Showing posts tagged “Hawaii Rainbow Warriors”

USA Baseball bounces back against pesky Bahamians

Mike Potter · 22 Jul 2009, 1:16 AM · Comment


usanewmaTeam USA bounced back Tuesday night.

The Citadel’s Asher Wojciechowski struck out nine in seven innings and Arizona State’s Matt Newman (pictured) stole home as USA Baseball’s National Team walloped the Bahamas 8-1 in the World Baseball Challenge in Prince George, British Columbia.

The win, which improved the Americans to 2-1 in the event, came one day after they had dropped a 6-3 loss to Germany.

Desmond Russell pitched a complete game for the Bahamians, giving up rallies to the USA both early and late. Hawaii’s Kolten Wong hit an RBI double in the first and then Newman (Arizona State) stole home in the second for a 2-0 lead.

The Bahamians scored their run in the third on a Raymond Grant single.

The USA scored twice in the sixth on a ground out and a wild pitch, then had the knockout rally with four in the second on sacrifice flies from Tennessee’s Blake Forsythe and Rice’s Rick Hague before Florida State’s Tyler Holt ripped an RBI double.

Team USA’s next game is on Wednesday night at 10 p.m. (EDT) against the host Prince George Axemen, with Vanderbilt’s Sonny Gray getting the start.

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Grandal leads the way as USA gets back into the win column

Mike Potter · 20 Jul 2009, 9:41 AM · Comment


usagrandYasmani Grandal (pictured) blasted a two-run homer in the sixth, giving USA Baseball’s National Team the lead for good in a 5-2 win over host Canada in the World Baseball Challenge in Prince George, British Columbia.

The win in the opener of the event broke the Americans’ two-game losing streak.

Christian Colon of Cal State-Fullerton gave the USA a lead in the first with his solo homer.

The Canadians took the lead by scratching out two in the bottom of the frame off Ole Miss’ Drew Pomeranz. Kevin Atkinson scored the first run on a sacrifice fly, while Nic Lendovy brought home the second on a fielder’s choice.

The winning rally came with two out in the sixth, when Tennessee’s Blake Forsythe drew a two-out walk and Grandal, a rising junior at Miami, followed with his two-run blast to right.

The USA got insurance runs on a wild pitch in the eighth and an RBI double from Hawaii’s Kolten Wong in the ninth.

Pomeranz (3-1) of picked up the victory, striking out six in six innings. Tulane’s Nick Pepitone collected the save.

Danny Briton-Foster also had a quality start, going six innings for the Canadians.

The USA’s second game in the event is against Germany, tonight at 10 p.m. EDT.

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11th-inning errors give Japan series win

Mike Potter · 16 Jul 2009, 5:22 PM · Comment


usawongkIt all ended in an extra-inning heartbreaker.

USA Baseball’s National Team came within a whisker of knocking off homestanding Japan in their 37th annual Collegiate Friendship Series, but a pair of errors in the 11th inning spelled doom in an 8-7 loss at Jingu Stadium in the deciding Game 5.

Vanderbilt’s Sonny Gray made an errant pickoff attempt to move Shota Kioke to third base with two outs. And then the team’s only returning player from last season, Cal State-Fullerton’s Christian Colon, kicked a ground ball at short to give the Japanese the victory.

The Americans seemed to have the game in hand through 8 ½ innings after scoring three times in the top of the ninth for a 7-4 lead. After Tomoyuki Sugano misplayed a sacrifice bunt to score Hawaii’s Kolten Wong (pictured), Clemson’s Brad Miller added insurance with a single to right and Florida State’s Tyler Holt followed with a sacrifice fly.

But Japan answered with three runs in the bottom of the frame off Texas Tech’s Chad Bettis. Masayoshi Kato hit a two-run triple to chase Bettis before Keiji Nakahara greeted Gray (2-1) with a single to right center.

Yusuke Nomura (1-0) got the win for Japan.

Rice’s Rick Hague led the USA with a homer and a single.

Team USA will travel to Prince George, British Columbia, for the Enbridge Northern Gateway World Baseball Challenge beginning Sunday at 10 p.m. (EDT) against Canada.

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Four for July: USA quartet makes history as Guatemalans go hitless

Mike Potter · 2 Jul 2009, 11:14 PM · Comment


usacoleCOLEMAN FIELD/CARY It’s Game 2 of the USA National Team series against Guatemala, and the main suspense is to see whether or not the visitors can get closer than Wednesday night’s 15-1 loss in Kannapolis.

It’s partly cloudy and warm - temperatures in the high ’80s - and the crowd for this one is pretty sparse.

There are no food freebies for the media tonight. Bummer. At least I’ve called ahead to find out and had a good meal at home with the family.

Already today I’ve been at Durham Bulls Athletic Park to do an interview with a player for a “Top 50 prospects” project for a baseball website.

The Bulls weren’t home on Wednesday either and neither were the Carolina Mudcats, making it one of those rare days since March on which there wasn’t at least one high quality baseball game in the Triangle.

That off-day gave me some time for some serious exploration of Facebook, which I had never bothered to join until last weekend. I’m going to start posting my Indy posts to my page every day, as well as putting them all on Twitter, where I am “mikepotterrdu.”

Guatemala has about the widest age range I have ever seen on a baseball team that plays together regularly. Infilelder Jorge Gutierrez, who got the only two hits on Wednesday, is 42, while center fielder Manuel Hernandez is 16.

And apparently on what turns out to be an historic night, I am the only journalist covering the game for local media (Baseball America is also in the house) as the USA wins 10-0 on the first regular-season no-hitter in team history. UCLA’s Gerrit Cole (pictured), The Citadel’s Asher Wojciechowski, Tulane’s Nick Pepitone and Texas Tech’s Chad Bettis team up for the feat. (The 9-0 win against Canada in 2004 at DBAP was during the team’s “trials” phase.) Continue reading »

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The winning Choice is Blue

Mike Potter · 22 Jun 2009, 7:46 PM · Comment


uschoiceMichael Choice (pictured) of Texas-Arlington blasted a three-run homer in the sixth inning, pacing the Blues to an 8-5 win over the Reds in a USA National Team intrasquad this afternoon at the National Training Complex in Cary.

Arizona State’s Matt Newman hit a three-run homer to lead the Reds.

In other news about the team, Utah’s Bill Kinneberg has been named head coach for 2010 while Cal State-Fullerton’s Dave Serrano will be the pitching coach.

Kolten Wong of Hawaii and Wright State’s Casey McGrew had RBI singles for the Blues in today’s contest.

Tyler Holt of Florida State added an RBI double and Christian Colon of Cal State-Fullerton an RBI single for the Reds.

Continue reading »

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