Arroyo Seco Saints fall in World Series rematch with Chinese Taipei

“When it boils down to it, you can blame the bats, you can blame the umpires, you can blame whatever, but we didn't take care of the baseball,” Milam said of Saturday's game. “I didn't want tonight to be about the bats, I just wanted to play baseball.”

Arroyo Seco's bats got off to a good start in the game, as its leadoff runners were on in each of the first two innings on a David Olmedo-Barrera single and Tei Vanderford double, respectively, but both St. Francis graduates were stranded.

The Saints didn't log another hit in the first, despite Olmedo-Barrera stealing second and advancing to third on a throwing error from the catcher. Vanderford was thrown out at home on a squeeze-bunt attempt from Crescenta Valley's Cameron Silva that rolled hard right to the Chinese Taipei first baseman, who was on the run to nab Vanderford at the plate on a bang-bang play.

The failure to score was made more painful when Chinese Taipei scored three unearned runs in the bottom of the second. Saints starting pitcher Elliot Surrey of CV was in control, getting the first two batters of the frame to fly out to center before Shao Pin Ho lined a single to center.

Surrey looked to have gotten out of the inning unscathed on two different occasions, the first of which coming when he got Chia Ching Lin to hit a slow roller to second base. But an error on the play put runners at first and second, and when Surrey appeared to pick off Lin at first, the umpire called him safe to keep the inning alive.

Shao Wei Chen drew first blood for Chinese Taipei when he lined a single just in front of the right fielder and Hao Wei Chang made it 3-0 with a two-run single to right.

Ho increased the lead to 5-0 with a two-run double just inside the right-field line and into the right-field corner to score two runners who were walked to start the third inning.

Chinese Taipei took a commanding 10-0 lead with five more runs in the bottom of the fourth on just one hit, a leadoff single from Chen. Two batters hit by pitches — inside fastballs, which prompted a warning issued to the Saints dugout from the home-plate umpire — and three Arroyo Seco errors in the inning — two on one play — allowed Chinese Taipei to pull out the 10-0 mercy-rule victory.

The Saints earned the rematch with Chinese Taipei with a walk-off, 5-4, win over the Central Michigan Stars. Crescenta Valley's Troy Prasertsit drove in the game winner with a single to right field, capping a bottom-of-the-seventh rally that included singles from Chris DeVito and Vanderford to set up Prasertsit's game-winning line drive to right field.

It also capped a strong offensive performance from the Saints that included 13 hits. Olmedo-Barrera finished the day four for seven with three stolen bases and Vanderford was four for six.
Milam believed the close call and the emotion that came with it would serve Arroyo Seco well for the rematch with Chinese Taipei, which he said also took on more meaning after Thursday's loss.

“We are the type of team where a tie ball game where emotions are high is good for us,” he said. “We live off emotion, that's a good thing for us.”