The quest for perfection fell just short Thursday night, as Resurrection Life lost a nail-biter 16-15 to Immanuel. The game ended on a walk-off double with the bases loaded from Immanuel in the bottom of the sixth. Rez had controlled the game from the onset, but the perfect storm hit in the sixth and the rest is history.
Immanuel came in charged up and ready to knock off the previously unbeaten Warriors. However, Rez was prepared and came out firing on all cylinders, dominating the first through fourth innings while building a nice nine-run lead. However, the team got a little lazy in the fifth and flat-out laid an egg in the sixth and it came back to bite them. Hats off to Immanuel for not rolling over late in the game and coming through with some big hits in the sixth.
Rez opened the game with a solid three-run first, with Austin Colby starting things with a one-out taser-beamed solo homer. With two outs, Jamy Antoine singled and Jeff Tenney walked. Andy Briggs then singled to score Jamy and Jeff Johnson singled to score Tenney, to make it 3-0.
Immanuel scored one on two hits in the bottom half. Rez just missed a big inning in the second, scoring four runs, but leaving two runners on with one out and the bases loaded with two outs. After a lead-off groundout, Jason Merritt singled and went to second on Austin's single. Eric Johnson then roped an opposite field double to plate both runners. Jamy followed with a double down the left-field line and went to third on the left-fielder's error. Tenney singled to score Jamy and Andy singled to push Tenney to second. A flyout to left-center was out number two and Jon Engbrecht followed with a single to load the bases. Adam Hey just missed a grand slam, hitting a long, deep flyball to the left-fielder who caught it just a few feet in front of the fence.
Immanuel, sensing it dodged a bullet, came back firing in the bottom half and matched the four runs that Rez tallied. Immanuel knocked out four hits and drew three walks and advanced runners on a sacrifice fly to score its runs.
Rez came back in the top of the third and pushed its lead to 10-5 with three runs. With one out, Austin singled but was forced out on Eric's grounder. With two outs, Jamy singled to put two on for Tenney who smacked a three-run homer to left-center. Andy and Jeff had back-t0-back singles with no one on, but a grounder ended the threat.
Immanuel didn't answer, leaving two singles stranded on the bases in the bottom of the third. Rez kept the bats going in the fourth as Adam started things with a single and after one out trotted home on Austin's second homerun of the game, this one a liner down the left-field line. Eric doubled and went to third on Jamy's booted grounder to second. Tenney then answered Austin's call with his second homer of the game, another three-run blast. After an Andy single, Jeff extended his league-record for homeruns for an out with number eight.
Immanuel scored one run in the fourth afte a one-out triple. Rez could have ended the game in the fifth with some offense, but fell short, scoring just one run. Jason tripled with two outs and Austin singled to score him. The team offense sort of fell asleep around this time, going just 4-11 over the last 2 1/3 innings.
However, the defense held solid in the bottom of the fifth as Jason made two nice catches in left before Andy fielded and fired to first for the third out.
The umpire ruled the sixth inning as the final inning due to time so the bats knew this was it. Tenney launched out off the baseball scoreboard for out number one and an Andy grounder was out number two. Jeff reached on a single but a popout ended the inning.
At this time, things still seemed in control with Rez holding a nine-run lead going into the last half of the last inning of the last game of the season. But, that is why we play the games.
For whatever reason, the team tightened up a little in the sixth. Adam walked the lead-off hitter and consecutive singles plated one run. Three straight walks scored two more and loaded the bases. An error on a tough grounder pushed two more runs across. Another walk re-loaded the bases.
At this time, with the lead down to four, at 15-11, and still no outs, Manager Austin took over the mound duties and shifted Jamy to center, Jon to right and Adam to catcher, hoping a different look would get Immanuel in a funk.
With the tying run batting, the Immanuel hitter lined a single to right that scooted past Jon and rolled all the way to the track, allowing all three runners to score and advancing the hitter to third. Now, the tying run was standing on third with still no outs. A pop-up to Andy at short provided the first out and the next batter followed suit and Andy snatched it out of the sky for out number two.
Immanuel then pinch-hit its best hitter whom Austin intentionally walked. This took the two-run homer out of play and also gave the infield a short-throw to second on any grounder. The next batter drew a walk on three close pitches to load the bases. On the first pitch of the next at bat, Immanuel exploited the three-man outfield with a liner to what would have been left-center and two runners scored to end the game.
Austin completed his utter destruction of Immanuel en route to earning Player of the Game honors. He was a perfect 12-12 on the season against Immanuel with five homeruns and 12 rbi. Last night, he went 5-5 with three runs, four rbi and two homers.
It was a tough loss for the Warriors, who saw their 23-game league winning streak snapped. However, Manager Colby didn't think all was bad,
"I was upset and frustrated for about 30 seconds," stated Coach Austin. "But then I realized that we just finished one of the greatest regular seasons in team history and had a great time doing it. Hats off to the Warriors for a dominant campaign and a season well-played. Plus, a loss now is better than a loss on Saturday."
The Warriors will have something to shoot for next season; that elusive perfect season. Until next year, enjoy the 17-1 record and league championship. We'll see you at Round Lake again next April.
Look for the regular season awards and All-League teams to be announced in the next few days.
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