Argus Article - 8/16

Lockett, Berumen lead attack vs. Iowa team

By Ken Jackson
SPECIAL TO ANG NEWSPAPERS

KISSIMMEE, Fla. -- Union City's bats finally arrived at the Senior League World Series on Tuesday. Maybe they were put on the wrong flight and were stuck in Omaha or someplace for two days.

Keyed by three RBIs each from Jonathan Lockett and Angel Berumen, the Americans, representing USA West, defeated Des Moines, Iowa, 10-4 and moved within two wins of the Series crown.

A win tonight (4:30 p.m. PDT) over Pinellas Park, Fla., would put Union City in Saturday's championship, where it would have to win just one of two games to bring the title home to the Golden State. Matt Wetzell is expected to the be the starting pitcher tonight.

Union City piled up nine this, and provided the knockout punch early, scoring five runs in the first after spotting Iowa a run.

Still, manager Steve Orias wasn't boastful.

"We still haven't seen our A-game out of these guys," he said. "We com mitted three errors, and we didn't put them away like we should have. We could have 10-run ruled them.

The Iowians attempted to make a statement in the top of the first when leadoff hitter Lee Pearson lined pitcher Manny Espinoza's (5-0) first pitch into the gap for a double. He scored later on Joe Kephart's single.

But Union City answered by sending 10 to the plate in the bottom of the first, getting RBI singles from Lockett and Mike Armstrong and a two-run double from Berumen.

Espinoza settled down, retiring eight in a row at one point and watched his teammates stretch the lead to 9-1 after four innings, close to the 10-run rule.

After watching his team capitalize on walks and errors in the tournament's first two games, Orias was happy to see them create offense of their own.

"The bats came out tonight," he said. "I'll take being in this position by winning two ugly games and one fair one."

Lockett, Angel Berumen and Art Boado each collected two hits for Union City. Espinoza struck out five and walked one.

Lockett said a change in daily routine may have helped wake up the offense.

"We've been practicing twice a day, but we only had the later practice today," he said. "To beat Pinellas Park we're going to have to bring our bats again."

Pinellas, representing USA South, came from a run down late to beat Panama City, Panama, 4-3 in eight innings. The Floridians destroyed Ramstein, Germany, 15-0 on Monday.

"We have to play a real good game against them," Orias said. "They didn't give up in their game and never got down."

A win tonight gives Union City two days off before Saturday's 1:30 p.m. championship. Its opponent would come from the losers bracket, which includes Walley, British Columbia, Winter Park, Fla., Panama City and Germany.

UNION CITY 10, DES MOINES 4

Des Moines100 030 0 -- 4 9 3

Union City512 110 x -- 10 9 3

Smith and Merryfield; Espinoza (5-0) and A. Berumen. Hitters: Des Moines: Pearson 2B, Kephart 2-2, Thompson RBI, Dicks 2 RBI; Union City: Oakley 2B 2 R, Lockett 2-4 3 RBI; Armstrong RBI, Boado 2-4 RBI 2 R, A.Berumen 2-3 2B 3 RBI. Records: Des Moines 11-2, Union City 18-1.