East storms back to defeat West 8-6

Courtesy of CodBall.com

The College Baseball Blog made the long trek down to Chatham to take in the Cape Cod All-Star game. The East Division in front of 8,629 fans used a seven run bottom of the eighth inning to erase a 6-1 deficit and pick up a 8-6 victory in the Cape Cod Baseball League All-Star game. The game was dominated by the team’s respective pitching staffs with each squad having a pitcher blow up in an inning. The Western squad scored the first run of the game in the 3rd inning with an A.J. Pollock (Notre Dame) opposite field homer while Rob Poythress (Georgia) returned the favor in the fifth inning by hitting a ball back in the same general area in right field. Both homers were just pop flys to right field but the strong wind heading out to right field brought the ball out of the ball park.

The real action started in the top of the sixth inning when the Western Division scored five runs (four earned) on a Grant Green fielding error, a two run double by Clemson’s Ben Paulsen, and grabbed a couple of more hits and a sacrifice fly to grab the 6-1 lead. Loyola Marymount pitcher Martin Viramontes was knocked around in his 0.1 innings of work with four earned runs.

The game stayed 6-1 until the bottom of the eighth inning when the East squad erupted for seven runs off of Seth Blair from Arizona State. The East squad picked up two runs to put the score at 6-3 with two outs and two runners on. I look up at the field and the crowd starts to go wild when three streakers run across the outfield in the middle of a USC’s shortstop Grant Green at bat. The streakers jump the outfield fence and leave the field. Green then takes the next pitch and puts it right where the streakers left the field to tie up the game at 6. The East squad would get another hit to put a runner on first with North Carolina catcher Mark Fleury up to bat. He took a pitch deep into right field which got over the outstretched arm of the right fielder to grab the 8-6 lead.

The East team was able to hold onto the lead in the top of the ninth inning for the victory. I will be posting a breakdown of some of the top players in the game sometime on Sunday and check in on every single pitcher that took part in the game. I would like to thank Jarred Amato of The Sports VU and occasional contributor to The College Baseball Blog for helping me out at the game by giving me background information on players.

The CapeHomepage.com attended the game and took some great pictures from the game. They are available by clicking here.