2008 Planetary Extreme Championship Recap: Game 3

[John]

Welcome to “The Big Easy”, PEBA! Fans of the Trendsetters rolled out the red carpet for the league’s first-ever Planetary Extreme Championship game in the Bayou. A healthy crowd of 34,712 – a PEC record – showed up early at New Frontier Park to cheer on their team. The aroma of boudin, gumbo and jambalaya wafted throughout downtown New Orleans as tailgaters got an early start on the festivities. Not to be outdone, a sizeable contingent of diehard Gnats fans who had made the trip from Crystal Lake were on hand to jeer the hometown favorites (and partake in the hometown cooking). While still 5,000 short of the first PEC sellout, this is the atmosphere PEBA organizers had been envisioning for the league’s most prestigious event.

The game itself couldn’t have gone any better for the multitude of Trendsetters fans in attendance. New Orleans scored all the runs staff ace Conan McCullough would need early. Ernest “Sourface” Conard, who may finally be heating up after a frigid start to the PEC, led off the bottom of the 2nd with a single off Crystal Lake starter Bryan “Booker” Stewart. That was promptly followed by a Dominic Gagné home run to left to give New Orleans a quick 2-0 lead. The homer was Gagné’s third of the playoffs.

Not finished yet, the Trendsetters kept the threat going with an Augusto Valdéz double and a Leonard Martin single to put runners at first and third with nobody out. Realizing the game was likely on the line with the formidable McCullough pitching for New Orleans, Stewart bore down. He retired Jorge Ruíz with the help of a brilliant over-the-shoulder catch by RF Mark Frazier – Valdéz tagged and scored on the play – and then ended the threat by inducing Floyd Gates into an inning-ending 4-6-3 double play.

For Crystal Lake, however, the damage was done. Three runs was more than enough for McCullough on this night. It’s rare to see a starting pitcher experience so much success with just two pitches in his arsenal, but oh! what two pitches he has. McCullough was resting comfortably at 95 MPH with his fastball and hitting as high as 98 MPH when needed. Once he got batters to two strikes he’d deploy his “out pitch”: a bending 85 MPH slider that was darting all around the periphery of the strike zone. Gnats hitters couldn’t lay off and continually chased the slider, ultimately striking out or making weak contact leading to easy groundball outs.

Crystal Lake had three windows of opportunity. The first came immediately after New Orleans’ three-run 2nd. Base hits by Shunso Kichida and Anthony Pace placed runners at first and third with two away, but McCullough struck out P.J. Thomas on a slider away. An inning later Héctor Castillo belted the first pitch he saw to deep left center. The left field umpire ruled the ball hit off the top of the outfield wall, although replays seemed to show it was first touched by a fan hanging over the railing. Gnats manager Wayne Kedsch was livid at the call and made his case heatedly for a full three minutes before returning to the dugout. Castillo was forced to settle for a one-out double and was left stranded when McCullough retired Manny López and Rex Groves to complete a 4-pitch inning.

Perhaps the best chance for the Gnats came in the 7th, when Crystal Lake was able to knock McCullough out of the game thanks to back-to-back singles by Kichida and Powell Clark. Right-handed reliever Joaquín Hernández came into the game to face Pace. With the tying run at the plate and the big thunder in the Gnats order due up next, Hernández coolly retired Pace on a popup to second base with his second pitch.

All doubt as to the outcome of the game was erased in the bottom of the 7th when New Orleans broke through for their second three-run inning of the game. Martin reached on a one-out single, which was immediately followed by a blast to deep right field by Ruíz. The ball bounced around on the warning track long enough for Martin to score from first and Ruíz to stretch the hit into a triple. Reliever Hoyt Howard entered the game and was greeted by a Gates RBI double. Gates scored on out later when Dave Lewis lined a shot between first and second.

A final insurance run was tacked on in the 8th inning. Conard led off with a scorched liner to center of Markus Shepherd, then tagged up twice on fly balls by Gagné and Valdéz. Alfredo Pinto came in to complete the shutout for the Trendsetters with two shutout innings.

Game time was 2 hours, 36 minutes. Game 4 will be held tonight at New Frontier Park. Start time is 7:05 PM. Crystal Lake’s Nelson Anderson (2-0, 1.93 ERA) will face New Orleans’ Chris Nicholson (1-0, 10.39 ERA).