Scorpions fall to Dodgertown 12-10 at MSBL World Series

MSBL World Series

70-and-over Arizona Scorpions


The Arizona Scorpions closed with a flourish, scoring five runs in their final at bat but fall to Dodgertown West 12-10 in second round action today at the Men's Senior Baseball League World Series in Phoenix.

The Scorpions, down 12-5 with two outs in the eighth inning, rally for five runs and had the tying run on first base, but couldn't get the hit they needed and fall to 1-1 at the senior world series.

Playing inside the spacious Tempe Diablo Stadium, catcher Tony Contreres doubled in Ed Rife, who had walked earlier in the wild eighth inning, to pull the Scorpions to within six runs. Jerry Hamelin followed with a single, plating Contreres, and Eddie Eckert knocked in Hamelin with a single up the middle to close the gap to 12-8. Ron Petersen walked, Chico Bigham singled and Pigpen Price  followed with a two-run single to left.

With Bigham on third and Price on at first, the hard-hitting left-hander Dohrman Sinclair stepped to the plate. Sinclair who had singled and doubled in his previous at bats, needed to find a gap in order for the Scorpions to tie the game. Sinclair got behind in the count and ended up striking out to end the game.

Price led the Scorpions with a three-hit day, while Petersen, Contreres, Bigham and Sinclair had two hits apiece. After banging out 19 hits in their win over Australia on Monday, the Scorpions added another 17 today, giving them 36 hits in two games.

Bigham started for the Scorpions today and pitched into the sixth inning. He struck out three and didn't walk a batter.

According to Scorpions manager Jerry Hamelin, it wasn't the hitting or the pitching that led to the loss today, but some poor decisions on the base lines and a hand full of errors.

Hamelin said the game was lost in the middle innings when Dodgertown scored three runs in the fourth, one in the fifth, three in the sixth and five runs in the seventh.

"We made some mental errors early on, but we did battle back in the last inning," Hamelin said. "It was a great comeback, but we fell a little short."

Hamelin would be a happy camper if the Scorpions could bounce back and take down the defending 70-and-over MSBL World Series champs, the San Diego Padres, in a 10 AM game at the Goodyear Sports Complex on Wednesday.

Photos below: Pigpen Price (top), Chico Bigham (middle) and Ron Petersen (bottom), three  members of the Tucson Old Timers (TOTS) baseball club, combined for seven of the 17 hits today at Tempe Diablo Stadium as the 70-and-over Arizona Scorpions fall to Dodgertown West and are now 1-1, heading into the third round on Wednesday at the 2013 MSBL/MALB World Series.