Nzoner
08-03-2010, 08:48 AM
"Haven’t had too many baseball moments at two in the morning, so yeah, it was awesome,” Helms said. “NBC World Series, two o’clock in the morning. . . nothing can get better than that.” (http://www.newspressnow.com/news/2010/aug/03/mustangs-survive-extra-innings-stay-perfect-nbc-wo/)
There's still some damn good baseball being played by some local guys and St Joseph will face their M.I.N.K. league foe the Sedalia Bombers this Saturday in Wichita.
Mustangs survive extra innings, stay perfect in NBC World Series
WICHITA, Kan. – In every championship team there first must come a defining moment. It usually comes in a pressing situation and depending on how teams handle them, separate the winning teams from the losing ones.
The St. Joseph Mustangs may have had their defining moment as Monday night dissolved to early Tuesday morning at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in the National Baseball Congress World Series.
Spiker Helms had to live out the classic backyard baseball dream – bases loaded with a scoreless tie in extra innings and a full count.
As El Dorado’s Brian Flynn delivered a steaming 3-2 fastball, Helms delivered the Mustangs’ defining moment when he stood his ground and was hit by the pitch to score the go-ahead run. It set off a Mustang rally, leading to four more runs in the top of the 10th inning to finish off a 5-0 victory in 10 innings over El Dorado, the defending tournament champions.
“We’re at the age where the guy can’t locate his curveball or changeup, so he’s going to have throw me a fastball,” Helms explained. “I knew what he was bringing me, so I just crowded the plate and hoped he would make a mistake and he did.”
The win guarantees St. Joseph at least three more games and puts them in the winner’s bracket quarterfinals against the Sedalia Bombers on Saturday.
To better understand how Helms came up in the game’s most pressing moment, his mental thought process is revealing. With so much at stake with a full count, Helms surely was feeling pressure, right?
“Not really,” Helms said. “All the pressure is on him because the bases are loaded, it’s the 10th inning and it’s 1:30 in the morning. He’s not going to make a good pitch.”
That approach seemed to rub off on St. Joseph’s next hitter, Greg Noble, who also worked the count full against Flynn. On the deciding pitch Noble laid off a low fastball and drew another run-scoring walk.
“It’s tough because nobody wants to strike out looking with the bases loaded,” Noble said. “In a situation like that, you have to trust your eyes and your instincts. They’ll take care of themselves, really.”
Those two philosophies go a long way in explaining why Helms and Noble are manager Matt Johnson’s most trusted hitters.
“It’s huge as a hitter when you have the confidence like those guys with a 3-2 count, bases loaded and the game is on the line,” Johnson said. “The two guys that came to the plate, I wouldn’t want anybody else up there.”
After the two walks, Ryan Hook left put the exclamation point on the victory with a bases-clearing double to deep right field. It was similar to Hook’s blast in the top of the ninth. According to Hook, the end results of the two fly balls were flipped.
“I actually thought the first one was the no-doubter and the second one was going to be caught,” Hook said.
It was the best-hit ball of the game, which was previously halted by a pitching duel between El Dorado’s Connor Sinclair and St. Joseph’s Kyle Jackson. The teams combined for 10 hits in 10 innings.
After providing clutch hitting, Hook took the mound to close the Broncos out in the 10th inning. Throwing upwards of 95 mph, Hook struck out two batters and retired Sam Bates to end the game on a soft groundball back to the pitcher.
“The arm feels good, but it’s probably going to hurt tomorrow,” Hook said laughing. “But I think the adrenaline rush and everything helped out.”
Ironically enough, it was Helms ignoring his adrenaline rush to swing that gave the Mustangs the win in an unique situation.
“Haven’t had too many baseball moments at two in the morning, so yeah, it was awesome,” Helms said. “NBC World Series, two o’clock in the morning. . . nothing can get better than that.”
There's still some damn good baseball being played by some local guys and St Joseph will face their M.I.N.K. league foe the Sedalia Bombers this Saturday in Wichita.
Mustangs survive extra innings, stay perfect in NBC World Series
WICHITA, Kan. – In every championship team there first must come a defining moment. It usually comes in a pressing situation and depending on how teams handle them, separate the winning teams from the losing ones.
The St. Joseph Mustangs may have had their defining moment as Monday night dissolved to early Tuesday morning at Lawrence-Dumont Stadium in the National Baseball Congress World Series.
Spiker Helms had to live out the classic backyard baseball dream – bases loaded with a scoreless tie in extra innings and a full count.
As El Dorado’s Brian Flynn delivered a steaming 3-2 fastball, Helms delivered the Mustangs’ defining moment when he stood his ground and was hit by the pitch to score the go-ahead run. It set off a Mustang rally, leading to four more runs in the top of the 10th inning to finish off a 5-0 victory in 10 innings over El Dorado, the defending tournament champions.
“We’re at the age where the guy can’t locate his curveball or changeup, so he’s going to have throw me a fastball,” Helms explained. “I knew what he was bringing me, so I just crowded the plate and hoped he would make a mistake and he did.”
The win guarantees St. Joseph at least three more games and puts them in the winner’s bracket quarterfinals against the Sedalia Bombers on Saturday.
To better understand how Helms came up in the game’s most pressing moment, his mental thought process is revealing. With so much at stake with a full count, Helms surely was feeling pressure, right?
“Not really,” Helms said. “All the pressure is on him because the bases are loaded, it’s the 10th inning and it’s 1:30 in the morning. He’s not going to make a good pitch.”
That approach seemed to rub off on St. Joseph’s next hitter, Greg Noble, who also worked the count full against Flynn. On the deciding pitch Noble laid off a low fastball and drew another run-scoring walk.
“It’s tough because nobody wants to strike out looking with the bases loaded,” Noble said. “In a situation like that, you have to trust your eyes and your instincts. They’ll take care of themselves, really.”
Those two philosophies go a long way in explaining why Helms and Noble are manager Matt Johnson’s most trusted hitters.
“It’s huge as a hitter when you have the confidence like those guys with a 3-2 count, bases loaded and the game is on the line,” Johnson said. “The two guys that came to the plate, I wouldn’t want anybody else up there.”
After the two walks, Ryan Hook left put the exclamation point on the victory with a bases-clearing double to deep right field. It was similar to Hook’s blast in the top of the ninth. According to Hook, the end results of the two fly balls were flipped.
“I actually thought the first one was the no-doubter and the second one was going to be caught,” Hook said.
It was the best-hit ball of the game, which was previously halted by a pitching duel between El Dorado’s Connor Sinclair and St. Joseph’s Kyle Jackson. The teams combined for 10 hits in 10 innings.
After providing clutch hitting, Hook took the mound to close the Broncos out in the 10th inning. Throwing upwards of 95 mph, Hook struck out two batters and retired Sam Bates to end the game on a soft groundball back to the pitcher.
“The arm feels good, but it’s probably going to hurt tomorrow,” Hook said laughing. “But I think the adrenaline rush and everything helped out.”
Ironically enough, it was Helms ignoring his adrenaline rush to swing that gave the Mustangs the win in an unique situation.
“Haven’t had too many baseball moments at two in the morning, so yeah, it was awesome,” Helms said. “NBC World Series, two o’clock in the morning. . . nothing can get better than that.”