WITH the regular season all wrapped up and in the books, four of the Budweiser Baseball League's top teams will battle it out for the 2012 crown.
On Tuesday night, the defending champion Moylan's-O.D.C. Braves opened their playoff series against the 76 Cardinals at the Paseo Stadium.
Both teams gave their fans what they came for – a good competitive game. At the end of the night, it was the Braves who took a one-game lead in a best-of-five series after beating out the Cardinals, 10-6.
In the opening inning, Braves’ starting pitcher Tony Yatar wasted no time getting things started as he forced a fly out and two ground outs to end the Cardinal offense in order. Much wasn't the same for 76 starter Mike Castro as he gave up two Braves runs. The trio of T.J. Sarmiento, Jathan Muña-Barnes, and Allan Sarmiento led the rally.
The Braves proved in the early innings of the game why they were the defending champions. Working through six innings, Moylan's-O.D.C. built a what looked to be a comfortable 8-2 lead. However, 76 had other intentions in mind and quitting wasn't one of them.
Despite giving up two more runs to the Braves, 76 started a rally in the eighth and ninth innings to make things a little interesting. Down 10-5, the Cardinals' Jess Alerta recorded an RBI-base hit after putting one through the left side of the field. The Cardinal rally was immediately put to a halt as relief pitcher Barnes tallied two strikeouts to end the game and preserve the victory.
Offensively, Barnes went 2-for-5 and crossed home plate three times, while teammate Rico Castro went 3-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored. In the losing effort, Mark Paulino and Jess Alerta went a combined 5-for-9 for the Cardinals.
Yatar rang up five Cardinal batters and earned the win on the mound, while Castro was dealt the loss.
BBL playoff action resumes later tonight as the Bank of Guam Athletics take on the Atkins Kroll Islanders in their best-of-five playoff opener at 7 p.m.
Defending champs open playoffs with victory
- Thursday, 03 May 2012 03:30am
- BY MIKE NAUTA JR. | VARIETY NEWS STAFF
- Hits: 299
