Sports
Kubasaki rallies for OAC baseball sweep
Stars and Stripes
May 11, 2009
Kubasaki right-hander P.J. Varner delivers against the Kadena Panthers during Saturday's Game 2 of the Okinawa Activities Council district baseball best-of-three championship series at Camp Foster, Okinawa. Varner got the win, going six innings, giving up five hits and four earned runs, four walks, two hit batsmen and striking out 11. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
Kubasaki right-hander P.J. Varner delivers against the Kadena Panthers during Saturday's Game 2 of the Okinawa Activities Council district baseball best-of-three championship series at Camp Foster, Okinawa. Varner got the win, going six innings, giving up five hits and four earned runs, four walks, two hit batsmen and striking out 11. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
Kubasaki Dragons baseball coach Randy Toor argues his point with home plate umpire Gerald Sharber during Saturday's Game 2. (Dave Ornauer / S&S)
CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Maybe it was level-headed Kubasaki coach Randy Toor arguing with the umpires in the fifth inning. Maybe it was the Dragons’ players irked at the way they played the first few innings, especially running into outs in the fifth.
Whatever the reasons, they stayed the course. Kubasaki on Saturday sent 16 batters to the plate and scored 13 two-out runs in the sixth inning, rallying from a 4-0 deficit for a 15-4 victory over Kadena and a 2-0 sweep of the best-of-three Okinawa Activities Council district baseball finals.
"We were angry those first few innings," said Josh Jones, who capped the sixth with a two-run homer. "I think keeping our heads and putting it together is what did it."
The tide turned after Toor argued for several minutes after having a safe call involving Kubasaki runner Mikael Barge overturned, and after having two other runners thrown out on the basepaths in the fifth.
"We’d never seen him show emotion before," said Mateo Sanchez, who went 4-for-4 in the game and drove in three runs in the sixth inning. "When he blew his top, we got it going."
The rally made a winner of P.J. Varner, usually a closer, who went six innings and struck out 11 batters.
"We didn’t put our heads down," Toor said. "We knew we could score runs. Just put the ball in play and don’t make mistakes."
Sean Leon Guerrero had three RBIs as Kadena rolled in front 4-0 in the third inning. Starter Ryan Yerger cruised until he got into trouble in the sixth, when Kubasaki roughed up Yerger and three relievers.
"For five innings, they were as good as any team I’ve seen out here," Panthers coach Ken Gamon said. "The wheels came off. We all shouldered the responsibility for the loss."