In a day of incredible come backs, the Cubs almost pulled off a classic come-from-behind win of their own. Their brave effort came just short as they went down 6-5 to the Red Sox in the Bronze Medal Game.
During the regular season the two teams were very equally-matched having won 3 games each, so this was their seventh meeting of the season and was the equivalent of a sudden-death Game 7 in a best-of-7 series.
The Sox jumped in front 5-0 in the first inning. 4 of those runs came after 2 RBI doubles from both Liam Green and rookie Mariana Casal playing only her third game in the Little League. The Cubs were refusing to throw in the towel, and started chipping away at the Red Sox’ lead. Keanu Wood (1-1) and Eddie Smith (0-1) may have been the youngest members of the Cubs, but they delivered giant blows driving in 3 runs. That brought the Cubs to within 3 runs going into the final inning.
Red Sox starting pitcher, Carlos Casal Jr, had allowed only 2 hits up to that point, but in the final inning the Cubs managed to find other ways to get on base. Aggressive base-running forced the Red Sox to commit several errors which allowed 2 runs in and made the score 6-5. The Cubs’ were somehow staying alive with two outs. They even managed to put the tying run in scoring position, but their luck ran out right at the end. The Red Sox held on to clinch the bronze medal sparking wild celebrations with champagne cork flying high up in the air. Even the Cubs joined in the celebrations with both teams ending up completely drenched.
Red Sox Catcher, Michael Davis, was voted as the MVP of the 2009 Bronze Medal Game.
Red Sox Managers, Nick White and Carlos Casal, praised their players: “Everyone worked as a team and that’s how baseball games are won”. Kal Dimitrov, standing in as Cubs Manager for Atso Ariga, was positive despite the defeat: “The Cubs should be very proud. They have had a fantastic season and showed great resilience fighting right to the end.”
Yankees are Champions After Remarkable Come From Behind Win (Read more)
More images from the Herts Baseball Little League Finals.
| Herts Cubs at Herts Red Sox | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Score By Innings | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | R | H | E |
| Herts Cubs | 0 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 5 | 2 | 2 |
| Herts Red Sox | 5 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 3 | 1 |
| Herts Red Sox 6, Herts Cubs 5 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Herts Red Sox | Herts Cubs | ||||||||
| ab | r | h | bi | ab | r | h | bi | ||
| Adam White 2b | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Nicolas Carlean cf | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Michael Davis c | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | Drew Mayhew 1b | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Carlos Casal Jr p | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Alex Ringrose p | 1 | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| Liam Green 1b | 2 | 1 | 2 | 2 | Adam Smith c | 2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| Theo Longboy 3b | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Declan Carlean ss | 3 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
| Connor Caffrey ss | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Mitchell Procter 2b | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Mariana Casal rf | 2 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Eddie Smith lf | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Jacob Strange lf | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | Keanu Wood 3b | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Alexander Deacon cf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | Bai Frisby rf | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| TEAM TOTALS | 9 | 6 | 3 | 5 | TEAM TOTALS | 15 | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| E: Carlos Casal Jr, Drew Mayhew, Declan Carlean. LOB: Herts Red Sox 8, Herts Cubs 8. 2B: Liam Green, Mariana Casal, Declan Carlean. |
| Herts Red Sox | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO |
| Carlos Casal Jr W | 4.00 | 2 | 5 | 3 | 8 | 6 |
| Herts Cubs | ||||||
| Alex Ringrose L | 1.33 | 3 | 6 | 4 | 9 | 3 |
| HBP: by Carlos Casal Jr (Keanu Wood). , by Carlos Casal Jr (Alex Ringrose). T: 1:35. A: 89. |