Covina, Korea advance to final
Korea’s Han Jun Bea dives back to first base Tuesday as Youngstown’s Jacob Gehring gets set for the throw during the Pony League World Series at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington.
Korea’s Min Hyuk Kim pitches Tuesday against Youngstown during the Pony League World Series at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington.
Korea’s Hui Chan Jung crosses home plate after hitting a home run Tuesday in the fourth inning against Youngstown during the Pony League World Series at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington.
Youngstown’s Jacob Gehring beats the tag at second base by Korea’s Tae Yang Han during the Pony League World Series at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington.
This is becoming a habit.
For the fourth year in a row, and the fifth time in six years, the championship game of the Pony League World Series will match the Asia-Pacific Zone winner against the representative from the West Zone.
Seoul, Korea, and Covina, Calif., each secured spots in tonight’s 7:30 p.m. final by winning games during Tuesday night’s doubleheader at Lew Hays Pony Field in Washington Park.
Seoul remained undefeated with an 11-1 victory in six innings over Host Area champion Youngstown, Ohio, in the opening game of the night session. Covina also remained undefeated by beating Bay County, Mich., for the second night in a row, 14-1 in five innings.
Covina (3-0) broke open a close game by scoring 10 runs in the bottom of the fourth inning, which included a grand slam by second baseman Chris Munoz.
Seoul (3-0) advanced with another impressive hitting performance, belting 13 hits including three home runs. Two of the homers came in the third inning, a two-run shot by Min Hyuk Kim and, two batters later, a solo shot by Woo In Choi. The homers were part of a three-run inning that gave Seoul a 4-0 lead.
One inning later, Seoul pulled away by scoring six times to make it a 10-1 score. Hui Chan Jung had a solo home run during the big inning that included six hits and two Youngstown errors.
Nine different Seoul players had at least one hit, led by Kim, who scored two runs and drove in three.
In its three games, Seoul has scored 29 runs.
“Pitching is really the strength of our team,” said Seoul manager Chul Hong Park. “This ballpark is a little smaller than what we’re used to playing on and I think our hitters have taken advantage of that. We thought Youngstown was a really good team but we had some power in our lineup.”
Youngstown won an elimination game earlier in the day over Hagerstown, Md., and would have needed four wins in a 36-hour period to garner the championship. Youngstown had chances in the early innings against Seoul starting pitcher Yin Min Lee but stranded a runner at third base in the first inning, and could not take advantage a double by Jake Gehring in the second – the first of Gehring’s two doubles in the game.
The lone run for Youngstown came on a long opposite-field homer by Ty Ventresco. The ball sailed over the scoreboard in right field and cut Seoul’s lead to 4-1.
Youngstown, however, didn’t have enough pitching left to slow Seoul’s powerful lineup. The plan was for Austin Vogt to pitch against Seoul but he rolled an ankle earlier in the day and was not available, one of two Youngstown players to sit out the game with an injury. Seve Cantini got the emergency start on the mound and gave up six runs over three innings.
“What hurt us was we had one guy go down with a concussion earlier in the series and then had to change our pitching plans for this game,” Youngstown coach Randy Dominguez said.
The big lead in the middle innings allowed Seoul to manage its pitching staff for the championship game. It used three pitchers with starter Yin Min Lee going only four innings.
“We still have two pitchers left,” Park said. “Two aces.”
Two Covina pitchers combined on a four-hitter and Munoz’s grand slam sent Covina to the championship round for the fourth time.
James Jimenez, who threw a five-inning shutout Sunday against Washington County, started on the mound again for Covina and threw three shutout innings. He left with his team holding a 4-0 lead. Anthony Rasmussen threw the final two innings.
Bay County, like Youngstown, had to win an elimination game earlier in the day, defeating Brownsville, Texas, 8-5, but ran out of steam against Covina. The Californians pulled away in the bottom of the fourth, scoring 10 runs on only four hits against two relief pitchers and sending 14 batters to the plate. There were four walks, a hit batsman and two errors in the inning, and Covina first baseman Parker Miramontez hit a two-run single that gave his team a 7-1 lead.
Four batters later, Munoz belted the grand slam over the centerfield fence that pushed the lead to 11-1.
“He had been slumping a little and he’s been hard on himself,” Covina manager Richard Graciano said. “But he didn’t get down and came out and hit a bomb.”
Covina had 11 hits. Luke Willison drove in three runs and Hector Bautista was 2-for-2 with three runs.
Covina has played only 17 innings in three games so it hasn’t gone through much of its pitching staff.
“We will have all pitchers available,” Graciano said of the title game. “Seoul is a tremendous team. There is no flaw in that team that I can see. I think the keys will be our pitching and if we can get some key hitting.”
Nate Popielarczyk won the John D. Voytek Memorial Award, which is given annually to the leading hitter from the Washington County team. Popielarczyk had a .667 batting average with six hits in nine at-bats. … Youngstown’s Trey Pancake was 0-for-3 against Seoul but finished the world series 10-for-17. … The Asia-Pacific Zone representative has not lost a game in the world series since Chinese Taipei was beaten by Hilo, Hawaii, in the 2014 title game. … Munoz’s grand slam was the 46th in world series history and the second in this year’s tournament. … Covina has outscored its opponents 33-6.