took over from there, ending the threat in the sixth inning. He gave up a double and a run in the seventh, but struck out Beecher’s clean-up hitter to end the game.
Delk paced the offense, reaching base in each of his three plate appearances. He was hit by a pitch in the third inning and had an RBI single following Justin Marrero’s leadoff triple off the fence in the fifth.
Dalton Tinsley had two hits, and T.J. Linstrand and Geeslin each added one.