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Welcome to the Season 17 of the USMLB.

Friday, January 9, 2009

World Series Recap

What a great series between the American League Champions the Atlanta Brave Vawts and the National League Champions and defending World Series Champions the Monterrey Stars. The series once again went to 7 games, fourth straight time the World Series as gone to seven games and the fourth straight time the National League as been able to pull off the victory.

World Series MVP:



There where some good choices for MVP but with Ramirez hitting that big three run home to put the nail in the coffin put him over the edge. Ramirez went 12-28 (.429 average), 2 runs, 5 RBI, 2 doubles, 1 homerun, walked 2 times and only struck out twice. He only left 6 men on base the whole series.

Other MVP Candidates:
Mike Bonds
(.393, 2, 8, 5R)

Carmine Taft
(2-0, .69ERA, 13IP, 13SO)

TEAM STATS:

MONTERREY STARS:
The Stars hit .291 average (71-244), scored 29 runs, 12 doubles, 7 triples, 8 homeruns, 15 walks and struck out 37 times. On-Base percentage was .337 and slugging percentage was .496.

The Pitching staff was great having a 2.51 earned run average (17 earned runs), 1 save, 54 hits allowed, 7 homeruns allowed, walked 21 people and struck out 41 batters. The team also had a WHIP of 1.23.

Biggest Disappointments:
Clem Barkley
Barkley went 4-28 (.143 average), 3 runs, 1 RBI, 1 walk, 5 strikeouts and leaving 14 men on base. Also Barkley had 1 error with a .172 on-base percentage and .143 slugging percentage.

Gil Henson
Henson went 0-2, had a 4.50 earned run average (6 earned runs), pitched 12 innings, gave up 12 hits, 6 walks and struck out 4. Henson also gave up 1 homerun and had a WHIP of 1.50.

ATLANTA BRAVE VAWTS:
The Brave Vawts hit .232 (54-233), scored 20 runs, had 12 doubles, 2 triples, 7 homeruns, 21 walks and struck out 21 times. On-base percentage was .298 while there slugging percentage was .391.

The pitching staff pitched well for most of the games having a 3.79 earned run average (27 earned runs), 1 save, 71 hits allowed, 8 homeruns allowed, walked 15 batters and struck out 37 batters. The team also had a WHIP of 1.34.

Biggest Disappointments:
Cookie Pena
Pena went 2-23 (.087 average), 1 run, 6 walks, 2 strikeouts and leaving 8 men on base. Pena also had a on-base percentage of .276 and a slugging percentage of .087 also allowe 2 passed balls during the series.

Larry Rath
Rath went 0-2, 5.14 earned run average (8 earned runs), pitched 14 innings, gave up 20 hits, walked 4 batters while striking out 9. Also have up 3 homeruns and had a WHIP of 1.71.

World Series Game 7 Recap

Once again the USMLB will see there World Series come to a game seven and with the way this series as gone it could be anyone's game. The Brave Vawts will send Samual West to the mound who had won game three of the series while the Monterrey Stars will counter with Brandon Ellis who is starting is third game which he had lost game 4 in the series.
The game started out with a bang as Wade May started out the scoring with an RBI single that scored Ellie Bowman who lead of the game with a single. Ellis was able to get out of the first inning jam with getting Frank Surtain to ground into a 3-6-3 double play. West got through the bottom of the first pretty quick only allow a single to Ricardo Ramirez. At the end of the first inning Brave Vawts 1 - Stars 0.
The Vawts scored once again in the second inning when Mitch Durbin who had been quite until game six hit his first homerun of the series smashing the ball over the right-centerfield fence. The Crowd in Monterrey who was very loud went silent with this homerun. The crowd got right back into the game with Jackson Cooper lead of the bottom of the second inning with a homerun of his, the second one in the series for him. West got into some trouble after this having men on third and first with two outs before getting Brain Turner to end the inning on a short flyball that softly lands into the glove of the right fielder Nick Collins. After the second inning Brave Vawts 2 - Stars 1.
Ellis was able to get a one-two-three inning in the top of the third. West struggled again in the bottom of the third as he gave a leadoff single to Ricardo Ramirez and then walked Mike Bonds but got the next three batters with a strikeout and two ground outs. After three innings Brave Vawts 2 - Stars 1.
In the fourth Ellis only gave a single to Surtain as he got Durbin to look at a called third strike. Clem Barkley lead of the bottom of the fourth inning with a single but that was quickly earsed as Bobby Henry hit into a 3-6-3 double play to kill any rally the Stars where thinking about. After four inning the Brave Vawts 2 - Stars.
Ellis once again flew through the top of the fifth inning getting two flyouts and gourndout. In the bottom of the fifth inning Mike Bond crushed his second homerun of the series to get the game tied up at two. West was able to get through the second two batters without any trouble. After five innings Brave Vawts 2 - Stars 2.
In the top of the sixth inning the Vawts had a good rally going as Collins led of the inning with a walk and then Wade May hit a single two batters later to put runners on first and third with one out. Ellis dug deep to strikeout Surtain and then getting Aubrey Hutchinson to flyout to the centerfielder to end the inning. West look like he was going to coast through the bottom sixth until Henry got a two out triple then pinch hitter Mike Sewell got a walk. West finally ended the inning by getting Turner to flyout to deep left-centerfield to end the inning. The crowd almost came out of there seats thinking that was a big three run homerun. After six inning Brave Vawts 2 - Stars 2.
In the top of seventh Jeremy Morris comes in the relieve Ellis and all he does is give up a walk to the pitcher before ending the inning with a groundout by Ellis Bowman. West had no problems in the bottom of the seventh getting a 1-2-3 inning. After seven inning Brave Vawts 2 - Stars 2.
In the top of the eighth Morris only gave up a single to Cookie Pena before being relieved by Mel Reed who then got Surtain to fly out on the warning track in rightfield. Surtain hit that ball hard as there wasn't any wind to hold that ball in the ballpark so I don't know what happened. The eighth inning started out good for West has he got Cooper to ground out to become the first out of the inning but then the inning got horrible bad for the Vawts. Rondell Lowe then hit a single followed by another single by Barkley then Henry hit a RBI double scoring in Lowe and putting runners on third and second with only one out. Walt Lohse came in to become the pinch hitter for Reed and smacked a two RBI triple to bring the score Stars 5 Vawts 2. Lohse had only gotten 2 at bats so far this series but hadn't gotten a hit until then. The Vawts bring in Gil Lefebvre to stop the bleeding but Lefebvre gives up a three run homerun that bouces off the top of the fence and lands on the other side. The fans in Monterrey really begin to rock the stadium to level which as never been seen here. Lefebvre was able to get the next to batters but the damage had already been done. After eight inning Stars 8 -Brave Vawts 2.
Casey Gumbert will make his first apperance of the series to pitch the ninth inning and does get into some trouble with giving up a double to Luis Carreras and then walking pinch hitter Mac Johnson but ended the game with a weak ground ball by Bowman. The Stars claim there second straight World Series title.

Monterrey Stars 4 - Atlanta Brave Vawts 3

http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=16816130

World Series Game 6 Recap

Game 6 of the World Series went to the Atlanta Brave Vawts 3-0. The Vawts needed a big performance out of their best pitcher Phil Nitkowski and that's what they got out of him. Nitkowski pitched 7 brillant innings of shutout ball, scattered 7 hits, struckout 2 while walking 2 as well. His defense came up big for him as they turned three double plays to kill any chance of the Stars from scoring. Gil Henson almost matched the performance of Nitkowski as he went 6 innings only giving up 1 run. Henson also only gave up 4 hits, 2 walks and struckout 2 batters as well. The scoring started in the fourth inning as Mitch Durbin hit a double that scored Aubrey Hutchinson who was standing on second. Durbin was in a big slump for the team as he was 2-21 (.095 average), 9 strikeouts and leaving 16 men on base before this at bat. The game remained 1-0 until the seventh inning when Nick Collins hit an RBI double that scored Ellie Bowman who had just singled before Collins at bat. Collins collected this third RBI in the series with that double. In the Eighth inning Durbin struck again as he hit a ground-rule double that was again scored Hutchinson to add another insurance run. Gil Lefebvre shutdown the ninth inning with only allowing a single to pick up his first save of the series. Now the game heads to game 7 which will be all hands on deck for both teams. This will be the fourth straight year that the USMLB World Series will be decided with a game seven. Good luck to both teams on what as been a great series so far.

Monterrey Stars 3 - Atlanta Brave Vawts 3

http://www.whatifsports.com/HBD/Pages/Popups/Boxscore.aspx?gid=16808434