On a cloudy Thursday evening at Mitchel Park Phenom Baseball came from behind to defeat the Kanata Cubs 6-5 on a walk-off single by Michael Kerrigan in a Brian Moore Memorial Tournament matchup.
The rain held up for three innings as Phenom Baseball battled the Kanata Cubs, but as the weather turned and the rain began to fall in the top of the fourth, the game took a turn as well.
Through the first three innings, the Cubs jumped out to a 5-0 lead and it looked as if they may run away with the game. However, in the top of fourth Phenom Baseball kept the Cubs scoreless, something they couldn’t do in each previous inning. With one out in the inning. Dylan Merpaw was on second for the Cubs and Phenom Baseball’s relief pitcher, Dominic Santagata, struck out Erik Wilson for the second out. Then catcher Burke Sheegan threw out Merpaw as he attempted to steal third base.
In the bottom of the fourth, Phenom Baseball finally got on the board. After he retired the first two batters, Cubs starting pitcher Carter Jackson struggled to put the inning to rest. Jackson issued back-to-back two out walks then was pulled after he fell behind Santagata 2-0. Down 2-0, Grady Logue came in relief. Logue walked Santagata to load the bases and then Kerrigan, who pinch ran for Burke Sheehan, came around to score on a throwing error by the catcher on a routine throw back to the pitcher. After another walk, Logue escaped the jam with a strikeout.
The Cubs went down 1-2-3 in the top of the fifth and with the tournament time limit, both teams knew that the bottom half of the inning was the last.
Logue took the hill to try to close out the game for his team and he struggled to find the zone. Logue forced Adam Gonzalez to fly out for the first out, but that’s the last batter Phenom Baseball retired. Michael Cernuto reached on an E-4, Logue then walked a batter, hit a batter with a pitch, and issued another walk to allow the first run of the inning. Logue was pulled with the bases loaded as the Cubs tried to hang on to their three run lead.
Phenom baseball come all the way back in the bottom of the fifth to win 6-5. Here’s Michael Kerrigan who had the game winning single pic.twitter.com/uyMA1IcoE5
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 12, 2019
Drew Mcafee came in relief and with the rain coming down he also struggled to throw strikes. Mcafee hit a batter to bring in the second run of the inning and issued a walk to force in the third run of the inning. Holding on to a one run lead, the Cubs pulled Mcafee and called upon John Hertner. Herter issued a walk to Alexander Burciagae which scored Joseph Derosa to tie the game at 5. Without a hit in the inning, Kerrigan gave Phenom Baseball their first and only hit that was needed to seal the deal. Kerrigan striped a base hit up the middle to win the game.
“Our players, we came back great. Leaning into pitches we had to do whatever we could to get on base and we prevailed and we won,” Kerrigan said after the game.
