SAN ANTONIO- Phil Rowland’s 2-run single highlighted a 5-run second inning to give the Alamos the Texas Winter League regular season championship on the final games before Wednesday’s playoffs.

 

ALAMOS 5- PERICOS 4

 

Two spot pitchers, one staff ace, and a 5-run second inning gave the Alamos (7-3-4) a 5-4 victory and the first place seed in the Texas Winter League playoffs Wednesday.

 

Chris Pachecko (1-1) made his second appearance of the TWL and first for the Alamos and threw two hitless, scoreless innings; initially while not even wearing the camouflage Alamos game jersey on the mound for the first inning. The left-hander from The University of the Incarnate Word struck out three hitters and only walked one.

 

In doing so, he set the tone for the Alamos, especially when they erupted for five runs in the top of the second off Pericos (6-6-2) starter Casey McMickle.

 

Though McMickle (1-2) did put himself in a jam early, giving up the first two runs when Andrew Carmadella walked to lead off the inning, then went to third on a double to left from left fielder Mike Stier and Phil Rowland’s 2-run single up the middle, he then received no help from his defense.

 

First catcher David Peterson dropped a third strike to fellow catcher Shaun Pettit to put runners at first and third following Rowland’s steal of second. Then the backstop threw a nubber in front of the plate off Conrad Woolsey’s bat away to allow the third run to score.

 

Shin Yokada was then hit by a pitch, and after Charles Shapiro struck out Mike Shada hit a double play grounder to third baseman Chris Johnson, but second baseman Jason Merjano couldn’t make an accurate relay throw from second, allowing Shada to reach safely and Pettit to score.

 

Woolsey then would score when shortstop R.J. Perucki booted an easy grounder off the bat to Rob Perrin. 5-0 Alamos.

 

But the Pericos did not roll over despite the early deficit. In the third off reliever Brandon Coghill, a teammate of Pachecko from UIW, Matt Garza hit a 2-run single to make the game competitive. Peterson’s sacrifice fly to score Thomas Shull in the following inning off Coghill made it 5-3 Alamos.

 

From there, the Pericos enjoyed fine pitching as Rene Solis and Joshua Ferrells threw two shutout innings and Sho Nagashima added a single scoreless frame.

 

But the Alamos enjoyed the same, as Gilbert Berrera was brought in to pitch in the fifth inning and allowed only one hit and one walk in two scoreless innings.

 

But the Alamos lefty began to tire in his first relief appearance of the season. After striking out pinch-hitter Koya Iwasaki to begin the bottom of the seventh, Andrew Mulado collected an infield single to third base and promptly stole second, where he scored on Merjano’s single to center.

 

Merjano then stole second on a pickoff throw to first base, putting a runner in scoring position with the league’s top RBI producer, Perucki, at the plate.

 

But the highly regarded shortstop could only ground out, and Garza’s soft liner to second baseman Yokata ended the game to give Berrera his first save of the season.

 

With the victory, the Alamos will be able to rest their pitching staff and will not play until Thursday in the TWL semifinals.

 

The Pericos become the fourth seed and will play the Tejanos on Wednesday at Nelson Wolff Stadium.

 

APACHES 8 - TEJANOS 4

 

Kori Melo had three hits and Pete Martinez prepped for a potential playoff start with three quality relief innings to earn a save as the Apaches ended a seven game losing streak with an 8-4 victory against the Tejanos.

 

Melo’s second hit, an RBI double in the fifth off Tejanos (6-8) starter Rainey Martin, began a 6-run inning that erased a 3-1 Tejanos lead. The hit scored Julius Gaines and put Melo at second and Chris Carmouche at third before Tyler Latham’s single to center plated both runners and gave the Apaches (4-10) the lead a 4-3 lead they’d never relinquish.

 

After Jacob Fabry walked, Martin (0-1) was pulled for Hiroki Taniguchi. Taniguchi then walked Nate Lewellyn before Kinnosuke Kamiya drove home Latham with his own single to center.

 

Jonathan Grishman followed with a grounder to shortstop that could have been a double play ball were it not for Curtis Batten’s high throw to first. This allowed Fabry to score and Lewellyn to come home on the overthrow before Taniguchi settled down to retire the final two hitters of the 10-batter inning that made the score 7-3.

 

In the bottom of the fifth, LeAndro Fernandez hit a long single off the wall in right field off Martinez that scored Dillon Sauers after the Tejanos’ shortstop hit his second triple of the game.

 

But Martinez would allow only one more hit in the game, and finished with his first save.

 

Meanwhile Melo scored his second run of the game in the top of the sixth when, after collecting his third hit, he scored when Fabry reached on a fielder’s choice.

 

The Apaches scored the first run of the game in the first inning when Lewellyn got his first RBI of the season with a triple that scored Latham, but the Tejanos took the lead in the bottom of the inning off Apaches’ starter Fumitaka Sakaguchi.

 

Though Sakaguchi allowed only one hit and struck out four in his third multi-inning pitching performance of the week, the submarine right-hander gave up an RBI triple to Sauers after hitting Cesar Pintor with a pitch. Third baseman Grishman dropped a foul pop with two outs that allowed Sauers to score an unearned run with two outs when he came home on the wild pitch that walked Fernandez.

 

The only other run of the game came when Samuel Gonzales (1-0) allowed an unearned run when Warlin Garcia reached on a Melo error and Atsuya Tokoh, who had two hits for the Tejanos, singled him home.

 

Kimaya also had two hits for the Apaches.

 

The Apaches will play the Capitals on Wednesday in the initial round of the TWL playoffs and the Tejanos will visit the Pericos.

 

Though a Tejanos victory would have given them a .500 record, they still would have lost to the Pericos on a head-to-head tie breaker for the fourth seed.

 

WRANGLERS 8 - CAPITALS 8

 

Justin Girton’s single off James Brown with one out in the bottom of the seventh inning scored Connor Battaglia to give the Capitals (7-5-2) an 8-8 tie against the Wranglers (7-4-3).

 

The Wranglers took a 4-run lead in the top of the first off Brandon Thomas on a 3-run triple from Warren Stehn and an RBI double from Jake Taylor.

 

But the Caps scored two runs in the bottom of the third on Takhiro Kaneko’s RBI double and subsequent run scored on Shaun Pettit’s run-scoring ground out off Chihaya Sakuria.

 

In the bottom of the fifth, the Caps scored five times against reliever Brown, with Greg Toliver’s 2-run single and Battaglia’s bases loaded triple the highlights to take a 7-4 advantage.

 

But the Wranglers, who needed to gain a half game on the Alamos to capture the TWL regular season crown, came back with a 4-run sixth off Tomohiro Yamashita. Back to back triples from Jordan Drake and Jack Morrow collectively tied the score before Jack Taylor put the Wranglers ahead with a one out double.

 

Battaglia, batting ninth to get others more plate appearances, then doubled to begin the Caps’ final inning rally.

 

The Wranglers will not play until the Thursday playoff semifinals, while the Capitals will host the Apaches on Wednesday in the play-in round at Nelson Wolff Stadium.

 

NOTES- With inclement weather predicted tomorrow and the chance to rest pitching staffs the TWL cancelled Monday’s games. Tuesday will be a workout and a meeting for the players with Diamondbacks scout Chris Carminucchi.