Dodgers Win Hearts, Lose Series Game

The Valley Dodgers, bidding to rock the amateur baseball world with a stunning upset, won the hearts of the fans in Wichita, Kan., despite finishing a run short in the second round of the National Baseball Congress World Series.

“Wichita is on our side; they’re Valley Dodgers now,” said second baseman Mike Cruz after Thursday’s 5-4 loss to the Grand Rapids Sullivans of Michigan at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium before an estimated crowd of 1,500.

Cruz was the central figure in a ninth-inning rally that nearly catapulted the Dodgers to an improbable victory over the top-seeded team in the 30-team, double-elimination tournament. With the Dodgers trailing, 5-3, Lorenzo Lesky doubled with one out in the ninth and moved to third on a single by Cruz.

After Cruz stole second, Rob Scott singled to left field, scoring Lesky and sending Cruz hurtling toward home with the potential tying run. But a perfect relay from left fielder Greg Van Dyke to third baseman Andy Postema to catcher Clark Huntey cut him down at the plate.

“Scott hit a rope and as soon as he hit it, I thought I was going to score,” Cruz said. “Then I saw the ball. The guys told me their guy made a great throw.”

Third-base coach Kevin Murphy sent Cruz home, a decision that Manager Jim Benedict supported.

“I agree with Kevin sending him from third because we had a guy who could run,” he said. “It took two good throws to beat us and they did.”

But that was only the second out of the inning. Reliever Dave Minnema replaced starter Dan Rambo and threw two wild pitches, allowing Scott to move to third. Pinch-hitter Chris Haslock then lined a drive to deep right-center field but his bid for an extra-base hit was corraled at the wall by center fielder Bob Daggy, who made a running, one-handed catch to end the game.

Grand Rapids (42-12), which drew a bye in the first round, plays Saturday against Hartselle, Ala. The Sullivans have been to the final three of the past four years and were champions in 1983 and ’84.

Although the Dodgers moved toward an early exit from the tournament, the team staged a postgame victory party worthy of a championship game.

“No matter what happens the rest of the tournament, this is the highlight,” Benedict said. “We want to win enough games to play Grand Rapids again because we think we can beat them. We had a team meeting in my motel room after the game with two cases of beer. The mood was up. Everybody was fired up.”

Grand Rapids jumped to an early 5-1 lead, knocking starter Rene Isenhart from the game after he retired only three batters. Mike Eddington’s two-run single and a run-scoring double by Mike Sabo accounted for three runs in the first. Isenhart escaped further damage by pitching out of a bases-loaded, one-out jam.

But that merely forestalled his departure. After Postema and Mike Mordici opened the second with back-to-back doubles, Benedict replaced Isenhart (3-1) with Randy Cina, who allowed a run-scoring single to Curtis Morgan but little else. Cina worked seven innings, allowing only four hits and three walks with three strikeouts.

“Without Cina’s performance we would have had no chance to come back,” Benedict said.

The Dodgers reached Rambo (12-1) for a run in the second on doubles by Mike Bible and Lesky, and added single runs in the fourth and sixth on solo home runs by Rene Rivera, his first, and Rick Allen, his seventh, setting the stage for the ninth.

The Dodgers, who are 30-7-1 overall and 15-2 since Benedict took over the team at mid-season, will play Saturday against another team with a 1-1 tournament record. Tournament officials said they will announce the Dodgers’ opponent today.

The Dodgers may have to plow through the losers’ bracket to reach the tournament final, but the players already have devised an emotional rallying point: They call it kicking the can. After the fourth inning of Thursday’s game, Murphy advised the players to gather around a trash can under the stands and give it a collective swift kick. The players warmed to their task and the resultant ruckus seemed to ignite the crowd.

“We kicked the can and we started roping,” Cruz said. “The crowd really got fired up. The Valley Dodgers are on the map. They’re going to put a little star by our names. After the game I never signed so many autographs.”