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With outstanding pitching and defense En Fuego (4-0) won the
2008 SCMAF Qualifier Tournament at Steed Memorial Park in San
Clemente. It was the first SCMAF tournament held south of Irvine
since En Fuego played in a SCMAF qualifier in Tustin in August
of 2000. Overall it was En Fuego’s 13th tournament championship
win in team history and second in 2008. In a very competitive
field of teams En Fuego managed to do just what they needed to
do in order to go undefeated and win the title.
En Fuego faced off with KTFO (2-3) from Signal Hill in the first
game of the day. The En Fuego offense got off to a slow start
and trailed 4-1 after four innings of play. Led by the solid
pitching effort of Craig Watkins
and the entire defense making all the plays behind him, Watkins
and En Fuego remained poised holding the KTFO offense down to
stay in the game. In the top of the fifth inning the offense
exploded for three runs to tie the game 4-4. In the tight
match-up KTFO took the lead back in the bottom half of the fifth
to go up 6-4, but thanks to En Fuego’s defense including
Jason England’s stellar play at
third base that is all the runs they would manage for the game.
Scoring one run in each of the sixth and seventh innings En
Fuego would tie the game 6-6 as they headed to extra innings. In
the top half of the eighth inning En Fuego scored twice to lead
8-6 which was their first lead since being up 1-0 after the
first half inning. For the fifth time in eight innings Watkins
held KTFO scoreless in the bottom of the eighth as En Fuego held
on for the victory.
In game two En Fuego would be matched up against OC Inmates
(3-2) another formidable opponent. OC Inmates coming off an
extra inning win in which they scored over thirty runs were shut
down by the strong pitching and defensive effort by En Fuego.
They could only manage four runs in a 11-4 victory by En Fuego.
Tournament MVP, Shortstop Cesar Reyes,
led the offense with seven RBI going 2-for-3 with a triple and a
grand slam home run for En Fuego in the win.
Fittingly in the third game En Fuego would face the only other
undefeated team left, their biggest rival Stac Pac (2-2). Stac
Pac disposed of their first two opponents handily to get off to
a good start in the tourney. In the 80th meeting between the two
teams the En Fuego offense slowly but surely started to heat up
as they jumped out in front with a six run second inning and led
8-3 heading to the bottom of the fourth. Stac Pac notorious for
the big offensive inning slugged their way to ten runs and a
13-8 lead after four innings of play. Just as Stac Pac would
take a five run lead and gain momentum En Fuego would steal it
right back answering with seven runs in the top of the fifth. En
Fuego would hold Stac Pac down allowing only two runs over the
next three innings en route to a 23-15 final. With nine of the
ten hitters in the En Fuego line-up driving in runs in the game
the comeback win was a total team effort. “It’s the same guys
each game, each tourney.” said En Fuego outfielder
Vince Petruzzi. “We just want
to win.” Reyes and catcher Justin Shultz led the way with four
hits each for En Fuego. Reyes drove in a game high four RBI.
Five of the ten hitters in the lineup had three RBI and seven
had two RBI.
Now in the driver’s seat En Fuego would need just one more win
to clinch the tournament title. In their fourth and final game
En Fuego would not have an easy road against Nunya (0-4).
Although the loaded Nunya team was winless on the day it could
have easily been the other way around. “Any one of these teams
could have won the tournament.” Said Watkins. On this day though
it was En Fuego’s poise and determination that would be the
determining factor. With the En Fuego offense coming to a
complete halt again, Nunya led 5-1 after four innings of play.
But En Fuego would keep Nunya from having the big inning and
finally in the top of the fifth they rallied for five runs to
take a 6-5 lead. With outstanding defense En Fuego would shut
out the Nunya offense the next three innings for the 6-5 final
win and the tournament title. All-tourney outfielder
James Verdi tripled and drove in
four runs in the final game.
Outfielders Vince Petruzzi, who led the team with a .571 batting
average, and Kevin Lorton were
also named to the all-tournament team. Overall it was another
great team win by En Fuego. They allowed only 30 runs in four
games an average of 7.5 runs per game. Even though the offense
didn’t have a huge day En Fuego got the clutch hits and kept
themselves in the tight games with great defense.
In a backyard battle of perhaps the strongest teams in the south
Orange County area En Fuego stood out with great pitching and
defense, timely hitting, and an overall solid team effort. |
