Gud Twins Tourney, St. Paul Sectional, Game 4: Reed my lips

It’s either over or not over. Let’s find out which.

Benjamin Division

(2) Special Ks 1
(3) Alliterative Appellations 9
Series tied 2-2

What looked like it would be an easy series sweep for the Ks has gone to a deciding fifth game.

Rick Reed pitched seven four-hit innings and the Appellations banged out 15 hits, topping Special 9-1 and evening up the series.

Alliterative took an insurmountable lead early on, scoring four runs in each of the third and fourth innings to set a deficit which Special would not come close to narrowing.

The third inning saw the Ks’ Johan Santana run into rapid trouble. After Byron Buxton reached on a Brian Dozier error, Rich Rollins doubled him home before, following a flyout, Gary Gaetti banged a two-run bomb to put the Ks in a 3-0 hole.

Shannon Stewart added an RBI single before the inning was up.

Santana failed to get an out in the fourth, three consecutive singles plating the Appellations’ fifth run and summoning Juan Berenguer from the bullpen. Berenguer promptly allowed RBI singles to Gaetti and Greg Gagne, then allowed a second two-out RBI single to Stewart to make the score 8-0.

Meanwhile, Reed cruised through the Special lineup, allowing only a fifth-inning home run to Bobby Darwin to prevent the shutout.

Buxton concluded the scoring in the seventh with a solo home run, and Germán González pitched the final two innings in relief to close out the game for Alliterative.

SPS (Game 3) | SPS (Game 4) | SPS (Game 5)