OCALA, Fla. — Wilder Senior qualified for the bracket stage of the Babe Ruth Senior World Series with a couple of pickoff moves sealing a tight 2-0 victory over a team from Hermosillo, Mexico, on Wednesday and a 6-1 victory Tuesday night over Fort Caroline, Fla.
Wednesday’s game played before a racuous group of Mexican fans replete with noisemakers was nearly a must-win for Wilder Senior in order to move on to the double-elimination bracket phase.
The seniors are the No. 2 seed out of Pool A with a 3-1 record in the tournament. It appears they will play at 10 a.m. (Pacific time) against the No. 3 seed out of Pool B, which could be one of three teams — the United Kingdom; Ocala, Fla.; or the Philippines. The seniors will play at 1 p.m. today if they lose that early game and 4 p.m. if they win it.
All of Wilder Senior’s offense against Mexico came in the third inning on a double by Colton Romero followed by a two-run home run by Braydan White. White and Romero each finished the game 3-for-4. It was the third home run at the world series by Wilder Senior, with the others coming from Romero and Jordan Shumway.
Ethan Staples was outstanding on the mound, going five innings and allowing just one hit and two walks while striking out five.
Staples thoroughly dominated through five innings, but in the sixth, things got stressful for the seniors, who had 11 hits overall but had stranded a lot of runners. Staples started off the inning by hitting a batter and then Mexico followed with a double, putting runners at second and third with no outs.
Brayden Martin came in to pitch and he immediately picked off the runner at third. Martin followed up with a strikeout and a groundout to shortstop Alex Angevine to get out of the jam.
Again in the seventh, Mexico put two runners on base, this time with one out. And again, Martin picked off a baserunner, this time off second base. He got another groundout to Angevine to end the game.
Devyn Dearinger added a double while Angevine went 2-for-4.
Wilder Senior is 36-10-1 overall.
“It was a good ball game,” said coach Zac Moore. “It’s nice to play good here at the end.”
Today’s games can be viewed on web.gc.com.
Wilder Senior 2, Mexico 0
WSr. 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 — 2 11 1
Mex. 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 0 2 1
Pitching
WSr. — Staples 5 IP, H, 2 BB, 5 K; Martin 2 IP, H, K.
Hitting
WSr. — White 3-4, HR, R, 2 RBI; Romero 3-4, 2B, R; Angevine 2-4; Dearinger 1-3, 2B.
Tuesday’s Game Wilder Senior 6, Fort Caroline 1
Wilder Senior got huge games from Romero and Shumway, who has been red-hot all during the world series tournament as the team bounced back from a rough loss Monday to a team from Texas. Shumway had a two-run double in the first inning, then followed up with another RBI double in the third inning to give Wilder Senior a 4-1 lead.
Romero hit his two-run shot in the fourth inning after a long delay due to lightning in the area.
Romero also pitched six innings, allowing four hits and one unearned run. He struck out nine while throwing just 69 pitches, 54 of them strikes. Braydan White pitched the seventh, allowing no baserunners and striking out one. White took just six pitches to end the seventh.
Staples was 2-for-3 with an RBI, while Dearinger, playing catcher, also made a good defensive play throwing out a Fort Caroline baserunner trying to steal third.
It was a great bounceback win after Wilder Senior had a rough 15-3 loss Monday in which the seniors gave up 14 hits and made five errors. The seniors beat Australia 16-1 in the tournament opener Saturday.
Wilder Senior 6, Fort Caroline 1
FC 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 — 1 4 2
WSr. 2 0 2 2 0 0 x — 6 7 2
Pitching
WSr. — Romero 6 IP, 4 H, BB, 9 K; White IP, K.
Hitting
WSr. — Romero 1-3, HR, R, 2 RBI; Shumway 2-3, 2 2B, 3 RBI; Gooding 1-3, 2 R; Staples 2-3, RBI.
Wilder Senior’s Colton Romero belts a two-run home run Tuesday against Fort Caroline, Fla., as the seniors won 6-1 in the Babe Ruth Senior World Series in Ocala, Fla. (Gamechanger)
