NALB 2012 World Championship Series - Game 1

K. Fields
2013-09-14T19:23:00-04:00
Baseball

For the third time in NALB history, the Richmond Slam (92-70) and Brooklyn Knights (111-51) will play for the World Championship. The Knights previously beat the Slam in 2001 and 2005.

The Slam started their ace, Hap Bedford (19-5, 3.69 ERA), a free agent acquisition in the offseason. Bedford is a pitching legend. He is North American League Baseball’s all-time strikeout leader and currently second all-time in career wins. The Knights started Ralph Kerfoot (18-4, 3.14 ERA), the pitcher who led the team in wins this season.

Richmond wasted no time showcasing its productive offense. Chick Veras and Edmundo Ovelha opened the game with back to back singles. Héctor De Echeverría hit a double into the right field corner to score two runs. Brooklyn put a run on the board in the second inning. After a double by Angel Santago, Carl Gwinn delivered an RBI single. The Knights tied the game 2-2 in the fourth inning when Alexis Schmidt hit a solo home run to center field. The first of these two fine pitchers started to crack in the sixth inning. Bedford gave up two hits, two walks, and a wild pitch. Going into the seventh, the Knights were up 4-2. The Slam showed signs of life in the eighth inning. Ángel Jirnénez drove in Nub Spade to pull the Slam within one run. The Knights brought in Bernard Gastelu for a four out save. After giving up a leadoff double to Matty Byers in the ninth, Gastelu shut down Richmond’s hitters. He retired Veras, Ovelha, and struck out Tony Rodarte to end the game.

Final score: Brooklyn 4, Richmond 3

             1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9   R  H  E
Richmond     2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0   3  8  0
Brooklyn     0 1 0 1 0 2 0 0 X   4 10  1

W: R. Kerfoot
L: H. Bedford
S: B. Gastelu