KMC juniors roll unbeaten into regional semis
Published: July 15, 2010
The Kaiserslautern Military Community Renegades erased 2-0, 6-2 and 7-6 deficits Thursday to move unbeaten into Friday’s semifinals of Little League Baseball’s Europe-Middle East-Africa regional tournament with a 9-8 victory over previously unbeaten Lithuania. The Americans are to face unbeaten Ukraine at 11 a.m. Friday in quest of the EMEA title and a berth in Little League Baseball’s Junior League World Series Aug. 15-21 in Taylor, Mich.
According to KMC coach Matt Van Parys, starter Ryan Burk, who allowed just one earned run in two innings of work, and reliever Josh Neal, who pitched 2.1 scoreless innings, were the keys to the victory which resulted in a 4-0 record and a pool championship for the U.S. 13-14-year olds.
KMC trailed 2-0 going into the bottom of the second and 6-2 going into the bottom of the third, according to Van Parys. Each time, however, KMC rallied to tie the score.
“Answering right away,” Van Parys said by telephone on Thursday, “that was huge.”
It was even bigger after the Lithuanian champs from Vilnius went up 7-6 on an unearned run in the fifth. According to Van Parys, Joe Mazzara, who earlier had singled home two runs, got the decisive rally started with a walk. He moved to second when Tyler Hughes was hit by a pitch for the second time in the game and scored on an overthrow when he attempted to steal third. Matt Zembraski then followed with a two-run single.
Lithuania drew unbeaten Lazio, the champion of Italy, in Friday’s other semifinal. The semifinal winners are to clash Saturday for the EMEA title.
As this blog was posted Thursday, no report about the other American team in the regional, Naples, was available. Naples, eliminated from contention for the semifinals on Tuesday, was to play Moldova on Thursday in its final game.
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