Knights Blast Bullpen Baseball to advance in Season Ending AAA Comebacker Classic

George Krivsky picked up the Win on the hill against Bullpen Baseball and delivered a
whopping 8 RBI's on the weekend.

The Marietta Knights closed out a successful 2015 at the USSSA AAA Comebacker Classic at the Thompson Field of Dreams in Conyers, Ga. In a stunning upset, the Knights knocked off McDonough's Bullpen Baseball to advance to the Semifinals. After close losses to the DSA Diablos and JC Force, the Knights showed up Sunday with nothing to lose against favored Bullpen Baseball. Marietta started George Krivsky on the mound. George has turned in several great starts recently and with the Knights' offense clicking they knew George could keep them in the game and give them a chance to win it.

The Knights went down 1-2-3 in the first. They got 2 quick outs on Bullpen with a runner on 1st in the bottom of the inning, but an error extended the inning and allowed Bullpen to pick up an RBI single and a 1-0 lead after 1.

Bullpen ended up setting down the first 4 Knights' batters of the game until Luke Martin ripped a single into LF. 2 walks followed to load the bases and it looked like the Knights were in business. But two pop outs in the infield and the Knights still had a goose egg on the scoreboard. George went back to work in the bottom of the 2nd with a 1-3 putout and he bracketed a walk with 2 strikeouts to keep the game 1-0.

Jackson's RBI Double gave the Knights the their first lead. Jackson batted
.500 with 5 runs and 5 RBI's on the weekend.  

The Knights finally broke the seal in the top of the 3rd. Jackson Tysinger reached on an error, advanced on a walk and scored on George's RBI single to tie it up 1-1. Although Bullpen retook the lead in the bottom of the inning, the Defensive Play of the Game turned the tide in Marietta's favor. After a leadoff walk, Bullpen's #2 hitter hit a blast to the LCF wall. The baserunner got a good jump and rounded third knowing it would take a perfect throw to get him. Centerfielder Jack Vargo threw a dart from the fence to Jackson at the edge of the OF grass. Jackson made a great turn and threw a strike to Luke at the plate who put down the tag for the exciting 8-6-2 putout at the plate. Bullpen took a 2-1 lead on the next batter when Jackson smartly opted to throw to Gil Hastings for an out at 1B but the Knights were fired up and ready to take control. Another 2 batters later Jackson finished the inning with another nice grab at SS and flip to Hunter Williamson at 2B for the final out of the 3rd.

Alex Beaullieu came up with a big hit and scored to give the
Knights the lead against Bullpen.

Garrett Wells and Alex Beaullieu opened the 4th with back to back singles. Jack brought Garrett home with an RBI ground out to SS to tie things back up at 2-2. Next up, Jackson dropped the hammer with a deep double to straight away CF that scored Alex and gave Marietta their first lead at 3-2. George followed with his 2nd RBI single of the game to score Jackson and the Knights led 4-2 going into the bottom of the 4th.

Bullpen drew back within a run quickly when their Frank Thomas look-a-like (and hit-a-like) first baseman launched a fastball over the RF fence and deep into the woods for a homerun. At that point, George did the best thing he could do on the mound. He knew the pitch was supposed to be off the plate but that it drifted back to the inside half. As the big player touched home to the high fives of his teammates, George took a new ball from blue, grinned and said, "Well, that was a mistake." The perfect reaction in a tight game summed up the team's year long motto "So what? Next pitch." With 2 outs and runners on 1B and 2B, Bullpen's lead off hitter hit a high shallow flyball. Hunter made the call and covered a lot ground from his 2B position and hauled in the final out on the RF line to maintain the 4-3 lead going into the 5th.

 



Hunter delivered a huge 2 out, 2 run double to extend
the Knights lead. He had 4 RBI's and scored 4 times in
the tournament.

Bullpen converted a HBP into a well executed double play to start the 5th and it looked like they had regained the momentum with 2 outs and no one on in a very close game. But Bullpen walked the next 4 batters to push the Knights lead to 5-3. Still with 2 outs, Big Game Hunter came up and bombed a drive down the LF line for a 2 run double and a commanding 7-3 Knights' lead going into the bottom of the 5th.

A walk and a should-be-easy fly ball got lost in the sun and Bullpen had runners on 1st and 2nd with no outs. George's day on the hill was done and he left to a big ovation from the Marietta faithful. In came Cody Hahn to shut the door. Cody drew an easy grounder to SS that Jackson flipped to Hunter at 2nd for out #1. He then got a high fly ball out to Jackson at SS and another to George in RF and the inning was over. There were 20 seconds left in the time limit so Bullpen would get one more chance but not until after the Knights got an opportunity to expand the lead. 
And boy, did they expand it. Luke led off with his second single of the game. After Gil walked, Austin Hansell singled to load the bases. Garrett drew a walk on 4 pitches to push in Luke. Cody followed with a ground out to the right side to score Gil and the lead grew to 9-3. Jack took a fast ball directly in the ribs and took his base to reload the bases. When Coach Rob asked Jack if he was ok he replied cooly, "I'm fine, I've been hit plenty of times." Then Jackson delivered another big 2 RBI single and the rout was on. Hunter walked and George hit a 2 RBI single to score Jack and Jackson and when Bullpen tried to throw Hunter out advancing to 3rd he came home on a throwing error. Later Garrett drew his second bases loaded walk of the inning and all in attendance were stunned to look up at the scoreboard and see the Knights leading 15-3.

Jack Vargo rounds third and scores for Marietta.

Bullpen managed to load the bases in the bottom of the 6th, but the Knights called on Austin Hansell to close it down. Austin delivered a strikeout, a pop fly to Hunter at 2B and another strikeout. Final Score: Marietta Knights 15 Bullpen Baseball 3. It was the Knights most complete win of the season and it came over a very strong AAA opponent.

The win set up a rematch with the JC Force. The Force topped the Knights in the semifinals and went on to defeat the Georgia Tarheels for the tournament championship. This did not dampen the Knights' enthusiasm as they knew the played good baseball all weekend and picked up a big win on the final day of their season.

The Knights' 2,3 and 4 hitters, Jackson, Hunter and George, anchored the strong offense on the weekend. Jackson hit .500 with 5 runs and 5 RBI's, Hunter hit .444 with 4 runs and 4 RBI's and George hit .583 with a run and 8 RBI's. Congratulations to all the Knights and their families on a big victory and a great 2015 season.


Jackson goes head first into 3rd base.

 


Hunter slides safely into 3B.



Luke Martin had another multi-hit game.

Big Game Hunter and Coach Rob share a moment after the Knights' final game.