By Kurt Martin
PALM SPRINGS, CA – The POWER won their third straight Southern California World Series defeating the Long Beach Legends by a score of 7-2 on Friday night at Palm Springs Stadium.
Brooks Kriske (USC) was phenomenal in the clinching going eight innings, allowing five hits, two runs, no walks and striking out six.
“The weather was tough today, it was nice and humid and I felt like me and the other guy [Frutos] battled and there’s nothing better than that in a clinching game.
In the opposing dugout, Sebastian Frutos was just as dominant matching zeroes with Kriske. As a matter of fact, the right-hander had a perfect game through six innings.
This game started as a pitcher’s duel between starters Kriske and Frutos through the first 4.5 innings until the bottom of the fifth inning when the Long Beach Legends plated the first run in the game after two doubles.
Nine outs away from losing game two of the World Series and unable to get any hits against the Legends, the POWER finally got the scoring going in the top of the seventh.
Ryne Clark (Chico St.) and Scotty Burcham (Sacramento State) led the inning off with back-to-back walks, the POWER’s first base runners of the night.
After a sacrifice bunt by Jordan Zimmerman (Mesa CC), Ino Patron (Long Beach St) was intentionally walked.
That brought Hunter Bening (NW Florida St) to the plate, who laced a double down the left field line scoring the POWER’s first two runs of the game.
The Long Beach Legends tied the game in the home half of the seventh with a solo home run by Shane Lohr.
Palm Springs regained the lead in the top of the ninth inning scoring five runs in the inning.
The inning started with a leadoff walk by Ryne Clark.
Scotty Burcham reached on a fielders’ choice after pitcher Mitchell Moore tried to throw out Clark at second.
Jordan Zimmerman then doubled in the go-ahead run giving the POWER their second lead of the night. Palm Springs would tack on four more runs in the inning.
The POWER end their season with a record 41-8, the third straight summer with 40-plus wins. This was also the fourth straight year the red-and-white won the SCCBL and the third year they won the So Cal World Series.
