After starting the series 1-1 playing the first two games in Vista, Jersey headed back home to The Ballpark at the Shore for their first 3 home games of these 2016 playoffs. Jersey won game 1 handily with Art Ellis pitching them to an 8-2 win. Game 2 was a masterpiece turned in by Michael Hoffmeyer who out dueled the rookie Jose Ramos for a slim 2-1 victory, a victory that GM Josh Swain was afraid of. "We have the bats, they have the arms. There's no doubt in my mind that we can beat them in a shoot out, its the 1-0, 2-1, 3-2 games that will lose us this series. We need to stay away from those," is a quote from Swain before the series, thus far he seems to be right. On to Jersey!
Game 3
Gane 3 would feature a matchup between Tyler "Big Train" Law of Vista and Dan "Simple Man" Macias of Jersey. Law, who missed more than 2 months with elbow tendonitis during the year, pitched great all season, including a no-hitter against the Reno Cards. He shut down Jersey in both his starts this season, pitching 14.2 innings of shutout ball. Macias, the the 36 year old veteran, had his worst season as a pro as his strike out totals fell and ERA rose. He did have a great September which Jersey is hoping for good signs during this postseason.
Macias, who struggled mightily in the playoffs a year ago, would get things started nicely for Jersey taking the first 3 Vista hitters in order. The stadium was packed down to standing room only tickets and gave an ovation as he got All-Star John Doby to strike out to end the first. Tyler Law would take the mound for Vista and whatever concerns Jersey hitters had about him shutting them down all season quickly disappeared. Two quick walks and a hit by pitched loaded the bases for Matt Doyle with no one out. Doyle would waste no time and take the 2nd offering to the gap in left-center bringing home 2 runs an sending Bryant to 3rd. The next batter Dodd would walk on 4 pitches to re-load the bases, still with no one out. A harmless fly ball would get Romero, but Bryant would tag and score the third Jersey run. Catcher Warren Goyer would fly out for the 2nd out before Alberto Perez would single on a line drive over shortstop to load the bases for the 3rd time in the inning. Law's control problems would continue as Tim Duncan would step in and not take the bat off his shoulder for 4 straight pitches forcing in the 4th run from 3rd base and surprisingly ending Law's night. It resulted in the shortest outing of the season for him. Carlos Arevalo would relieve Law and strike out leadoff man Sergio Rodriguez on 3 pitches. But the damage was done. After 1 inning, Jersey held a 4-0 lead.
Macias apparently came to work. Even after the long delay of batting around he came out and retired the side in order for the 2nd straight time. Jersey would waste no time getting more. SS Lawrence Schroeder led off the inning with a single and 2 batters later Matt Doyle would connect and pull a line drive down the line that barely stayed fair for a 2 run HR. It chased Arevalo from the game, and the 6 runs would be more than Jersey needed today.
An RBI triple from Schroeder would bring in the 7th run in the 3rd and an RBI single from Perez would bring home the 8th run in the 4th. Macias would stay out of the trouble until the 5th when Torres connected on a 2 run HR. Brian Cash would leadoff the 6th with a solo HR to bring the Jersey lead to 8-3 and follow that up with an RBI sac fly in the 7th to shave one more run off. A triple and wild pitch would bring home Vista's 5th run in the 8th before Macias was done for the night. Even though he gave up 5 ER he was effective enough to pick up the win. Jose Gomes and Jaime Saenz would close out the last 5 batters to preserve the 8-5 win for the Bags and give them a 2-1 series lead.
Final Score: Jersey 8 Vista 5
POTG: Matt Doyle 2-5, 2R, 2B, HR, 4RBI
Game 4
Game 4 would turn out to be the most interesting game of the series. Vista would bring Cipriano Montanez back on short rest while Jersey would send the embattled Jerry Burgess to the mound. Burgess was regulated to bullpen duty for much of August and September before coming back and throwing a quality start against Pocatello during the last series of the year.
Things did not start well for Burgess. A walk, single and walk loaded the bases with no outs, just like Jersey did the day the before. Vista would get their 4 runs but they did it on one swing. Roberto Bojorquez would only need one swing to send a Burgess offering high, deep and gone over the CF wall to put Jersey in a 4-0 hole before an out was recorded in the game. Burgess would shake it off and retire the next 3 batters before heading to the dugout in a quiet stadium. Montanez was sharp in the 1st inning, needing only 8 pitches to saw through 3 Jersey hitters to get us to the 2nd inning. Either Manager Kevin Davis had faith in Burgess or just didn't want to waste his bullpen, but Burgess headed out to the mound for the 2nd inning. A walk, double play, single and groundout ended the top half, while Jersey would go down in order in the bottom half to end the inning.
Burgess would go back to work in the 3rd giving up a lead off single Bojoquez before getting 2 straight outs. But a single from Torres and back to back walks would force in Vista's 5th run, but Brian Cash couldn't capitalize and break the game open by grounding out to end the threat. The Bags would finally show some sign of life in the 3rd getting two free passes to start things off before Luis Antonio Duran came to plate. Duran would single up the middle which would score one, and advance the runners on the throw to home. An RBI groundout from Larson would plate the 2nd run, giving the Bags a runner on 2nd with one out. An Adam Morrow single would put runners at the corners and Mikey Bryant would be the 2nd D-Bag to be hit by a pitch, which loaded the bases. Montanez probably got the biggest out of the day by getting masher Matt Doyle to weakly hit into a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning. Both teams left the bases loaded. Jersey shaved part of the lead off, going into the 4th, Vista led 5-2.
Burgess would finally get the hook when he surrendered a 1 out double Doby and was replaced by Greg Schaefer. Schaefer would get an out before giving up back to back singles where Vista would plate their 6th run. Torres would strike out with 2 runners on to end the threat. As usual Jersey batters wouldn't lay down. The struggling Dave Dodd led off the inning with an exciting triple and came around to score on Perez's single before Montanez retired 3 batters in a row to end the 4th. Both teams score, 6-3 Vista lead. The 5th went by without any damage from Vista, but MVP showed up for Jersey. 2 pitches after Schroeder pulled a double down the left field line, Bryant would take a Montanez fastball the other way landing 340 feet away and bringing the Bags to within 1 and the crowd to their feet. It was Bryant's 1st HR of the series and just his 2nd and 3rd RBI in 4 games.
Both teams would pose threats in the 6th and 7th innings but no one could come up with a clutch hit until the bottom of the 8th. Vista would bring in Evan Brown to pitch to the left handed hitting rookie Torres, who would get the best of him and single on a line drive to CF. Brown would be replaced with rookie 1st round pick Edward Cadle who gave up a line drive single to former ROY Adam Morrow to put 2 runners on with no outs. Arevalo would replace Cadle who had a battle with Peter Larson before getting him to ground into a HUGE unassisted DP from Brian Cash. Arevalo couldn't get all the way out of trouble though. Lawrence Schroeder would hit a grounder pasts a diving Cash to score the runner from third and knot up this ballgame at 6 runs apiece. There could have been more trouble when he walked both Bryant and Doyle, but got Dodd to lazily fly out to send to send us to the 9th tied up.
Both teams would go down in order in the 9th sending us to our first extra inning game of the series. The 10th was no different, 6 up and 6 down. This was a pivotal game for both teams. Vista would threaten in their half of the 11th getting a lead-off single from Cash and a successful sac bunt from Cassidy to give Vista a runner in scoring position. John Doby would be given a free pass and like many other times in this series, the Vista bats wouldn't come through. Flame thrower Mungo Saenz would get Ashur and House both swinging to a huge ovation from the crowd. They wanted a Jersey win. With the meat of the order coming up, there would be no better time for the Bags. Bryant quickly got his 4th hit of the game a double into the left field corner and Doyle was walked to set up the double play. Goyer would pinch hit for Dodd and fly out to right field to bring up last year's playoff hero and this year's All Star game hero Alberto Perez. Why not? Perez took a 2-0 pitch and grounded the ball up the middle. Bryant would score without a throw and and was met at the plate by the team for a mini mosh pit to celebrate the walk off win. Down 5-0 and to come away winners was a great feeling. Going up 3-1 in the series with a chance to close it out at home was an even better one.
Final Score Jersey 7 Vista 6
POTG: Roberto Bojoquez 2-4, R, HR, 4RBI
Game 5
If you were expecting a close nail-biter this wasn't your game. Game 1 Art Ellis winner would take the mound against Game 2 winner Michael Hoffmeyer pitching on short rest. Ellis was nothing short of brilliant on this evening. Hoffmeyer labored, couldn't avoid the Jersey bats and this one was over before it even began. Jersey scored in every inning but the 3rd and the 5th highlighted by Home Runs from Bryant and Doyle in the 4th and the 6th, 4 total hits for Bryant and 4 hits from Peter Larson. Every Jersey regular besides Alberto Perez had a hit and Art Ellis would go 7 scoreless innings giving up 4 singles and 1 walk on his way to 8 strikeouts and his 2nd win of the series. Hoffmeyer wouldn't get out of the 4th inning and 4 other relievers would pitch and all would give up runs. In the end the Bags won in laughing fashion 11-0 in front of 35,000 fans and would earn their right to take on the winner of the Toronto-Greenville series, which Toronto holds a 3-2 lead in.
Final Score: Jersey 11 Vista 0
POTG: Mike Bryant 4-5, 2R, 2 2B, HR, 3RBI
Summary:
From what we said in the pre-series summary, if Vista is going to win they need to limit the Jersey bats. They did in 1 game, which resulted in a Vista win. In the other 4 games Jersey scored 8,8,7 and 11. The bats were just too much for the Panthers. I also want to give much respect to the bullpen. They were outstanding, only 3 hits in 15+ innings giving up no runs and striking out 16.
Series MVP: Mike Bryant 13-22 (.591) 7R, 5 2B, 2 HR, 6 RBI
Other notable performers:
Alberto Perez: 8-21, .381, 5RBI
Matt Doyle: 6-21, 5R, 2HR, 8RBI
Art Ellis: 2-0, 1.42 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 14 K
Entire Bullpen: 15.2 IP, 3H, 0ER, 0R, 3BB, 16K
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