Sunday, October 12, 2008

Singapore Wins China Cup Championship

The Singapore Eagles proved what seemed to be true from the moment they arrived in Beijing on Friday afternoon. They were the team to beat in the China Cup Tournament. With their 14-4 victory over Hong Kong International School they proved most observers right and got to take home the China Cup Championship trophy in their first appearance in a China Cup tournament.

Singapore was led by pitcher Billy Fulton who scattered seven hits over 5 innings. Fulton also went three for three at the plate for the Eagles. Battery mate, catcher Matt Fay, also went three for three. Singapore’s run machine was powered by 3 RBIs from Evan Petty, 2 RBIs from Dylan Howell and 2 RBIs from Michael Szopiak. Daniel Davis went three for four for the Eagles. Chris Ryan and Michael Chang added some good defense for Singapore to cap an undefeated run in the tourney.

HKIS’ Andrew “the Walrus” Wallis threw strong for Hong Kong, striking out 10 with and his fastball reaching 75mph on the radar gun at various times throughout the game. Wallis also added two RBIs and went 2 for 3 for HKIS. Alex Sherr knocked in the other 2 HKIS runs. Austin Young went 3 for 3 for HKIS and Kevin Matthews got the only other HKIS hit off of Fulton.

Photos Uploaded

From Parting Shots from China Cup Baseball 2008
The last of the photos have been uploaded. You can access them by clicking on the photo link beside game results or by clicking on the slide show under China Cup Photo Highlights.

A big shout out to Jackson at ISB for getting the wifi set up on the field. None of this would have happened without Jackson's help.

Saturday, October 11, 2008

Championship Game: HKIS vs. Singapore

Shanghai thrashes Beijing 17-2 to Reclaim Golden Helmet

Shanghai American School came to Dragon Field intent on getting revenge against arch-rival ISB this morning. And revenge is what they got, and then some.

Jumping out to a 3 run early lead against Andrew Goodwin, the Shanghai Eagles dominated ISB in all areas the rest of the way, running away with a 17-2 victory, and reclaiming the Golden Helmet.

Backed by an overpowering performance by senior David Goldsworthy, Shanghai’s defense completely shutdown ISB’s offense. ISB managed only three hits and two runs against Goldsworthy over 5 innings. Goldsworthy struck out 10.

SAS’s Charlie Gao and Vikram Kulkarni had seven RBIs between them leading the Shanghai 18 hit attack. Daniel Osaki and Robert Wang also combined for five RBIs.

With the victory SAS has the Golden Helmut and bragging rights until ISB and SAS meet next at the APAC tournament in Shanghai in two weeks.

Consolation Game: ISB vs. Shanghai

HKIS Dominates in win over ISB

The Hong Kong hitting machine continued to churn out hits of all shapes and sizes late Saturday afternoon as HKIS romped to a 13-4 victory over ISB and showed yet again why it is a force to be reckoned with in this China Cup 2008 tournament.

ISB senior and captain Ryan Young was touched for 6 hits, all of them singles in the first inning. Young gave up 7 runs to HKIS in the opening frame and was lifted for freshman Bradley Johanson, who had pitched two strong innings in relief on Friday night against Singapore.

In the bottom of the first, Young got one of the runs back and helped his own cause by drilling a sharp single to left and knocking in Jack Murphy who had doubled to deep center. Brian Cormack also contributed to the short-lived ISB comeback by beating out an infield hit with some great hustle down the first base line to keep the ISB rally alive.

Johanson pitched a scoreless second and ISB looked like they were back in the game. ISB Junior and first baseman Andrew Goodwin gave ISB increased hope in the bottom of the third when he drove a pitch over the wall in left for a two run home run closing the gap to 9-4. This was the closest ISB would get.

Andrew Wallis continued his hot hitting for HKIS and Austin Young, who pitched a strong game for HKIS, added a two run homer in the 4th to make it 11-4 HKIS.

The game ended on a controversial note, with ISB center fielder Phil Schloss trying to take first base on a passed ball, swinging third strike with two outs. Schloss ran towards first and the throw from the HKIS catcher hit him before he got to the bag. The umpire called him out because he was in fair territory when he was hit by the ball. ISB coach Brad Stephens argued the call to no avail and the game ended.

By beating ISB, HKIS advanced to the China Cup Championship game and will face Singapore American School.

Singapore Overcomes Shanghai and Lau Advances to China Cup Championship

Singapore’s Eagles advanced to the China Cup Championship game with a convincing 10-4 win over the Shanghai American School in the night cap of today’s full-slate of baseball.

Despite a strong pitching performance by Shanghai’s Jonathan Lau, Singapore remained unbeaten and will meet Hong Kong International School in Sunday’s finale. Singapore received a top notch pitching performance from Chris Young who pitched a complete game, allowing only four hits, three of those by Shanghai’s Vikram Kulkarni.

Senior Billy Fulton had three doubles for Singapore and three RBI’s while freshman James Taylor crushed a two run homer deep over the left field wall giving Singapore the lead for good.

Shanghai jumped out to a four run lead, and Lau looked dominating, striking out six in the first four innings. Most of Lau’s strikeouts came on wicked curveballs that baffled the Singapore hitters. Lau seemed to tire though in the 5th and the 6th innings as Singapore sent ten men and nine men to the plate in both innings respectively, scoring 5 runs in each frame. Dylan Howell, Matt Fay and Josh Block all contributed big hits for Singapore.