Sun Devils Take Fourth Place in USSSA Western World Series

The O.C. Sun Devils took fourth place in the USSSA Western World Series this past week. In a tournament that featured six of the top 50 teams in the country in the field of nineteen teams participating, the Sun Devils went 6-2 across the tournament and exploded into the national rankings at 13^th place post tournament. The Devils only losses were to the top-ranked team in California (fourth-ranked in the nation), the SGV Hustle.

The Sun Devils opened up the tournament by going 3-0 in pool play and taking the fourth seed. They defeated the Tustin Mets 10-0, the Ladera Grays 7-1 and the Baldwin Park RoadRunners 9-0. Highlights from pool play include Hunter Cope hitting 2 home runs; Grant Lockwood and Will Rudy turning a nifty 6-4-3 double-play; Jakob Ho going 5 for 8 with 4 doubles; Jake Lappin having a .727 OBP with 2 singles, 4 walks and 2 HBP; Aidan Klimon catching napping runners by gunning them down at first base; Jake Nadley and Clay Liolios combining to no-hit the Mets; Trevor Klein and Anthony Nemeth combining to hold the Grays to one run on two hits; and Cope, Rudy and Lappin combining for a 3-hit shutout of the RoadRunners.

Bracket play began Friday with a morning tilt against the SGV Hustle. Unfortunately for the Devils, their bats fell silent for the first time and they could only manage two runs on five hits as they lost 4-2. Of note was Connor Kentros going 3-for-3 accounting for 3 of the team’s five hits. Powered by a two-hit shutout pitched by Nadley, the boys bounced back to blank the Tustin Mets 9-0 for the second time in the tournament.

Saturday morning saw the boys open up against the Pico Gravediggers. Unfortunately, the Devils’ normally stout defense faltered in the early morning heat and despite pounding out 10 runs on 12 hits and staking themselves to a 10-3 lead, they needed a one-out save by Liolios to preserve a 10-7 victory after the Gravediggers scored four runs and loaded the bases in the top of the sixth.

Saturday afternoon, the Devils faced the Chino Hills Rays in a tightly contested 2-1 defensive victory. The game was dominated by a heroic pitching performance by Lappin; a 6-inning, 4-hit, 1-run shutdown of the powerful Chino Hills Rays. Additionally, Lappin went 2-for-2 with a walk to account for both runs, while Nemeth pinch-hit a key sacrifice fly in the 2^nd inning for the Devils’ first RBI and Jake Nadley drove in the second run on an error by the Rays’ 3^rd baseman. Rudy led a stellar defensive effort with a key U4-3 double-play to shut down the Rays scoring chances in the first inning.

Saturday night the Devils once again had to play the SGV Hustle. The Devils sent their tall, right-handed fireballer Cope to the mound. The Devils held the Hustle in the first inning, stranding Hustle runners at first and third before they took the lead as Kentros scored when Lappin reached due to an error by the Hustle second baseman. In the second inning, the Hustle again stranded runners at second and third but sent the Devils down one, two, three to keep the score 1-0. The third inning saw the Devils tighten the screws on the defense as they only allowed one base runner before getting the third out, but the Hustle returned the favor and the score remained 1-0. The Hustle finally broke through in the top of the fourth as a leadoff double and single followed by two errors allowed them to take a 3-1 lead. The Devils got stifled in the bottom of the fourth and memories of their previous tussle started to loom large, but Cope held the Hustle in the top of the fifth to keep the Devils’ hopes alive. The Hustle got the first out of the fifth inning on a routine grounder to the pitcher, but then Rudy came up huge with a line drive down the right field line to start a rally for the Devils. This was followed by a double by Ho, which was followed by a 2-RBI double by Kentros to tie the game, Cope then helped his own cause by singling in another run to give the Devils a 4-3 lead going into the sixth inning. Unfortunately, two games in the summer heat caught up to the Devils in the top of the sixth: Cope walked the first batter and then got the first out on a two-strike foul bunt, but the Hustle exploded at the plate hitting back-to-back doubles to score two runs. The Devils issued an intentional walk to the next batter to create a force at second, but the Hustle followed that up with an RBI single and a bunt to get another run home and load the bases. The Hustle worked a 7-pitch walk before Cope came back to strike out the next batter for the second out. Finally, Cope combined with Klimon for a force out at home to end the inning. The Devils were devastated and now trailed 7-4. Unfortunately, this was not the Devils’ night as they went down in quick succession and were sent home as the fourth place finisher in the tournament. Of note for the Devils were Cope’s monumental 6-inning pitching performance that featured 10 strikeouts and 9 runners stranded; two key outs on high foul pop-ups caught by Klimon; and Kentros’  continued hot streak at the plate going 2-for-3 with a single, double, two runs scored and 2 RBIs.

As a team, the Sun Devils are batting .402, have a WHIP of 0.97 and an ERA of 0.96. They have run their record to 14-2 and have outscored their opponents 165-22. The Sun Devils are Hunter Cope (Newport Beach), Jakob Ho (Irvine), Connor Kentros (Lake Forest), Trevor Klein (Irvine), Aidan Klimon (Irvine), Jake Lappin (Anaheim), Clay Liolios (Newport Beach), Jackson LoBianco (Irvine), Grant Lockwood (Irvine), Matthew McClure (Mission Viejo), Jake Nadley (Los Angeles), Anthony Nemeth (Orange), Connor O'Brien (Irvine), Will Rudy (Irvine), and Nathan te Pas (Irvine).