Washington made its own luck by sending 10 men to the plate and scoring seven runs in a fifth inning that propelled the McLean Raiders to a 9-3 victory over New Orleans on Sunday at Point Stadium.
“The big inning helped us out there,” Washington manager Tim Brown said. “Anytime you can come out and separate yourself, that certainly makes things a lot easier.”
The win earned the McLean Raiders a berth in the championship game of the 63rd AAABA Tournament opposite defending champion Baltimore. Youse’s Maryland Orioles had handed Washington its first loss of this year’s tournament, a 9-3 defeat, on Saturday.
New Orleans played much of the game without first-year manager Barry Butera, who was ejected in the second inning by first base umpire Keith Segady after inquiring about a play at the bag.
“It was ridiculous to be honest with you,” Butera said. “The guy misses a call at first base that badly, blatantly misses a call. When you’re an umpire and miss a call you should expect to hear something. No profanity, no personal nothing. He actually threw me out when I was talking to my first base coach.”
New Orleans struck first, putting three runs on the board in the third on a walk to Russell Turnage, singles by Michael Liberto and David McChesney and a double by Matt Gaudet coupled with a pair of Washington errors.
Meanwhile, Washington began to get its bats on track, scoring a run in the third on a Liston Gore double and a pair of ground outs.
The McLean Raiders took control in the fifth, which included a solo home run by Raphael Turner and a three-run shot by Robert Shields.
Washtington added another run in the bottom of the eighth to set the final.
Starting pitcher Kyle Breese got the win for Washington, giving up three runs on four hits.
New Orleans finished the tournament 4-2.
“I thought our kids played well,” Butera said. “I thought they did a very good job. I wish we wouldn’t have had to use (pitcher Greg) Chiles on Saturday. We had to go to him because the Philadelphia game was so tough. If we had Greg to start this game today, those three runs would have probably stood up. We didn’t hit the ball well enough. Washington swung the bat better than we did today and they deserved to win.”
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Michigan board gives go-ahead on Winter Classic
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