Carp takes series lead with 10-8 win over Stittsville (nine innings) WITH DETAILS

from Eric Rosenquist

Carp wins a wild one in Stittsville‏
The Carp I4C Victory squad rallied from 4-0 and 7-4 deficits to take game three of their best of five series against the Stittsville 56ers by a score of 10-8 in nine innings in the GOFL playoffs Wednesday night.

 

Neil Cooke went the distance to earn the win for Carp while Darren Featherstone took the loss in relief of Dan Konkle.

Stittsville got off to a good start, getting 4 runs in the bottom of the first, 3 of those courtesy of a Ryan Bond home run. Carp answered with 3 runs in the top of the second to cut the lead to 4-3. Left fielder Shawn Simzer led off the inning with a single, designated player Cody Price drew a 1-out walk, and both came in on Joe Murray's 2-out triple. Murray came home when center fielder Dan Loney's grounder got past second base.

 

The score remained 4-3 until the top of the 5th when shortstop Kevin McGuire drew a leadoff walk, prompting Stittsville to replace starting pitcher Dan Konkle with Darren Featherstone. McGuire advanced to second on a passed ball and then moved to third on a single by catcher Al Read. After an infield fly off the bat of Simzer, pinch hitter Adam Fleming came through with a flare to right field that scored McGuire and tied the game.

 

The tie was short lived however as Stittsville answered promptly in their half of the 5th. Scott Jessiman and John Craig hit singles and both scored on third baseman Scott Parson's 2-out home run to right field, putting the 56ers back on top 7-4.

 

Carp rallied in the top of the 7th to tie the game. Shawn Simzer drew a leadoff walk, but Featherstone got the next two batters to ground out, moving Simzer to third but putting Carp one out away from being down 2 games to 1 in the series. Carp second baseman Andrew Fortier worked a 2-2 count, but then swung at a hard drop ball that got past the catcher and went to the backstop. The speedy Fortier beat the throw to first to keep the inning alive, and when the throw went wide of first, Simzer scored from third to cut the lead to 7-5. First baseman Joe Murray stepped to the plate, already 2-3 with a triple and single, and hit the first pitch he faced over the center field fence to tie the game at 7. Dan Loney followed with a hard ground ball to short that bounced off the shortstop's glove, but Featherstone retired the next batter on a ground ball to end the inning.

 

Cooke retired the 56ers in order in the bottom of the 7th, sending the game into extra innings.

 

With the international tie-breaker in effect, Featherstone and the 56ers got through the top of the 8th and stranded the runner at third courtesy of a pair of strikeouts and a ground ball out. In their half of the 8th, Stittsville had runners on the corners with no one out when shortstop John Craig hit an infield single to lead off the inning. After a brief discussion at the mound, Carp elected to intentionally walk the next batter (Parsons) to load the bases and get the force play at home. The gamble paid off as Cooke got three straight ground ball outs to end the inning: shortstop to home, second base to home, and finally shortstop to second base.

 

In the top of the 9th, Shawn Simzer was due to start the inning at second base, but with Simzer nursing a sore knee, Eric Rosenquist pinch ran. Pinch hitter Adam Purdy attempted to bunt the runner over the third, but popped the ball up for the first out of the inning. DP Cody Price drew his third walk of the night to give Carp runners on 1st and 2nd. Andrew Fortier then hit a hard chopper to shortstop, but Rosenquist - on his way to 3B on the ground ball - couldn't avoid the charging shortstop and was ruled out for interference, leaving Carp with runners on first and second with 2 out. Joe Murray continued his hot night at the plate hitting a hard single to center field, scoring Price and putting Fortier at third. Loney was then hit by a pitch to load the bases for Carp with two out. Carp third baseman Eric Colvin battled Featherstone to a full count before hitting a single to right that scored Fortier and Murray, putting Carp up 10-7.

 

In the bottom of the 9th with Featherstone starting on second base, Cooke got two quick outs courtesy of a strikeout and a swinging bunt that catcher Al Read made a great play on for the 2-3 putout. Stittsville catcher Scott Jessiman narrowed the lead to 10-8 with his 4th single of the game to score Featherstone, but Cooke struck out the next batter to end the game and give Carp the 10-8 win and 2-1 series lead.

 

Game 4 and 5 (if necessary) go Tuesday and Thursday in Carp at 8:30.

Neil Cooke: W 9IP 8R 7ER 9K 0BB

Joe Murray: 4-5 3R HR 3B 5RBI

Eric Colvin: 3-6 2RBI

Adam Fleming: 1-1 RBI

Cody Price: 0-2 2R 3BB

Dan Konkle: 4IP 4R 4ER 5K 4BB

Darren Featherstone: L 5IP 6R 3ER 4K 3BB

Scott Jessiman: 4-5 2R 2RBI

Ryan Bond: 2-5 R HR 3RBI

Scott Parsons: 3-3 R 3RBI