2008 Planetary Extreme Championship Recap: Game 1

[John]

No one can argue that the fledgling Planetary Extreme Baseball Alliance hasn’t been a resounding success. Since swooping in to fill the void left by the dissolution of the disgraced Major League Baseball, fans have by in large flocked to the new league to see a fresh new take on America’s oldest pastime.

Yet for some reason that enthusiasm has yet to translate to the Planetary Extreme Championship, PEBA’s version of the old MLB’s World Series. Perhaps it’s the ticket prices (the Gnats have the 5th highest in the league). Perhaps it was the chilly conditions (46° at game time with winds gusting to nearly 20 MPH). Whatever the case, only 30,513 – just over three-quarters the capacity of Gnat Field – were on hand to see the opening game of the PEC.

Those who showed were treated to a dilly of a performance by Norberto “Pickles” Pacheco. Pickles was the story of this game, amassing 10 Ks in 7.1 innings while allowing just 3 hits and 1 walk en route to a 4-0 shutout of the Trendsetters. The key to Pacheco’s success on this night was the tremendous contrast between his 92 MPH fastball and his 70 MPH circle-change. New Orleans batters remarked after the game that there was no tip-off as to which pitch was coming. By the time the ball left his hand the batters had just a fraction of a second to guess which pitch it was – and they invariably guessed wrong.

Despite the dominance of Pickles, it was Crystal Lake’s half of the 3rd inning that really left a sour taste in the mouths of the Trendsetters. New Orleans starter Chandler Davis was shaky this night, allowing at least one runner in 4 of his 5 innings of work. In all the other situations he was able to wriggle out of jams. Gnats 2B Powell Clark certainly did his part to help out; in the 1st inning the speed-demon inexplicably failed to score from third base on a grounder to second, while in the 5th he was thrown out at home by CF Jorge Ruíz.

But Davis couldn’t extricate himself from the mess he made in the 3rd. #9 hitter Jesús Márquez led off the inning by pulling a first-pitch double down the left field line. The ineffectual Clark couldn’t advance Márquez with his shallow fly to left, and after coming back to strike out Anthony Pace it looked like Davis might again escape damage. The middle of the Gnats order wasn’t about to let him get off the hook, though. A single by P.J. Thomas finally got Márquez in from second. After Mark Frazier followed with a double, Héctor Castillo’s liner to left plated the final two runs of the inning.

That would be more than enough for Pickles, who was clearly on a roll. Pacheco didn’t allow a base runner until the 5th inning and had a no-hitter going until the 7th (in both cases the base runners came immediately after the national play-by-play announcer mentioned the feat Pacheco was working on, a no-no for superstitious folk).

The 7th was the one and only shot the Trendsetters had against to slice up Pickles. After Jeff Cline’s one-out single broke up the no-hit bid, Ernest Conard and Dominic Gagné followed with base knocks of their own to load the bases. New Orleans seemed to be primed for a comeback, but back-to-back fly outs to left by Augusto Valdéz and pinch-hitter Cooper Scott defused the threat.

The Trendsetters had one more shot after Pickles departed with one out in the 8th. Floyd Gates worked a walk out of reliever Hoyt Howard and stole second on a 1-1 count to Todd Hansen. That set the stage for the strangest sequence of the game. Crystal Lake manager Wayne Kedsch immediately called for ace reliever Merlin Peters to replace Hoyt in the middle of Hansen’s at-bat, then promptly ordered Hansen intentionally walked despite to set up a double play. This despite the fact that the move brought the tying run to the plate, not to mention that Hansen is difficult to double up due to his speed.

Not to be outdone, New Orleans manager David Parks made his own controversial move, ordering Dave Lewis to give up an out by sacrificing the runners over. The move failed to pay off when Cline popped up to António Romero in left to end the inning.

Crystal Lake added an insurance run in the bottom of the 8th off reliever Armando Otero on a Jeffery Graham single and a Romero double. The Trendsetters got a couple of two-out singles in the 9th to temporarily raise hopes of a comeback, but Gnats closer Ángel Chacón came in to shut the door with a K of Ruíz on a 95 MPH fastball. Gnat Field erupted in cheers as the players came out of the dugout for high-fives.

Game time was 2 hours, 53 minutes. Game 2 will be tonight at Gnat Field. Start time is 7:05 PM. José Cruz will take the hill for Crystal Lake. New Orleans has not yet announced whether Edward Coleman or ace Conan McCullough will get the starting nod.