Urbandale, Iowa, used pitching to win 2005 series
Guam’s Diaz smacked 3 home runs

Urbandale, Iowa, became the first U.S. Central champion to win the Senior League World Series since 1987 when it defeated Pearl City, Hawaii, 7-2 in last year’s championship game. Urbandale’s win thwarted Pearl City’s bid to become the first team to go undefeated in a World Series since the series moved to Bangor in 2002. Urbandale and Pearl City both finished the series with 5-1 records.

Pitching was the theme of the series, as Urbandale led all teams with a .315 batting average, the lowest of any team to lead in that category since 2002.

Agana, Guam, catcher Alejandro Diaz was the talk of the series, as he hit three home runs within a 24-hour span, just missing a fourth on a double to the base of the left field fence in a game against Maine District 3 host Bangor. No one involved with Mansfield Stadium since the stadium opened in 1992 could recall a player ever hitting three home runs in such a short span of time at the field. The stadium has been host to Junior and Senior League, American Legion, college, and independent minor league baseball.

All of Diaz’s home runs were to left field, between the 330-foot and 375-foot markers. Two of the home runs came against U.S. South champion Clarkesville, Ga. The home runs helped Diaz establish a Mansfield World Series records for slugging percentage, at 1.357, and total bases, 19.

All 10 teams in the series went home with at least one win. Bangor opened the series with a rousing 2-1 win over Thunder Bay, Ontario, the Canadian champion. But after the promising start, the host dropped its next three games, 4-2 to Agana, 4-3 to Clarkesville, and 11-3 to Pearl City. The one-run loss to Clarkesville particularly hurt because it came in the bottom of the seventh inning on a two-strike, two-out double that drove the winning run home from first. Had Bangor won, it would have become the first Maine District 3 team to qualify for the semifinal round. Bangor had led 3-2 in the sixth inning.

Tblisi, Republic of Georgia, pulled off the biggest upset in a Bangor World Series with a harrowing 2-1 win over Latin American champ Panama in the team’s last day of competition. After losing its first three games by 11, 8, and 10 runs, Tblisi got perhaps the best pitching performance of the year from Otar Minesashvili, who held Activo 20-30 to one unearned run on five hits and no walks. Tblisi committed five errors in the game, but held on with a pair of dramatic catches in the seventh inning with the tying run on second.

Freehold Township, N.J., winner of the 2004 series, found out just how hard it is to repeat as champion, as it lost its second game of the series to Urbandale, 5-2, and needed to battle Panama to the very end in the last day of pool play to qualify for the semifinal round. Big Ryan Cuneo hit the longest drive in Bangor World Series history to drive in the winning run from first in the bottom of the ninth inning to give himself and his teammates the 6-5 win. Cuneo’s double hit the flag pole only a foot or so in front of the center field fence, which is 400 feet from home plate.

Pearl City knocked Freehold Township off the next day, 4-3, in the semifinals.

2005 alumni who went on to play minor league ball were Freehold Township’s Cuneo (Chicago Cubs) and Activo 20-30’s Julio Aparicio (Kansas City Royals), Adolfo Reina (Detroit Tigers), Rafael Rodriguez (Pittsburgh Pirates), and Ruben Tejada (New York Mets). Tejada broke into the Major Leagues in 2010.