Rockets victorious in regional opener

CINCINNATI — The Rockets closed their season with 11 straight victories.
They opened postseason play with yet another tally in the win column.
Mitch Waters hit a go-ahead two-run home run in the fourth inning and Alex Delk added an insurance run in the sixth Thursday as the Portland Rockets defeated the Yorkville Yaks 4-2 in the first game of the National Amateur Baseball Federation regional tournament at Roselawn Park.
“We tip our hat to our opponent,” said Portland manager Randy Miller, whose team continues pool play at 6:30 p.m. tonight against the Oswego Cats, a team from Chicago that defeated the Cincinnati Mudcats 1-0 later in the evening Thursday.
“I think our experience and mettle showed through,” he said. “Mitch was a huge lift. Rockets got ahead and never relinquished.
Portland (26-5), which pushed its season-long winning streak to a dozen games, fell behind 2-1 after the third inning, and Zach Tanner reached on an error by the shortstop to start the home half of the fourth. That’s when Waters deposited a 1-1 pitch over the fence to put the Rockets on top for good. It was his second homer of the year.
Tanner walked to lead off the sixth inning and Waters reached base on a fielder’s choice. Two batters later, Delk ripped an RBI double to put Portland on top 4-2.
Tanner also had a hit and scored a run, with Justin Marrero and Dalton Tinsley contributing a double and a single respectively.
Coldwater native Derek Thobe went the distance on the bump for Portland, surrendering eight hits while allowing two earned runs. He struck out five and didn’t give up a walk, needed 87 pitches to get through all seven innings.
“He was effective in and around the strike zone all night,” Miller said. “Never seemed to tire.”
The Ohio Dominican pitcher got a little bit of help from his defense too. During the fifth inning, left fielder Kevin Sharp tracked down a double in the left-center gap and fired a seed to Tanner at short. The Yorktown product then rifled a throw to TJ Lindstrand at the plate to cut down the potential game-tying run.
Thursday’s victory was the third win over the Yaks this season for Portland, which took a twin bill from Yorkville — 7-3 and 15-3 — July 17 in Cincinnati.
Miller was happy to get the first win of the tournament.
“Big stepping stone and hurdle No. 1,” he said.
The regional format consists of two four-team pools. Each team plays three seven-inning pool play games, with the top two teams in each pool advancing to Sunday’s single-elimination tournament, which are nine-inning contests.