Team Worth of Hollister held on for a 12-9 win in game five to
take the Men’s Class D title at the Hooters Championship Series
last weekend.
Oklahoma City , Okla. – Team Worth of Hollister held on for a 12-9 win in game five to take the Men’s Class D title at the Hooters Championship Series last weekend.
First baseman Brian Gregoire was impressive in the final game going 3-for-3 with a double and four RBIs.
“A lot of us have been playing together for the past 13 years and we have never seen anything like this,” said Mike Nicholls. “It is very unique. The complex is second to none and there is nothing like this. It is like a dream come true for all of us.”
It looked as if Coors Light would cruise to its first Series title after blanking Team Worth 20-0 in five innings to win the first game on Saturday and taking a 2-1 advantage in the best of five series.
“It is just one of those things that we persevered,” said Nicholls. “Our defense and our bats let us down early on in the Series. So before the fourth game we went to an empty field hit some balls and had a team meeting. We just fought back and it paid off.”
Despite scoring four runs in the first inning of game four, Team Worth was held scoreless in the next five and trailed 8-4 entering the seventh inning.
Down to its last three outs, this scrappy team from northern California scored seven runs to take an 11-8 lead. Coors Light had a chance to close out the Series in the bottom seventh but could only push two runs across and was forced into a game five.
Team Worth second baseman Tim Uhls, who was 2-for-3 in game five, was chosen as the MVP of the Series after contributing on offense and defense. He went 8-for-15 (.533) with four doubles, seven RBI and committed only one error on defense.
Coors Light led Team Worth in almost every offensive category including batting average (.513 to .470), runs (69-to-43), hits (98-to-78) doubles (30-to-12) and slugging percentage (.738 to .590) but was unable to come up with the key hit when they needed it.
Paul Carifi, Jr., who serves as a player/coach for Coors Light, led his team in hitting going 10-for-14 (.714) and drove in 10 RBI in five games.
Team Worth won 13 tournaments this year and finished with a 83-21 record. The team is a mix of veterans and younger players. They plan to stay together and play at the next level next season and get back to the World Series, Nicholls said.
The season was dedicated to Chris Ortiz, a friend of the team’s who was killed in a plane crash in 1994.
The top hitters on our team this year were
Steve Martinez, (Hollister) .670 batting average.
Mike Nicholls (Hollister) .662 batting average.
Fred McCasland( Hollister) .651 batting average.
The Defensive Players this year from Hollister were
Adrian Avila (Hollister) Shortstop.
Curtis Heen ( Hollister) 2nd base, 1st base.
Steve Martinez ( Hollister) Center Field.
