NALB 2012 Playoffs - League 1 Series

K. Fields
2013-09-13T21:50:00-04:00
Baseball

2012 League 1 Series - Nashville Firecats (93-69) vs. Brooklyn Knights (111-51)

Game 1: Brooklyn 9, Nashville 7
Game 2: Brooklyn 8, Nashville 5
Game 3: Nashville 11, Brooklyn 8
Game 4: Nashville 7, Brooklyn 2
Game 5: Nashville 4, Brooklyn 2
Game 6: Brooklyn 7, Nashville 6
Game 7: Brooklyn 10, Nashville 3

For the third time in four years, the Nashville Firecats and Brooklyn Knights met in the League 1 Series. In 2009, the Firecats came out on top. They went on to defeat the Phoenix Rattlers for the World Championship. In 2011, The Knights prevailed and won their ninth title. The teams met 23 times in the regular season and the Firecats won 12 of those games. Brooklyn and Nashville were the top two pitching teams in North American League Baseball. Both clubs played particularly well at home.

The League 1 Series opened in Brooklyn. Ex-Knights pitcher Fred Millard (12-7, 4.07 ERA) started for the Firecats. Ronaldo Mijangos (15-7, 2.82 ERA) took the mound for the Knights. Mijangos was uncharacteristically wild early on. Multiple walks and a balk led to three runs in the first inning. Thanks to a Difranco double, Nashville added another run in the third to go up 4-0. In the bottom of the fifth, Brooklyn strung together four consecutive hits to narrow the score to 4-3. A three-run homer by Dacey Rager put the Firecats up 7-3 in the seventh inning. Working against the Firecats bullpen, the Knights scored a run in the seventh and another in the eighth. Nashville sent out Francisco Rodil in the ninth to close out the 7-5 game. With a man on and two out, Martin Swader was brought in to pinch hit. Swader came through with a home run to center field to send the game to extra innings. In the eleventh inning, catcher Alvino Flores hit a two run walk-off home run to give Brooklyn a 9-7 win.

The game two pitching matchup was between Firecats lefty Robert Givens (15-11, 3.23 ERA) and the Knights José Arisa (13-9, 3.17 ERA). Brooklyn jumped out to a quick 1-0 lead in the first inning. In the top of the third, a Ricky Agganis solo homer started a three run inning for the Firecats. In the bottom of the inning, the Knights answered with two runs to tie the score 3-3. Then a Michael Duhon double in the fourth put Brooklyn up 4-3. Things look well in hand for the Knights when Alexis Schmidt smashed a three run home run in the fifth to make it 7-3. Nashville was not done, however. A Rager triple led to a run in the sixth. A pair of doubles in the seventh led to another run and the score was 7-5. The Knights added an insurance run and Bernard Gastelu closed the game in the ninth for an 8-5 victory.

The series shifted to Nashville for game three. Facing Brooklyn’s Ralph Kerfoot (18-4, 3.14 ERA), Nashville started reliable Bris Clark (10-6, 3.48 ERA). The Firecats needed a home field boost and they got it. As in the first two games, the hitters overshadowed these two great pitching staffs. A Difranco home run and a Pete Chavez triple put Nashville up 2-0 in the second. The scoring really opened up in the fifth inning. Brooklyn put up six runs in a big inning to take the lead. The Firecats answered in the bottom of the inning when Difranco hit his second homer of the game, a solo shot to right-center. When the Knights scored a run in the sixth, it looked like the 7-3 lead might hold up. It did not. After a Difranco single in the seventh made it 7-4, Chris Lee followed with a three run homer to tie the game 7-7. Kid Detherage gave the lead back to the Knights with a solo homer in the eighth. The lead did not last long. The Firecats battered the Knights relievers in the bottom of the eighth and won 11-8.

In game four, young fireballer Tony Tamayo (16-10, 4.19 ERA) took the mound for the Knights. Tamayo set a franchise record with 258 strikeouts during the regular season. Terrance Steinman (10-8, 3.02 ERA) got the home start for the Firecats. Once again, Nashville got on the board first, courtesy of a Pete Chavez solo blast in the second inning. Hsiao-lou Yeh matched the feat with a solo shot of his own in the top of the fourth. The Firecats power was on full display in the fifth inning. Dan Kelly, Dacer Rager, and Charles Difranco hit back to back to back home runs. In the top of the sixth, Hooks Goetz went deep. In the seventh inning, Pete Chavez sealed the win for the Firecats with a three run line drive homer into the left field seats. The ball was traveling well in Nashville that night. Nashville 7, Brooklyn 2.

Heading into game five, the Firecats had momentum and the home field advantage. Nashville’s bats were hot and the long ball was in ample supply. They decided to pitch Robert Givens on short rest. For the Knights, Bob Wiesner (7-3, 4.78 ERA) was the starter. Finally, hitting took a back seat to pitching. Brookly scored a run off of a sacrifice fly in the first. The Knights had no answer for Charles Difranco. He homered in his third straight game to tie the score at a run apiece. The Firecats strung together some hits in the fifth to go ahead 3-1. However, a Lariel Gómez double in the top of the seventh cut the lead to 3-2. Nashville added one more run in the seventh and won the game 4-2.

The series returned to Brooklyn. The pressure was on the Knights to win both games at home. The game six starters were the same as game one, Millard and Mijangos. Charles Difranco got to work right away. In his first at bat, he crushed a Mijangos fastball 464 feet for his fifth home run of the series. The Knights tied the score in the second inning when Alexis Schmidt homered and Angel Santago tripled. In the fourth, the Knights went ahead by a run thanks to an RBI single by William Garner. Brooklyn added two runs in the fifth and another two runs in the sixth. The last two runs were courtesy of a Santago home run and a double by Gómez. Brooklyn’s 7-2 lead was challenged in the eighth. Jim Stoneman, Dan Kelly, and Dacey Rager had consecutive hits. Pete Chavez capped the inning with a two-run homer. Brooklyn’s lead was shaved to 7-6. The Firecats could not score another run, however, and they lost by a run.

The Brooklyn Knights were in familiar territory. This was the fourth time in five years that they played a game seven in the League 1 Series. Nashville’s Bris Clark was matched up against Brooklyn’s José Arisa. Both pitchers looked good early on. The Knights started to get some offense going with a run in the third and another in the fourth. The floodgates opened up in the fifth, however. The Knights put on a hitting display that thrilled the hometown fans. Against three Firecats pitchers, they delivered seven hits. More impressively, the Knights hit four home runs. Alexis Schmidt, Carl Gwinn, and Alvino Flores all went deep. However, it was Hooks Goetz, an under-performer for most of the series, who delivered a moment for the ages. With two on, two out, and the wind blowing in at 11 mph, Goetz hit a moon shot to dead center field. It was one of the longest, if not the longest home run in NALB history—526 feet! The crowd erupted with pure joy as Brooklyn went up 10-0. Raúl Mendoza hit a three run home run in the ninth off Xerxes Scaife to break up the shutout. However, Brooklyn still won in convincing fashion by a score of 10-3.

The 2012 League 1 Series saw a display of pure power from both teams. There were 12 home runs hit by Brooklyn and 14 hit by Nashville. Whenever the Firecats hit more homers than the Knights in a game, they won. The Knights superior regular season record earned them home field advantage. That turned out to be very important as the home team won every game in the series. Rager, Difranco, and Chavez were certainly Nashville’s “Murderer’s Row.” Difranco was particularly explosive with 5 HR and 13 RBI. For Knights fans, however, it will be the 526 foot moon shot by Hooks Goetz that will be remembered for years to come.