Red Barons Soar To Championship

The Attorney LaDestro Red Barons defeated the Rohrbacher Construction Manatees 12-10, in a see-saw 11-year-old division Cal Ripken Baseball championship game on Father’s Day Sunday.

Brandon Hensel led the way, hitting a two-run homer and pitching three innings, striking out seven batters without a walk. 

The second-seeded Red Barons jumped out to leads of 3-0 and 5-3, but the top-seed Manatees fought back to tie each time. Down again 9-6 in the bottom of the fifth inning, the Manatees again came back behind consecutive hits from Jake Oliger (3-for-4, three runs scored), Andrew Hubina (1-for-4, two runs), Dylan Tyrrell (2-for-3, two runs), and Ryan Shaw (2-for-3, two runs) for a 10-9 lead. 

In the top of the sixth inning, the Red Barons rallied behind a single by Jamie Cochrane (two runs scored), a walk by Tom Cotton (three runs), and a go-ahead RBI single by Peter Clifford (three runs). A walk by Hensel and a fielder’s choice by Dan Pearson (two RBI) plated Clifford for the 12-10 lead. In the bottom of the sixth, winning pitcher Andrew Lee walked Nick Rohrbacher, but got two strikeouts and benefited from a catch of a foul pop by catcher Clifford against the backstop for the second out.