NALB 2013 Playoffs - League 2 Series

K. Fields
2014-10-04T15:55:35-04:00
Baseball

2013 League 2 Series - Richmond Slam (92-70) vs. Key West Corals (92-70)

Game 1: Key West 4, Richmond 3
Game 2: Key West 3, Richmond 1
Game 3: Key West 24, Richmond 5
Game 4: Richmond 7, Key West 6
Game 5: Key West 4, Richmond 2

The League 2 Series was a rematch from last year. The Richmond Slam won their division for the fourth straight season. Their success has been due to a powerful offense. The Slam outscored all other teams in League 2 with 920 runs. Tony Rodarte was the first player in NALB history to hit 60 home runs and he won a Triple Crown. Unlike last year’s team, however, Richmond’s pitching was much improved. Unfortunately, Richmond’s is arguably the NALB’s worst fielding team. Finally out of the shadow of the Stade Maples, the Key West Corals are in the playoffs for the second straight year. In 2013, the Corals won with defense. They were the league’s best pitching team and the league’s best fielding team. Offensively, they regressed from 2012. Key West scored 764 runs, well behind the 900 runs they scored last year.

The opener was in Key West. The Slam started Katamor Eizan (10-11, 3.95 ERA) and the Corals started Whitney Sanders (15-8, 3.06 ERA). In the bottom of the second inning, the Corals scored first on a solo home run by 3B Adelmo Porcayo. An RBI double by Héctor De Echeverría in the fourth tied the game. The Slam pulled ahead 2-1 in the seventh thanks to a pinch hit single by Hilly King. Dong-u Sop pitched the eighth inning for the Slam. The Corals retook the lead by scoring two runs. First came a solo homer by leadoff 2B Carlos Galicia. The next run was courtesy of a Porcayo double. Closer Thornton “Bingo” Peters blew the save in the ninth for the Corals. Chick Veras scored for the Slam off of a Rodarte single to tie the game. The Key West crowd was elated when Galicia came through in the bottom of the ninth with a game winning single. The Corals defeated the Slam 4 to 3.

In game two, the Corals sent Mario Torralbo (12-8, 2.67 ERA) to the mound. The Slam named Gutierre Jiménez (10-7, 4.32 ERA) as their starter. For the second straight game, Adelmo Porcayo opened the scoring with a solo home run. The Corals had a 1-0 lead in the fourth. Keith Boris and Roy Dabbs contributed hits in the fifth to build Key West’s lead to 2-0. In the seventh, CF Carlos Tejera hit a homer for Richmond and the score was 2-1. Key West came right back in the bottom half of the inning with a run of its own. It was Boris and Dabbs getting the hits again. Torralbo went seven innings and the Corals bullpen did the rest. Key West secured a 3-1 win.

The series shifted to Richmond for game three. Hap Bedford (10-11, 5.10 ERA), a 217 career game winner, got the start for the Slam. William Constable (10-9, 4.12 ERA) pitched for the Corals. The game was a disaster for Richmond from the very beginning. Key West battered Hap Bedford with a hitting barrage. Right fields Tulio Morrles hit a grand slam and catcher Matthew Loy hit a two run homer. When it was all over, the Corals were up 9-0 after their first at bats. After three innings, it was 12-0 Corals and the game was clearly over. A two run dinger by Tony Rodarte gave Richmond fans a glimmer of hope. The Corals continued to deliver a humiliating lesson, however, adding two runs in the fifth and four more in the sixth. Key West kept pouring on runs, scoring in every inning but the second and fourth. Richmond burned nine pitchers on way to a devastating 24-5 loss.

Down three games to none, things looked very bleak for the Slam. Joe Lehr (14-7, 4.98 ERA) took the mound for Richmond against Key West’s Whitney Sanders in game four. Richmond’s poor fielding surfaced in the second inning. A throwing error by Lehr led to a Corals run. A pair of homers by De Echeverría and Tejera put the Slam up 2-1 in the bottom of the second. Hot hitting Adelmo Porcayo hit a two run monster blast to left field in the top of the third and the Corals led again. Richmond came right back to tie the game in the bottom half of the inning. The score remained 4-4 until Galicia delivered an RBI single for the Corals in the sixth. A Martin Trujillo sacrifice fly in the seventh added another run. Key West was up 6-4. The game winning hit came in the bottom of the seventh. De Echeverría went deep off of High Rossiter. His three run homer was the decisive hit in Richmond’s 7-6 victory.

The Corals hoped to put the Slam away in game five. Their starter was Edgardo Rivera (8-7, 4.01 ERA), a 24 year old sinkerball pitcher. Katamor Eizan had his second start of the series for the Slam. Fresh off of a win, Richmond kept its momentum when John Orie homered in the second. The 1-0 lead remained until the bottom of the fifth when Héctor De Echeverría batted in Chick Veras for Richmond’s second run. Eizan’s shutout was busted up in the seventh. Tulio Morrles hit a two run home run to tie the game. The Corals went ahead for good in the top of the eighth. Trujillo batted in two more. Key West won 4-2 and will play in its first World Championship Series.

Adelmo Porcayo was the League 2 Series MVP. He hit .364 with 4 HR and 8 RBI.