|
August 19, 2011 For sure: This year’s champ will be undefeated
In nine previous Bangor series, only 2006 champ Paraguana L.L., Falcon, Venezuela, and 2008 champ North Cumberland L.L., Upper Deerfield, N.J., went undefeated. Hilo enters Saturday’s game batting .415 as a team. The only other team to hit over .400 in a Bangor World Series was Paraguana L.L., Falcon, Venezuela, which did it in 2006 while winning that year’s series with a perfect 6-0 record. Paraguana hit .444 as a team. Rose Capital East’s lineup isn’t exactly full of slouches, either, as the U.S. Southwest champ is hitting .373 as a team. Hilo has somewhat of an edge in slugging percentage, with a .511 percentage compared to Rose Capital East’s .404. The teams have similar on-base percentages, however, with Hilo’s slightly better at .481 and Rose Capital East’s at .453.
Hitters to look out for on the Hilo side are Kean Wong, Korin Medeiros, and Chayce Kaaua. Wong is batting .526 (10-for-19) in the series, but has no extra-base hits. He makes up for his lack of power, however, with five stolen bases.
Kaaua is batting .563 (9-for-16), with three doubles and seven RBIs. Rose Capital East’s top hitters include Seth Gibson, Mason Mallard, and Trace Reed. Batting lead-off, Gibson is hitting .471 (8-for-17), with four doubles. Mallard is hitting .412 (7-for-17), with five RBIs. And Reed is hitting .400 (6-for-15), with three doubles, a triple, seven RBIs, and four stolen bases. The pitching staffs are about even, with Hilo having a slight edge with an earned run average of 1.13 and a walks and hits per innings pitched ratio of 1.39, compared to Rose Capital East’s slightly better 1.30. Opponents are batting only .205 against Hilo pitchers, while Rose Capital East’s opponents hit .237. Despite impressive team ERAs, both teams show some weaknesses, no matter how slight. Hilo pitchers have walked 18 batters in 31 innings and given up 25 hits in 31 innings. Rose Capital East pitchers have issued only 11 walks in 33 innings. However, they have allowed 32 hits in those 33 innings. As for individual pitchers, both teams employed a pitch-by-committee philosophy. There is just too small of a sample size to pick which pitchers really stand out from the rest on both staffs. This is Hilo’s third team to play in Bangor, the other two having played in 2003 and 2007. The 2003 team won it all, winning five straight after losing its opener to West Chesterfield L.L., Chesterfield, Va., 8-7 and then getting revenge in the championship game with a 16-8 rout over the U.S. South champ. In 2007, Hilo was 4-0 in pool play, but lost 5-4 in nine innings to eventual World Series champ Paraguana in the semifinals. Rose Capital East sent one previous team to Bangor. In 2007, the league’s team was 3-0 in pool play (the last game was rained out and not made up because it would have had no bearing on the pool standings). It lost in the semifinals to eventual World Series champ Cartersville L.L., Cartersville, Ga., 4-1. |
One thing is for sure about this year’s Senior League Baseball World Series: whichever team
wins tomorrow will become the third to go undefeated in a Bangor Senior League World Series.
Both U.S. Southwest champ Rose Capital East L.L., Tyler, Texas, and U.S. West champ Hilo
L.L., Hilo, Hawaii, enter Saturday’s game with perfect records, as each swept their way through
pool play.
Medeiros is batting .500 (8-for-16), with two triples and seven runs batted in.