Update – District 9 lost in the first round at the Big League World Series. Their next game is Thursday, July 28 at 7:30pm.
Wyoming District 9 finished the 2016 Central States Regional the way they started it, with a shutout victory over Illinois District 15. With the 2-0 win, the host team completed the four game sweep at DeWitt Field on the Campus of Cornerstone University without giving up a single run.
The shutout was the fourth for District 9 in as many tournament games with the championship clinching victory going to southpaw Cade Cintorino. Cintorino, who had the save in game 3 Tuesday night, needed no relief in the championship as he threw a four-hitter to go with four strikeouts and no walks.
District 9 attempted to get off to the early lead, as they had all tournament, in the first inning when they loaded the bases on a single by second basemen Isaiah House to go with a pair of walks to designated hitter Brendan Oosse and Drew Hernandez. Illinois starting pitcher, Chris Campagna, got himself out of the jam by forcing right fielder Bruce Buurstra to bounce out to second to close the inning.
Campagna was not as fortunate in the second inning, but not entirely by his own doing. He got catcher John Corey to pop the ball into shallow center field where second baseman Isidro DeSantiago, shortstop Rich Kiernicki, and center fielder Robert Chayka all converged only to have the ball glance off DeSantiago’s glove for an error. Third basman Eli Spencer followed with a single to put runners on the corners with no outs.
Following a shallow fly ball to left fielder Jordan Rodgers, leadoff hitter Christian Falicki came through with a single to bring in the first run and move Spencer to second where he was later thrown out as the lead runner in an attempted double steal. House was then hit by the pitch and left fielder Jace Beatty singled to make it 2-0 before Hernandez flew out to deep right center field to close out the inning.
In the fourth inning, with two outs, Illinois put runners in scoring position on second and third after a pair of singles and a double steal. That was as close as Illinois would come to scoring as Cintorino got Chayka to pop out to House to end the inning.
Cintorino was in control the entire game and only saw two innings where he faced over three batters, the fourth and the seventh. Illinois got a single in the seventh with two outs from Chayka, but the potential rally was immediately stifled as right fielder Alanso Ocon grounded out. Once the final out was made, the celebration was on!
District 9 finished with seven hits, three strikeouts, and three walks on the night, and will now make its way to Easley, South Carolina to compete for the World Championship against other USA Regional championship teams from the East, Southeast, Southwest, and West. International Regional championship teams from Asia-Pacific, Canada, Europe-Africa and Latin America will also compete.
The opening game will be Wednesday, July 27 at 4 pm against the winner of the East Region vs West Region. For a complete schedule and coverage of games, you can visit Big League World Series.
