By Andrew
Struckmeyer
Clark Griffith League Staff Writer
Thursday, July 31, 2008
The ball was popped straight up into the dark, night sky. Blue Caps infielders converged on the ball, knowing that all they had to do was catch this one pop-up and the Jacobs Cup was theirs. First baseman Max Eckert called them all off. Never mind that he had already dropped an eerily similar ball in the Blue Caps earlier game. Never mind that Eckert had played catcher for most of the season, and was playing first base due to a bruised elbow. Eckert squeezed his glove. The crisp, popping sound indicated that the Blue Caps had won their first Jacobs Cup title.
"I thought we were going to be one and done," said Eckert. "We can hit, we just needed the pitching, and we finally got the pitching today."
Immediately, Blue Caps pitcher Andrew Juba sprinted to the dugout looking for shelter from his teammates. However, Juba could not get away fast enough as his teammates hog-tied him to the ground in jubilation. Juba, who is one of the youngest players in the entire Clark Griffith League at 18 years of age, had made his first appearance of the tournament and it couldn't have come in a bigger spot. He pitched the final inning and a third to close out a 6-2 championship game victory over the Fairfax Nationals.
"Nolan told me I was going to pitch one of the two games in relief," said Juba. "I thought I was a good option. I thought I was going to seal the deal tonight. After that last out, I was just thinking 'get off the field before I get dog-piled.'"
The victory shows just how far the Blue Caps franchise has progressed in two short years. Last season, the Blue Caps finished a league-worst 9-35 and were uncompetitive with the rest of the league. This year the Blue Caps win total increased to 17, and could have been even greater if they had the pitching to back up their potent offense.
Fortunately for the Blue Caps, their pitching arrived just in time for the Jacobs Cup. They got Brett Hammann back from injury, and their two youngsters, Davis Hall and Juba, really started to develop.
Hall, who is also 18, started the championship game for the Blue Caps and delivered one of his best performances of the season. Hall had an extra boost of motivation, because he had played for Nationals manager Billy Emerson at Paul VI High School.
"I used to go to Paul VI for two years," said Hall, "so I was psyched to pitch this game. It's always good to get back at them."
The game was a pitchers' duel from the start. Hall held the Nationals scoreless for six innings. Nationals starter Chris O'Neil held the Blue Caps lineup in check for the first three innings.
But the Blue Caps' bats came to life in the fourth inning. Austin Booker and Max Eckert started the inning with back-to-back singles. That brought Shane Brown, the league's most feared hitter to the plate, and he delivered. Brown laced a double down the right field line that scored Booker. Eckert advanced to third and later scored on a wild pitch.
Hall had a few adventurous innings, but managed to emerge unscathed. In the fourth inning, he stranded runners on first and third when he forced John Ralston to fly out to center. In the sixth inning, he loaded the bases before he got Ralston to pop out again.
Brown continued his assault on CGL pitching with possibly the deepest home run of the tournament in the sixth inning. He took a pitch from Nationals reliever Michael Manfro well over the center field fence at Waters Field.
"When Shane hit that home run, I said, 'I think we got this,'" said Nolan, "Shane has been, head and shoulders, the best hitter in the league this summer. There are some great hitters in this league, but he's the best. Last few days he has finally seen some fastballs, and he has capitalized. I mean, that home run only went about 600 feet."
The Blue Caps cemented their lead in the seventh inning with three more runs. Nationals pitcher Nate Eppley allowed the Blue Caps' 7, 8, and 9 hitters to reach to start the inning, a recipe for disaster. Eppley plunked Eckert to force in one run. He got a big strikeout of Brown, but his reward was getting to face Triple Crown winner Robert Hays. Hays, who had been quiet most of the day, singled through the left side, scoring Ryan Baione and Brandon Padula.
The Nationals fought back for two runs off of Blue Caps reliever Daren McLean in the eighth inning. But Juba came on and put out the fire, securing the lead for the Blue Caps.
Juba worked quickly in the ninth, retiring Will Naylor on a fly out to right field. Alex Guerra then grounded out to shortstop. Finally, Brant Jones popped up to Eckert, and the Blue Caps leaped for joy.
Throughout the final few innings, the Blue Caps dugout was surprisingly loose, considering that they were on the verge of the biggest victory in the franchise's history.
"We were about as loose as I've ever seen us," said Nolan. 'The pitchers were down the line playing two-ball between innings. You couldn't have been any looser than we were. You could have had video games going on in there."
But after the final out was recorded, all hell broke loose. Juba was tackled by his teammates. The team stormed out of the dugout. And Nolan got doused with the Gatorade bucket. It was a well deserved reward for an amazing run through the CGL, which saw the Blue Caps win three games in a row for the first time all season. They certainly picked a good time to do it.