NALB 2011 World Championship Series - Game 7

K. Fields
2012-11-05T19:01:09-05:00
Baseball

The World Championship was on the line in a winner-take-all game 7. The Maples had starting pitcher Luis Hesterfer (12-11, 5.03 ERA) on the mound. Hesterfer was very good against Brooklyn in game four; he pitched eight innings and only gave up two earned runs. Pitching at home for the Knights was Ralph Kerfoot (16-6, 3.77 ERA). He looked extremely sharp in game three as he pitched Brooklyn to a 3-1 victory.

Alexis Schmidt drove in the first run of the game as he doubled to score Ted Pollet in the first inning. In the second inning, Hesterfer really struggled. After a leadoff walk, Michael Duhon singled. Ted Pollet singled as well to load the bases, Hesterfer walked Goetz, which forced in a run. He then threw a wild pitch and another run scored. Schmidt came up with his second hit of the game, which scored Pollet and Goetz. After two innings, the Knights led 5-0. Brooklyn’s bats remained hot in the bottom of the third. Yeh, Swader, and Gwinn all singled. Flavio Marquez doubled. The Knights had two more runs and the score was 7-0. Travis Araoz scored the first run for the Maples with a solo home run in the top of the fourth. The Knights were undaunted, however. In the bottom of the inning, Goetz and Schmidt went deep with back to back homers. For Hooks Goetz, it was his first home run of the 2011 playoffs. Brooklyn’s had a commanding 9-1 lead. In the next inning, the Maples fought back. Wei-qiang Goei hit an RBI triple. Then, Araoz flexed his muscles again. “The Beast” homered for the second time, cutting the lead to 9-3. After hitting only two home runs in the first six games of the World Championship Series, Stade’s power was on display in game seven. Leslie Hubbard hit a solo home run in the eighth inning and the score was 9-4. The game ended when Bernard Gastelu struck out Mark Huff for the final out.

Final score: Brooklyn 9, Stade 4

             1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R  H  E
Stade        0 0 0 1 2 0 0 1 0   4 11  1
Brooklyn     1 4 2 2 0 0 0 0 X   9 15  0

W: R. Kerfoot
L: L. Hesterfer