Falcons to face Oxen; Marrada Throws Complete Game
TM 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 F
Tar 1 0 3 1 1 0 0 1 0 - 7
SAU 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 - 1
Charlestown, Lycrabon - The Tarrentum Falcons survived the darkhouse contender Saugeais to move on in the XVII World Baseball Classic. The team jumped out to an early lead and never looked back as they hounded the Saugeain pitchers and flexed their proverbeal muscles once again with home runs from Dessea Vallena-Favella (14) and Erni Washini (1) as well as a triple from Ferdini Zappataro. Yet the real story was the continued dominance of Liona Marrada. While the talk of the first WBC Tarrentum competed in was the beloved Juliana Italiana, the niece of our Supreme President has taken a reliever role in this international competition and dropped, somewhat, out of the spotlight. Marrada has been one of the main consistent performers on the pitching staff in the three Classic's that Tarrentum has participated in. This night was the pinnacle of her career.
Name Liona Marrada | IP 9 | W 1 | ERA 1.00 | ER 1 | H 2 | BB 0 | K 15 | WHIP 0.22 |
The line score tells the tale of a pitcher in her groove. Fifteen strikeouts propelled Marrada through 7 scoreless, no-hit baseball. It was this type of performance that most people thought would occur every game against the little republic. However, one game, the elimination game, was a perfect opportunity to show the developedness of Tarrentian baseball. Marrada lost her bid for her no-hitter with two hits, a single and a double, in the bottom of the 8th as she game to Saugeais' heart of the order for the third time. A little bloop to right followed by a ball down the left field line helped score Jim Baylor from first. Marrada, after a conference on the mound with Pitching Coach Joe Greene, stayed in the game and struck out the next batter then caused a groundout to first to end the inning. The Lycrabonian crowd, a highly developed baseball fan base, gave Marrada a standing ovation as she walked off the mound for the eighth inning. The applause helped Marrada through the ninth, she later told us, as it "gave me something to prove - that I could go more than 8 innings and get the last 3 outs."
Marrada was helped by the power of the Falcons bats and even by her own legs. Zappataro opened the scoring in the first when Gradoni hit a single through the infield, scoring the speedster from second. The third inning saw a lead-off single by Marrada who was then brought home by a Zappataro triple. Marrada's running gave the Falcons bench a great laugh and lightened the mood of a 1-0 game. As she rounded second Marrada's helmet flew off with her twin ponytails flapping behind. As she passed the shortstop's position her right cleat came flying off. With Greene waving her home (Zappataro was hot on her heels) Marrada stepped on third, took three strides and lost her left cleat. So in comes Marrada to home with no cleats, no helmet and sucking in air as quickly as she can. Her determination spurred the Falcons to bring in two more runs (a 2-run home run by Liona Marrada) in the top of the third as well as two more runs in the fourth and fifth innings. The Falcons scoring was capped by Erni Washini's solo home run in the top of the eighth.
The Falcons move on to face the Oxen of Qazox in the city of Summersville. While the Oxen enter as the #8 seed in the Playoffs, this has been the elder team of the Classic. No amount of preparation can really prepare for the Oxen's stubborn determindness but hopefully, as the Qazoxians have had rough times in the tournament as of late, the Falcons can once again prevail to make it to their first WBC Championship Series ever. So far, this team has exceeded expectations, let's hope they can continue to do so.
WBC 17 Updated Stats