By Brian Argabright
The 830 Times
EAGLE PASS — Friday was a day of firsts for Del Rio at the Babe Ruth Baseball World Series here.
Del Rio scored twice in the contest, doubling its output from its first two games, and played seven innings for the first time in three contests.
But the firsts didn’t add up to a win as Del Rio dropped its third game in pool play, 11-2, to the New England Region champs from Trumbull, Conn.
Del Rio fell behind 4-0 before breaking through in the top of the third inning.
Eliseo “Cheo” Ortiz picked up Del Rio’s first hit with a single to left field. After a Mark Peña strikeout, Brandon Ker laid down a picture perfect bunt just in front of home plate. Trumbull pitcher A.J. Albaladejo fielded the ball and fired to get Ker at first, but the ball struck him in the lower part of the helmet, sending him tumbling to the turf at the City of Eagle Pass Patsy Winn Sports Complex. Ker was still safe at first, but Ortiz made it to third on the play.
Ortiz would eventually score on a passed ball, just getting in before the tag, to make the score 4-1. Ker would follow on a groundout off the bat of Leo Olivares and Del Rio trailed just 4-2 in the third inning.
Del Rio’s bats won’t do much after that. Julius Flores’ single in the fourth inning and Zane Hughes’ walk in the seventh inning were the final two times their team would put runners on the bases. At one point, Trumbull retired nine straight Del Rio batters from the fourth inning to the seventh inning.
Meanwhile, Trumbull took advantage of several Del Rio miscues. Nine Del Rio errors helped Trumbull to score at least one run in each of their six at-bats. In the bottom of the fourth, with bases loaded for Trumbull, three Del Rio errors on one play – a passed ball, an errant throw by the catcher and an errant throw by the second baseman – cleared the bases and led to three runs for Connecticut.
For his efforts, Ker was named the Player of the Game for Del Rio by tournament administrators. For Trumbull, the honor went to Dylan Lamy, who was 1-for-3 with an RBI and two runs scored.
Del Rio will close out pool play Saturday night when they take on the Pacific Northwest Region champs from Kelso, Wash., at 7:30 p.m.
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Contact the author at drnhsports@gmail.com
