NALB 2013 World Championship Series - Game 1

K. Fields
2014-10-06T18:50:08-04:00
Baseball

The Nashville Firecats (90-72) face the Key West Corals (92-70) for the NALB 2013 World Championship. The Firecats were world champions in 2009. This is the Corals first trip to the World Championship Series.

The Firecats opened the series with Fred Millard (12-6, 3.26 ERA) on the mound. With a career record of 203-64, Millard has the highest winning percentage of any starter in NALB history. The Corals sent Whitney Sanders (15-8, 3.06 ERA) to the mound as their game one starter.

The raucous Key West crowd seemed to energize the Corals. They scored a run in the first inning off of a Martin Trujillo sac fly and another run in the second inning when Carlos Galicia singled up the middle. In the top of the fourth, Pete Chavez hit a sacrifice fly to score the Firecats first run. In the bottom of the fifth, Alonso Martucci thrilled the crowd with the first home run of the series. It was a line drive into the right field stands that put Key West up 3-1. Nashville came right back in the next inning. A walk and two singles plus an error by Corals shortstop Keith Boris gave the Firecats two runs to tie the game. The Firecats kept the momentum in the seventh, scoring three more runs. The inning was capped by a two run double by John Edwards. Facing pitcher Steve Towell in the eighth, the Corals pulled within one run when catcher Matthew Loy hit a two run homer to left field. In the ninth, a double by Pete Chavez gave Nashville a much needed insurance run. Hits by Alex Sestiaga and Dick Andrews in the ninth gave the Corals some hope. Sestiaga scored but his team fell a run short.

Final score: Nashville 7, Key West 6

             1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R  H  E
Nashville    0 0 0 1 0 2 3 0 1   7  9  0
Key West     1 1 0 0 1 0 0 2 1   6 14  1

W: J. Endicott
L: W. Sanders
S: G. Hernandez