By Andrew Drennen, ESPNRISE.com
It was another great day of action at Blair Field in Long Beach, Calif., as for the third day in a row, one of the games ended in a tie, and did so with late inning heroics. The Athletics and the Rangers had the greatest offensive production, with each team winning and each team scoring at least seven runs.
Oakland Athletics 7, Milwaukee Brewers Gray 4
The Brewers Gray got things going in the first, with four straight hits leading to a quick 2-0 lead against Athletics' pitcher Christian Pfaff (R-S Central HS, N.C.). It looked like the Brewers would add more runs, but Cory Hahn (Mater Dei HS, Calif.) grounded into a double play and Joel McKeithan (TC Roberson HS, N.C.) made a highlight reel catch at short to end the inning.
Zach Weiss (Northwood HS, Calif.) got the nod for the Brewers Gray. Drew Doty (Gaither HS, Fla.) led off with a walk and moved to second on a botched pickoff play by Weiss. Ty Linton came up with an RBI single to give the A's their first run of the game.
In the top of the second the Brewers scored on a wild pitch, the second wild pitch of the game for Pfaff. That was the only run of the inning for the Brewers and they took a 3-1 lead.
Third inning Doty drove in McKeithan makes it 3-2. The A's tied it up when Weiss threw one to the backstop and Josh Lee (Independence HS, Tenn.) scored to tie the game.
Standout double by Healy drove in Turner, but was called out when he missed third. Healy scored on a Cory Hahn single to right and give the Brewers a 4-3 lead.
With the score tied 4-4, Colton Keough (Tesoro HS, Calif.) came up with a big knock to center to give the A's a 5-4 lead at the end of three. Sal Giardina (Bloomingdale HS, Fla.) was gunned down at the plate by Eric Jaffe to end the inning without further damage.
Tim Massengale drove in Ty Linton on an RBI single, giving the A's a 6-4 lead. Brewers' pitcher, David Armendariz, struggled in his two innings, giving up three runs. The Athletics' offense has been productive scoring at least one run in each of their four innings.
Ryan Cranmer (Cranton HS, N.C.) drove in D'Monte Grissom (Whitewater HS, Ga.) with a lined single to left. That was the only run the A's could push across as Brewers pitcher, Ben Griset, got out of a bases loaded jam by striking out Sal Giardina struck out and minimizing the damage.
Oakland got their leadoff runner on in the bottom of the seventh and advanced on a wild pitch. Jake Stassi scored on a two base error, making it 8-4. Then Jacob Harper scored on a Ryan Cranmer single. The Athletics pushed over three more and topped the Brewers Gray 11-4.
Milwaukee Brewers Blue 2, New York Yankees 1
Nothing going for either team in the first inning, but in the second the Brewers got things going. They pushed two runs across, with one run scoring on a seeing eye single by Vincent Velaquez (Garey HS, Calif.), making it 2-0.
The Yankees pushed one across in the bottom half of the second inning making it 2-1.
That was all both teams would get, as the pitchers took control over the game. Aaron Sanchez (Barstow HS, Calif.) threw well in the game and was one of four pitchers
Peter Tago pitched the last two innings and did a nice job. He threw strikes and worked quick. The same goes for Adam Plutko. In actuality all four of the Brewers arms threw well in the game, and let us not forget the Yankee arms.
The Bronx Bombers staff grew more relaxed in comparison to their first game, when they were a little tight. But like their Brewer counterparts they too threw strikes and mixed pitches well.
The final line for both teams follows, the Brewers Blue: two runs, seven hits and one error and the Yankees, one run, three hits and one error.
Cincinnati Reds 7, Texas Rangers 5
In the third game of the day the Reds hooked up with the Rangers. 24 scored on a singe by 25 and an error on the shortstop, giving the Reds a 1-0 lead. Jake Cole struck out the side in the first, but his defense let him down.
The Rangers tried to put something together in the second and managed to push their first run of the game. It came when Tyler Pearson hit s grounder to third. A bases loaded single by Alex Silver drove in Jared Lakind and Anthony Bryant, giving the Rangers a 3-1 lead. All three runs scored off that two out error.
In the top of the third Taylor Lindsey walked and later scored on an RBI single to right by Matt Wollenzin (Green Mountain HS, Colo.). The Reds then loaded the bases and Sam Wilson belted a single to left and scored two, and once again the Reds had the lead at 4-3.
Josh Alexander then came up and drove in one on a single up the middle. Chris Roglen then grounded out and scored Sam Wilson, giving the Reds a 6-3 lead.
The Rangers got Brian Ragira to second base, but that was as far as he got. Daniel Mengden ended the inning with a strikeout.
The score remained 6-3 in the fourth and the Reds pushed another run across. Lindsey scored on a ground out by Trey Nielson.
Both teams put a run on the board in the fourth, but the Reds still had a three run lead, 7-4.
It was in the fifth that the Rangers had their best chance to possibly win the game, but Jaycob Brugman (Desert Vista HS, Ariz.) made the defensive play of the game in left (a diving catch) to preserve the lead. The Rangers would load the bases in the bottom of the seventh, but fail to score.
Washington Nationals 3, Chicago White Sox 3
Wouldn't you know it, for a fourth time this week there was a tie, and once again it took some late game heroics, by the Nationals to avoid a defeat. The White Sox starter, Jerrick Suiter, and his reliever, Barrett Astin, both threw two innings of shutout ball and gave up only three total hits.
It was Sox reliever Conner Sadzeck, who gave up the first two runs to the Nationals and Sox hurler Jason Adams surrendered what looked like the possible winning run in the top of the seventh.
Trailing 1-0, in sixth, the Nationals got Vettleson and Sale on board with no one out. With the sacs full, Vettleson scored on a wild pitch and Sale scored on pick-off attempt at second. Once again these two proved to be a menacing one-two punch this week. Pitchers have had a difficult time figuring the duo out.
That is when the White Sox roared back. John Pustay came up to the plate to lead things off and got on board with a single. He then stole second and it was up to Jackson Laumann to try and push the tying run in. That is what he did. Laumann hit a solid single and Pustay scored easily tying up the game at three.
That was the end to the threat as the Nationals' Doug Christie slammed the door shut and ended the game with a tie.