The Game
The 2015 Illowa APBA All-Star Game was a hard fought battle this year. The Country Gents came out the victors in the end over the City Boys when the dust settled thanks to a two-run homer by Khris Davis of the Moline Upperdeckers homerun in the top of the ninth inning and a disastrous 10th inning by the City Boys’ battery Aroldis Chapman and Yan Gomes.’
The City Boys had control of the game for the first 8 innings. In fact, the Gents only managed two hits for the first eight innings. Meanwhile, the Kentucky Kernel shortstop Starlin Castro hit a solo homer in the 3rd inning. In the 8th, Twin City Thunderchicken J.D. Martinez rapped a double and Yasiel Puig of the Three Rivers Gamblers drove home teammate Ryan Braun who pinch ran for him. That made it 2-0 City Boys and the way the Gents were hitting, it may as well have been 10-0.
Enter Upperdecker Khris Davis.
Manager Mark Bunch looks for a pinch hitter… and finds Khris Davis.
…the roll…
a two run shot! High fives for the Country Gents!
Davis came in to pinch hit in the top of ninth after Molly Putts’ Scooter Gennett singled. He launched one into the stands against Huston Street to tie the game 2-2. Just like that, it was a brand new ball game and it was going into extra innings.
City Boys’ Manager Chuck Lucas was looking for bullpen after Davis’ HR
In the bottom of the 9th, the City Boys went down 1-2-3 against Clayton Kershaw of the Upperdeckers. Manager Chuck Lucas brought in reliever Aroldis Chapman (A&CKXYW).
Then things sort of fell apart for the City Boys. Chapman gave up back-to-back singles to Buster Posey and Matt Kemp (in case you’re wondering, a 44-7 and a 15-10). Kemp stole second so there were runners on second and third and no outs. Chapman buckled down and struck out the next two batters. The City Boys thought they might avoid disaster but the Bombers’ Danny Santana walked to load the bases and the tension increased.
Then everything unfolded. With Gennett up, Chapman threw a wild pitch and Posey scored the eventual winning run. In case that wasn’t enough, Yan Gomes then allowed a passed ball to score Kemp. The Country Gents were up 4-2. Kershaw came out for the bottom of the 10th and retired the City Boys for the win.
Congrats to the Country Gents managers especially All-Star Manager Marcus Bunch who also rolled the homer for his player Khris Davis.
Country Gents 4 City Boys 2
Box score of the 2015 IAL All-Score
The Weekend
Visitor Scott Fennessy gets a great view of the Cubs game while he fills in for a game
While the All-Star Game is the focus of the weekend, the Illowa APBA League does play a lot of regular season games during our get-together. In theory, it’s our chance to play the non-division teams that may not live near us. A bonus: Scott Fennessy, APBA Blog contributor, stopped by and even played a few games.
That’s Brando on the tablet looking up at Commissioner Mike Bunch. He took part in the league meeting via Skype.
We even had our league meeting on Saturday morning. That’s a new thing for us since we’ve moved it from its usual spot during the Draft weekend. Mike Bunch (above left) does a great job keeping us on track. Even John Brandeberry participated from Montana via Skype. A lot of important issues were discussed and I’ll probably hit on some of those in future articles. I will say that some good discussion was had and no one bit anyone’s head off.
Here are all the photos I took.
Thanks to commissioner Mike Bunch and vice-commissioner Rob Moore (who set up the weekend).
