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Guiterrez, East-All Stars Pour it on West-All Stars 9-4 in the rain
The East All-Stars almost did not go home with a 9-6 victory over the West All-Stars in the MHSBCA All-star game Monday night at Comerica Park. A 65 minute rain delay almost resulted in a cancelled game and postponement until Tuesday morning. However by the time the first pitch was finally thrown at 8:35 p.m., the players made the wait worthwhile with a strong display of talent and late inning offense for the 1,149 fans in attendance.
The West All-Stars were the away team and wasted no time getting on the board. After two consecutive errors by the East All-Stars, a sacrifice groundout scored starting pitcher Jackson Lamb from third base for the 1-0 lead. The East-All Stars would respond in the bottom of the inning. After Johnny Slater (2-3, 2 stolen bases) scored the first run, future Michigan teammate Hector Gutierrez (2-3, 3 RBIs) cleared the bases with a three-RBI double to take a 4-1 lead. Guiterrez’s double came with two outs, and could have been prevented on the prior play. Rob Greeenman, catcher for the West dropped a pop-up fly-ball that would have gotten them out the inning. The mishap may have been due to the poor field conditions caused by the rain.
All together, both teams committed seven eras on the night. The East increased their lead to 6-2 by the fourth inning and never looked back after that. Following an RBI triple by Connor Fannon which provide a 7-2 lead, Carmen Benedetti blasted a RBI triple of his own to centerfield, scoring Fannon and putting the East up 8-2. Fannon won MVP of the East squad, pitching three innings, and striking out two batters on 41 pitches.
"It means a lot to get MVP here," said Fannon. "Took a lot of hard work these past four years to get here. The whole weekend was fun, getting to meet a bunch of good baseball players," he added. "I got to stay in a hotel with someone I didn’t know, and made new friends."
Fannon will continue his baseball career at Oakland University next season. Pat Gaudard was the MVP of the West team, going 1-2, with two-RBIs. Down 9-3 now headed to top of the ninth, Brennan Kerr, edged the West closer with a RBI single to pull within five runs, at 9-4. His efforts weren’t enough though, as that would prove to be the final result.
"This was a great win for a great group of kids in their final high school game", said East coach Bob Wamsley. "I think our pitching, catching did an exceptional job of not letting them score when they had the opportunities to."
