NALB 2016 World Championship Series - Game 7

K. Fields
2017-09-28T16:04:42-04:00
Baseball

In a back and forth World Championship Series, Game 7 was much anticipated by NALB fans. The starters from Game 3, Jesús Martínez (12-8, 3.71 ERA) and Darius Luxton (20-6, 3.31 ERA), were back on the mound for this decisive game. In the previous matchup, Martínez out-dueled Luxton and the Corals prevailed 2-1.

The first runs of the game came in the top of the second. Álex Rodríguez, the hero of Game 5 with his walk off double, was at it again. He drove in two runs to put the Corals out in front. In the fourth inning, Rodríguez came through with another clutch hit for his third RBI of the game. The Knights struck back in the bottom half of the inning, scoring their first run off of a single by Alvino Flores. Brooklyn pulled to within one run when Roberto Hernández delivered an RBI single in the sixth. With a 3-2 lead in the ninth, the Corals looked to Berto Sarzosa to close out the game. With one man out, Lariel Gómez reached base on an error by Corals’ shortstop Senichi Fujimaki. Hsiao-lou Yeh followed with a double to bring Gómez home and tie the game.

Game 7 went into extra innings and both bullpens kept putting up zeros on the scoreboard. Brooklyn’s Ken Hannah was a particular standout. He pitched 3 ⅔ innings without giving up a hit and struck out 8. With the game still tied 3-3 in the bottom of the 17th inning, Syman Lowery led off the inning with a single. Maurílio Godim placed a sacrifice bunt down to move Lowery to second base. Third baseman Alberto Pescador ended the game when he smashed a fastball from Jonathon Everitt over the right field wall. It was a walk off home run and a 5-3 victory for the Brooklyn Knights, the 2016 NALB World Champions!

Final score: Brooklyn 5, Key West 3

             1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17   R  H  E
Key West     0 2 0 1 0 0 0 0 0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  0   3 11  1
Brooklyn     0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1  0  0  0  0  0  0  0  2   5 17  1

W: B. Clark
L: J. Everitt