(Story by Marco Stoovelaar; Photo courtesy of Hickory Crawdads)
  Profar also wins Single-A championship with Crawdads
Nederlands
  ASHEVILLE, North Carolina / RANCO CUCAMONGA, California (USA) -
Hickory Crawdads (Texas Rangers, with Juremi Profar as its third baseman, has captured the championship-title in the South Atlantic League (Single-A).
Hickory won 5-1 on Thursday (September 17) vs. Asheville Tourists (Colorado Rockies) to complete a 3-game sweep in the best-of-five Final.
On Thursday, the best-of-five Championship Series of the California League (Single-A Advanced) opened.
San Jose Giants (San Francisco Giants, with Curaçao-born John Polonius, lost the first game vs. Rancho Cucamonga Quakes (Los Angeles Dodgers) with a big 12-3 score.
The Giants initially led 2-0 in the fifth inning, but then the Quakes came alongside.
In the next inning, the Quakes rallied for seven runs, then added three more in the seventh inning.
Polonius didn't play in this game, which was played at Rancho Cucamonga, a suburb forty miles east of Los Angeles.
At Asheville, the Hickory Crawdads completed a 3-game sweep to win the South Atlantic League-championship.
The Crawdads won the first two games at home with scores of 7-2 and 3-1.
On Thursday, the team won Game 3 with a 5-1 score to dethrone Asheville, which last season won the title for the second time in three years.
Juremi Profar was 1-for-3, scored a run and walked once.
As mentioned in earlier reports, Juremi is the younger brother of Jurickson Profar, who is on the 40-man roster of the Texas Rangers, but currently is recovering from a shoulder-injury.
...Juremi Profar...
(© Hickory Crawdads |
In the top of the third inning, it was Profar who set things first in motion.
He led of with a walk, then moved on a sacrifice bunt by Carlos Arroyo and scored the first run on a following double by José Cardona, who himself moved to third base on an outfield-error.
Moments later, Cardona scored the next run on a sacrifice fly by Dylan Moore.
In the bottom of the third inning, Asheville got one run back on a double by Josh Fuentes, but that was to be their lone run.
In the following innings, Asheville got several baserunners and got scoring opportunities, while Hickory was silenced.
Beginning with the sac-fly by Moore, 15 consecutive batters were retired by the Asheville-pitching.
Asheville stranded three runners in scoring position, but came close to the tying run in the bottom of the seventh inning.
With two outs, Dom Nuñez was the runner on first base.
Next, Roberto Ramos singled, then an error in rightfield followed.
Nuñez advanced to third base on the basehit and the error, then tried to score, but was eliminated at the plate on a throw by rightfielder Jairo Beras to end the inning.
And with that, Hickory kept its 2-1 lead intact.
In the top of the eighth inning, with one out, after 15 batters were retired in order, Profar singled for Hickory, but he was forced out.
In the top of the ninth inning, Hickory took more distance, scoring three runs.
Dylan Moore led off with a single and moved on a sacrifice bunt.
Hereafter, a pop-up by Luke Tendler near short ended in an infield-hit.
The two runners moved to second and third base on a wild pitch.
With two outs, the inning could have been over moments later.
Jairo Beras struckout, but the third strike ended in another wild pitch that enabled Moore to score.
After a pitching change, Eduard Pinto delivered a 2-run double to lift the lead to 5-1.
In the bottom of the ninth, closer Scott Williams retired three batters in a row.
He ended with a strikeout to seal the championship.
(September 18)
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