By Michael J. Steele
June 15, 2013
In a matchup featuring the two teams with league-best
regular season records, the Ironbirds defeated the Knights 6-1 to win the 2013
Elk Grove Babe Ruth Championship Saturday morning at Bartholomew Sports Park.
In the first inning, it was the Knights taking an early lead.
After throwing a scoreless first inning on the mound, Anthony Alves tripled to
lead off the bottom of the first, his high fly ball to leftfield getting lost
in the sun. Alves then scored on a gutsy, but beautifully executed, bunt single
by Joe DeSoto to take a 1-0 lead.
Despite that early pressure, Kyle Ducay, the Ironbirds’
starting pitcher, was unfazed. After striking out the next hitter, he picked
DeSoto off first and induced a weak groundout to stop the threat. Ducay, the
winning pitcher in the championship game two years ago as a thirteen-year-old,
was equally impressive this time around, spinning three sharp innings, allowing
just three hits, and walking none while striking out five.
“Kyle really turned it on this week,” said Ironbirds’ Coach
Larry Stone. “You could tell he wanted this game.”
In addition to his pitching, Ducay also had an excellent day
at the plate, collecting two hits, driving in a run, scoring once, and stealing
a base. But Ducay was not alone, as the Ironbirds used a balanced offensive
attack to earn the victory, with eight different players producing nine hits.
Trailing by a run in the third, it was ninth-place hitter
Josh Hames making things happen first, singling sharply to left, advancing on
an error, and scoring on an RBI hit by the number ten hitter, Alex Catlett.
Then, with the game tied in the fourth inning, Dante Teddington, the last
hitter in the Ironbirds’ lineup, led off with a single and later scored on
Ducay’s hit to make it 2-1.
The Ironbirds, though, were not finished. In the fifth,
Joseph Flores doubled home his older brother, Matt, to plate a run that made it
3-1, and, in the seventh, they finally broke it open with an impressive
offensive series. After Ducay sandwiched a single between two quick outs, D.J.
Trafton singled to left and Matt Flores doubled both of them home. One pitch
later, Charlie Hewell roped an opposite-field double to right just inside the
foul line to take a commanding 6-1 lead.
“It was really special to have so many players contribute
today,” said Coach Stone, “but it was like that for us all season.”
Making the offensive fireworks hold up on the mound was Ryne
Sullivan, who was dominant in relief of Ducay. Mixing a sharp curveball with
his fastball, Sullivan kept the Knights from mounting a comeback, issuing only
two walks in four hitless innings of shutout relief. Fittingly, Sullivan’s
fourth strikeout ended the game and capped his team’s championship season.
“I just felt like…as soon as I struck him out, it was
relief,” said Sullivan. “I like to pitch, and it obviously worked out.”
For the Knights, Matt Heffron singled, Jake Tryzinski played
an excellent defensive game at shortstop, and the battery duo of Alves and
DeSoto was strong as always throughout the loss.
“[The Knights] were a good team, but all our guys really did
it for us,” said Ironbirds Manager Chris Allen after the game. “Today was a lot
of fun.”
