SAN ANTONIO- Left-handers Brandon Cowan and Gilbert Berrera both pitched five plus innings to allow their teams to come from behind and win as the top-seeded Wranglers and Alamos advanced to the Texas Winter League finals.

 

ALAMOS 14 - APACHES 9

 

It was the best of games, it was the worst of games. It was a game of enlightenment, it was a game of foolishness.

 

The Alamos’ 14-9 victory was not an epoch, however, so the alliteration to Charles Dickens’ “Tale of Two Cities,” will have to stop here.

 

But when the sixth seeded team in the Texas Winter League takes a 7-0 lead against the top seeded one and loses 14-9 in the semifinals, then the Apaches (5-11) could be excused if they felt their spring of hope turned into a winter of despair, a feeling of having everything before them turned into nothing, and their trip to the TWL championship game went the other way.

 

The Apaches jumped on Alamos (8-3-4) starter Bobby Orozco for 10 hits and seven runs in just 1 2/3 innings. Everything seemed to go right; even designated hitter Chris Carmouche, who was 0 for 24 in the TWL season, opened the second inning with a sharp single to center off the right-hander who came into the game leading the TWL in earned run average with an 0.72 mark.

 

Julius Gaines, who had gone the first 12 games of the TWL season hitless, drove in two runs with a sacrifice fly and a long double. Jacob Fabry, the United League’s seventh leading hitter in 2014 who had struggled all month long in the 2015 TWL season, scored two runs and had a sharp 2-run double to right to highlight a 4-run second inning. Old reliables like Kori Melo, Tyler Latham, and Jonathan Grishman collected hits, Nate Lewellyn drove in a run, and for a moment, it seemed as if the Apaches would be able to shake away the injuries and rust that had plagued them all season long and come to life in the playoffs.

 

Unfortunately, they couldn’t shake off defensive lapses. Like in the bottom the second, when third baseman Grishman allowed a foul ball to drop in behind him, giving Gabe Garza new life to hit a 2-run double off Fumitaka Sakaguchi. Or two innings later, after the Apaches scored a run in the fourth off reliever Gilbert Berrera on Kinnosuke Kamiya’s single to right to drive in Fabry, when throwing errors by Grishman and shortstop Melo led to an 8-3 score.

 

But when the normally sure-handed Melo booted a double play ball off the bat of Mike Shada in the bottom of the fifth to put two runners on with no out, it allowed the Alamos to accumulate a 6-run rally to take the lead.

 

Charles Shapiro hit a ground ball that went of Fabry’s glove at first base for an error and score one run. Then Andrew Carmadella hit a long double to center field to plate both runners and make the score 8-6.

 

This chased Sakaguchi, and Apaches manager Brooks Carey inserted hard-throwing Noaki Hashimoto into the game to throw his 93-mile-per-hour fastballs through a 25 mile-per-hour wind blowing out to right.

 

Instead, Hashimoto (0-3) was wild, walking Mike Stier before fanning Garza, borrowed from the Tejanos due to the hamstring injury that sent regular starting catcher Ben Boykin home to South Carolina.

 

But the former Cleveland farmhand then hit Phil Rowland with a pitch, and Joseph Charles followed with a 2-run single to tie the game. Though Hashimoto was able to fan pinch hitter Conrad Woolsey, he then gave up a double to Rob Perrin to score Rowland to give the Alamos a 9-8 lead.

 

But Woolsey had hit for second baseman Shin Yokota, which meant pitcher Cam Margaris was sent to play second base in the top of the sixth.

 

Sure enough, the first two balls were hit to him and he misplayed them for errors. Then Kamiya followed with his fourth hit of the game to tie the score 9-9.

 

Kamiya promptly stole second, which put both Grishman and he in scoring position. But Julius Gaines could not make contact and struck out.

 

With one out, Berrera uncorked a pitch that went past catcher Garza with pinch hitter Hidekatsu Matani batting. But the ball ricocheted back to Garza from the backstop, and he was able to throw to Berrera covering to nail Grishman at the plate and prevent the Apaches from retaking the lead.

 

Hashimoto could not retire anyone in the sixth, allowing two hits, including Carmadella’s second RBI double that gave the Alamos the lead. He was relieved by Matani, who had come into the game to play left field, but Mitani allowed the next four hitters to reach base and run scoring hits to Stier, Garza and Shada (the latter when a popup in the infield was allowed to drop) and a sacrifice fly to complete the scoring.

 

Sakaguchi allowed only one earned run in four plus innings, while Berrera (2-1) pitched the final 5 1/3 innings allowing only three hits and an unearned run, striking out five and walking four.

 

Nine players, Kamiya (4), Perrin (3), Carmadella (3), Charles, Fabry, Garza, Lewellyn, Shapiro, Stier (2 each) had multi-hit games.

 

The two teams combined for 2 hits and nine errors. The Apaches made six miscues and collected 13 of the hits.

 

WRANGLERS 7 - PERICOS 3

 

 

Jack Morrow continued his hot hitting with the triple that gave the Wranglers a 4-3 lead in a 5-run bottom of the third to give the Wranglers a 7-3 victory in the first semifinal game at Nelson Wolff Stadium.

 

The Wranglers (8-4-3) trailed, 3-2, after the Pericos (7-7-2) scored three times in the top of the inning off Brandon Cowan. Matt Garza singled in one run and another came in when right fielder Warren Stehn’s throw went over the head of catcher Aaron Wells on the hit, while Andrew Mulato followed with a two out single to drive in Garza.

 

But in the bottom of the inning off Casey McMickle, the Wranglers batted around. Yusuke Oyama and Steve Taft greeted him with singles, before Jordan Drake tied the score with a ground ball that shortstop R.J. Perucki made a tag of Taft coming from second base on that tied the score.

 

After Morrow’s long hit, Stehn then drove in Morrow with his league leading 19th RBI of the season, followed by a long double to right center from Jake Taylor that made the score 6-3. After Taylor took third on an error on the play by catcher David Peterson, Eric Garcia drove in Taylor on a hard hit grounder to first baseman Thomas Shull.

 

McMickle (1-3) allowed nine hits and seven runs in his three innings of work. He also allowed two runs in the bottom of the first on Drake’s RBI single and a sacrifice fly from Morrow.

 

After the third Cowan (3-0) settled down and allowed only one walk until being relieved by Misop Baynun with two outs in the top of the sixth. Baynun rallied back from a 3-0 count to retire Peterson on a ground out to shortstop before Reid Hoffler pitched a scoreless seventh.

 

McMickle was relieved by Sho Nagashima, who threw two scoreless innings and allowed three hits, and Joshua Ferrell, who lowered his ERA to 0.82 with a perfect sixth.

 

CAPTIALS 6 - TEJANOS 0

 

Alex Mann and Kevin Osaki combined to throw a three-hit shutout in the TWL consolation game at the Missions Academy to give the Capitals (7-6-3) a winning record in the 2015 season.

 

Mann (3-1) allowed all three hits while walking one and striking out three in his three innings of work. Osaki threw the final three innings and did not allow a walk or a hit and fanned one to earn his first save.

 

Forest Moore took the loss for the Tejanos (6-10), allowing all six runs, only two of which were earned. His shortcoming in the game was his control, walking seven men in three innings. Jamie Perez and Rainey Martin added scoreless innings of relief in the six inning game.

 

Greg Toliver highlighted a 5-run second with a 3-run double for the Caps.

 

NOTES- The championship final will be played at 2 p.m. at Wolff Stadium. Jamie Brown (2-0) will start for the Wranglers against Bobby Orozco (2-0), going on no days rest after only pitching 1 2/3 innings on Thursday.

 

The matchups were changed prior to the game from straight brackets to seeding.

 

Morrow leads the league in hitting at .500 and will win the TWL batting title assuming he bats no worse than 0 for 3 or 1 for 5 in the championship final. Melo is second in batting at .467.

 

Morrow can win the triple crown if he hits a home run and Warren Stehn does not drive in a run, or if he hits a home run and drives in one more run than Stehn.

 

The Alamos’ Cam Margaris will win the league earned run average (based on pitching 0.8 innings per game played) assuming he pitches at least one inning and does not allow an earned run.