DURHAM, N.C. – Playing in front an electric crowd of 9,692 at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park, James Kaprielian (UCLA) and the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team turned in quite the patriotic performance on Friday, July 4.
Kaprielian and two U.S. relievers gave the fans plenty to cheer for in advance of the postgame fireworks display, limiting Chinese Taipei (0-2-1) to just three hits as Team USA (8-1-1) emerged victorious on the nation’s birthday, 2-0.
“What a great atmosphere,” Team USA manager Dave Van Horn (Arkansas) said. “This was fantastic for these players and very exciting. It is an honor to wear the USA uniform and even more so on July 4 in an atmosphere like this. I thought both teams played extremely well tonight and I’m glad we came out on top.”
In six shutout innings, Kaprielian struck out 12 batters and allowed just two baserunners total. After yielding a double to the first batter he faced, who he promptly picked off at second, Kaprielian was magnificent, retiring the next 15 batters before a broken-bat single with one out in the sixth ended the run.
The UCLA right-hander struck out two batters in each of his six innings and faced just one over the minimum during his time on the mound.
He then handed the ball over to Texas A&M southpaw A.J. Minter who fired two hitless frames, fanning two, before flamethrowing righty Dillon Tate (UCSB) closed out the contest with a scoreless ninth to earn the save.
“Obviously it is great to have the pitching staff that we have,” Van Horn said. “What James did tonight was really command his breaking pitch. Whenever he got in a jam and got behind in the count he went to his slider and curveball and kept them off balance. He jumped out front a lot and then he zipped that fastball right by them. He did a great job.”
Offensively, Team USA managed just six hits of its own but got them when it needed them most. Dansby Swanson (Vanderbilt) had half of the squad’s hits, going 3-for-4 with a double and scoring the game’s first run.
After leading off the top of the third with a double down the left-field line, Swanson moved to third on a fly out to deep center and came home to score on a wild pitch to the backstop.
With Kaprielian and Minter continuing to post zeroes on the scoreboard, Team USA finally added an insurance run in the top of the ninth. Although a leadoff double by Chris Okey (Clemson) was erased at third on a failed sac bunt attempt, Swanson followed with a double to left to put runners on the corners with one out.
Mark Mathias (Cal Poly) than laced down the line where the Chinese Taipei third baseman made a great backhanded snag. He would get the force at second but the relay throw to first was not in time to get Mathias and Blake Trahan (Louisiana Lafayette) scored from third to put the U.S. up by the eventual final score of 2-0.
The two teams will close out the five-game series with a doubleheader on Saturday, July 5, at Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Both games will be seven-inning affairs with the first beginning at 3:45 p.m. with no inning starting later than 6 p.m. The nightcap and series finale will start at 7:05 p.m.
