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Angels top A’s to win Valley Wheel Baseball Championship

Date: 8/21/2015

SPRINGFIELD – The second-seeded Angels took the 2015 Valley Wheel Baseball Championship 11-5 over the top-seeded A’s Aug. 16 at Forest Park.

Championship was a rematch of the 2014 final between the Angels and A’s. The Angels were vying to earn their first Valley Wheel title on the field.  Meanwhile the A’s were looking to complete a three-peat.

Matt Sheriffs started the game on the mound for the A’s by retiring the first three batters faced. Josh Catter started for the Angels and matched Sheriffs for his own clean 1-2-3 inning.

The Angels strung together a couple of singles to start the second – Mike Dean led the inning with a hit, stole second and advanced to third on Gordie Lustila’s single. Lustila, who was hurt in the semifinal, narrowly missed being thrown out at first by a heads up play by Tim Provost.

Josh Catter pinch ran for Lustila and stole second. With runners on second and third, the A’s pulled the infield in, and Tom Cygan was able to push a grounder just out of the reach of the A’s second basemen. Two runs scored on the hit. Sheriffs settled down and retired the next three batters. Catter pitched well with the lead; only allowing a two out single by Pete Paroli in the bottom of the second inning.

Sheriffs started to find his groove in the third – striking out the first two batters of the inning and only allowing a single by Gary Perrault. Eric Velez led off the bottom of the third with a solid single to left and proceeded to steal second and third. Max Strubel pushed the A’s first run across on an RBI groundout to second base.

Sheriffs continued to pitch strong in the fourth; retiring the heart of the Angels lineup in order.  After giving up a leadoff walk to Provost and a stolen base, Catter was able to retire the next three A’s stranding Provost at second.

The Angels managed to load the bases in the top of the fifth, but were unable to push a run home.  The A’s were able to tie the game in the bottom of the inning thanks to a line drive single to right center by Paroli and an RBI single by Velez.  Pellerin, Paroli’s pinch runner, was picked off of first but caught some good luck when the ball came loose while the Angels second basemen applied the tag. Catter faced his own two-out bases-loaded jam and was able to prevent any addition runs from scoring.

Josh Smith kick started the Angels offense in the sixth by lacing a one out single to left. Smith stole second base, advanced to third on a fly out to center and scored on a line single by Mike Dean.  Sheriffs prevented any more runs by striking Cygan out looking. Despite allowing a lead off double to Provost, Catter was able to keep the A’s off the board in the bottom of the sixth.

Red Ferrier led off the seventh by reaching on an error and advancing to second on a heads up play as the base was left unattended.  Mandella followed up with hitting a single, pushing Red to third. While Mandella attempted to steal second, Provost cut off the throw and fired home catching Ferrier trying to score. Matt Smith followed up with a single, but Sheriffs was able to retire the next two batters preventing any runs to score.  Gary Perrault relieved Catter in the seventh and retired the first three batters of the inning.

Sheriffs continued to pitch strong into the eighth, only allowing a single to Josh Smith in the inning.  Kevin Hill aided his pitcher by making a spectacular diving catch during the inning preventing a sure extra base hit. Perrault was able to pitch around a one out single to Livingstone and keep the Angels ahead 3-2 going into the ninth.

In the 2014 championship game, the Angels were able to rally to take a lead in the ninth. But the A’s were able to put together their own rally to tie the game, force extra innings and eventually win the championship in walk off fashion in the bottom of the 10th. This year’s Angels knew they needed some insurance runs to prevent another A’s comeback and they came thru big time.

Cygan led off the inning with a single to right, Red then lined out to right for the first out.  From there, the next seven Angels reached base – Mandella walked, Matt Smith walked, Collingwood reached on an error, Roberts reached on an error, Perrault then ripped a two-run double. After Max Strubel relieved Sheriffs, Josh Smith welcomed him with a run scoring single and Catter followed with an RBI double. Cygan completed the Angels offensive outburst by knocking in one final run on another hit to right.  Overall the Angels scored eight runs in the inning, breaking open the game and giving the Angels a 11-2 lead going into the bottom of the ninth.

As always, the A’s were not going to go down easily. The first four A’s reached base – Hill walked, Baker walked, Sheriffs ripped an RBI single past second and Pellerin walked. Perrault forced Paroli to pop out to the catcher for the first out of the inning.  Normand followed with an RBI single. With three runs in, Perrault dug deep and struck out the next two batters, clinching the championship for the Angels.

The Angels needed to play a solid game in order to beat the A's.  The entire team contributed to this win – Catter and Perrault with solid pitching, the entire team with sound defense.

Not one error committed in the game, and the team managed to string together 15 hits.