PBR Colorado Spotlight Game: Cherry Creek at Mullen
April 27, 2015
By John Cackowski
Director of Scouting
Denver, CO - Cherry Creek 6 Mullen 5
This year the Centennial League made a change in their scheduling format. The Centennial League teams play each other twice in a year, and in the past would be scheduled randomly during the course of the spring. This year teams play each other back to back to so teams could not stack up their pitching rotation. Last week after weather cancelations, and a suspended game, the Bruins and Mustangs would end up meeting 3 times, and with this rivalry tensions were at a high level by Friday.
In the first game Mullen played at Cherry Creek on Monday 4/20/15 (The game was originally scheduled for Saturday 4/18/15 but was postponed due to weather) with the Bruins coming out on top in the contest 9-6. On Wednesday after another postponement Tuesday they started the game but had to be suspended due to lightning. Bruins freshman Tanner O'Tremba would go up against senior Dominic Duran on the mound, both starting the game Wednesday, and coming back to finish the job on Friday.
In the first inning senior Aeneas Roberson would lead off the game with a double, and O'Tremba would help his cause driving him in with a double himself to take a 1-0 lead.
In the bottom of the 3rd Maverick Handley would get a 2-out single, and Landon Urban came close to hitting it out to right center but it would end up being a triple to tie the score 1-1.
The Bruins would answer in the 4th, jumping on Duran with solo shots from O'Tremba again helping his cause, and Parker Jax following with another bomb to take a 3-1 lead.
O'Tremba continued to throw hard, heavy fastballs, and would strike out the side in the bottom of the 4th. The Bruins would plate another run in the top of the 5th when Aeneas Roberson would get hit by a pitch, and would score on a double hit by Blake Goldsberry.
In the bottom of the 5th everyone witnessed one of the craziest plays you could see on the baseball field. The Mustangs would get three consecutive singles from Duran, Joe Salvato, and Jim Dobrash. Johnathan Miranda would come up with the bases loaded and no out down 4-1 and hit a line drive as hard as you could hit a ball to the first basemen Andrew Chavez. Chavez as he started to move towards 1st base to double up Dobrash dropped the ball which caused confusion for both teams. Mullen thought he dropped the ball and it was now a force play, especially since after he tagged first he threw home to force out Duran coming from 3rd, but Cherry Creek thought he dropped the ball in transition, and after they tagged Dobrash at home for the 2nd out, they threw to 2nd because technically Salvato never tagged up at 2nd to advance to third for a potential triple play.
After the umpires met they ruled the ball was caught, dropped in transition moving to 1st, and none of the runners tagged up to create the triple play.
The Mustangs would make it interesting again in the bottom of the 7th. Landon Urban would hit a 2-run, 2-out home run to cut the lead to 6-5. O'Tremba would be relieved by senior Cody Wood who recently has been cleared to pitch again after only 10 months off of Tommy John surgery. Wood would strike out Duran to end the game.
Cherry Creek now has a very solid 13-2 record on the season, winning against Eaglecrest on Saturday to put their League record at 9 -1. Mullen is now 10-6 after on the season losing to Cherokee Trail on Saturday after the disappointing loss on Friday, and now stands at 8-3 in league. Cherry Creek next plays at home against Eaglecrest on Tuesday 4/28. Mullen will host Cherokee Trail on the same day.
Top Performers:
Cherry Creek
Tanner O'Tremba: 6.2 innings pitched, 3 earned runs, 5 hits, 10 strikeouts. O'Tremba also went 2-4 with a double, HR, and 2 RBI's.
Mullen
Landon Urban: 3-4 with a triple, HR, and 4 RBI's.
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