Yawkey League Stars Drop Dominican National All Stras 8-5!

2008 YBL All Stars

YAWKEY ALL STARS DROP DOMINICAN NATIONAL STARS 8 – 5

The Yawkey All Stars came to Jim Rice Field on Friday July 11th to face off against an arsenal of College aged players who are either members of the Dominican national All Star Team or are attending college in the US. This seemed like a tough challenge and much work was done to develop a team that would not only compete, but defeat our guests. The YBL Stars responded to a 2-0 defecit and won 8-5 in a 9 inning game.

Hundereds of fans jammed into Jim Rice Field in Lower Roxbury for this classic! A tremendous atmousphere of music and baseball celebration lingered thru the night. I had an opportunity to be at the World Classic Games between Dominican Republic & other teams at Disney Wide World of Sports two springs ago. Last nights game atmousphere mirrored the great high pitched tone that was set at the World Classic.

Max Waxman of the South Boston Saints gave up a first inning homer to “Third Star of the Game” Audi Acosta. Acosta of New York City was 4 for 5 on the night with a homer, double, single and 3RBI. Audi was also tremendous digging ‘em out at first base. He made some tremendous stretches to save outs for the Dominican Team.

The YBL Stars responded in the 3rd with a huge five run stanza. Led by a tremendous line shot homer over the score board at Rice for three runs by Connor Reinfurt. Connor proved in this game why he is the leading RBI man in the YBL (21) in 2008. The McKay Club & UMass product was Player of the Game. The Manchester native now a Dot Rat was 3 for 4 with 4RBI.

Randy “No Hit” Casey of the Cambridge Spinners came in to pitch in the 4th. He was not treated nicely – 2 unearned runs scored. But, Randy held on in his two inning stint for the victory. He was allowed 3 hits and struck out 3. Casey was chosen “Second Star of the Night” for his efforts.

Scot Rogers did a tremendous job to shut down the Dominican Team in the 8th 7 9th for as nifty save. Rogers allowed 2 hits and struck out 2 for the save.

The PLAY OF THE GAME and maybe the play of the year came in the sixth inning. Talal Saleh of Medford Mad Dogs was on the bump and the Dominican team was attempting to tie it up. They had already scored on big run to close the gap to 6-5. The Dominican catcher Louis Caceres was at the dish with one out. His mate Acosta was on third. Caceres another New Yorker smashed a line drive to jack Owens of the McKay Club in right field. Owens threw a gem to Reinfurt at the cut off position. Rob Linn blocked the plate perfectly and was able to untangle and tag Acosta for the inning ending double play!

Many “regular YBL All Stars” opted out of last night’s festivities for one reason or another. It was nice to see a new breed of All Star emerge and win for this great organization. Congratulations to Buddy Lewis and his Committee for putting together a great team and a tremendous concept.

The game was taped to air on Comcast Ch 12 in Boston and Brookline. If you can not see it on TV you may buy a DVD of the game. Instructions are posted in the COMCAST compartment on the YBL webpage: http://www.yawkeybaseball.com/

Thanks go out to Dave Treska for all the hassles he went thru in developing this line up of All Stars. Also, congratulations to the YBL coaching staff led by manager – Mike Freire, Dave Hanley, Jon Tenney and Dan Chapman.

What a night for Yawkey baseball in the heart of Boston’s Inner City!

Batteries

Dominican: Rivera, Montero (3), Pimentel (5), Cruz (7) and Caceres

Yawkey League: Waxman, Saleh (2), Casey (4), Tupper (6), Rogers (7) and Doyle & Linn (5)

WP: Randy Casey
LP: Juan Rivera
S: Scott Rogers

HR: Dominican – Audri Acosta (2 run HR to LF) 1st.
Yawkey League – Conner Reinfurt (3 run HR to LF) 3rd.

Player of Game: Connor Reinfurt (McKay Club Beacons)
2nd Star: Randy Casey (Cambridge Spinners)
3rd Star: Audri Acosta (Dominican Nationals and NYC)