The No. 1 A’s advanced to their third straight San Benito Babe
Ruth championship after defeating the No. 6 Astros 12-2 on Thursday
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By Greg Chapman Staff Writer
Hollister – The No. 1 A’s advanced to their third straight San Benito Babe Ruth championship after defeating the No. 6 Astros 12-2 on Thursday .
There were talks in the beginning of the season that the No. 6 Astros wouldn’t win a game, let alone make the playoffs, but they competed with the more experienced A’s for four innings.
In the top of the first, the scrappy Astros got on the board first with a hit-and-run single that brought in the runner from second, but the A’s responded with three runs of their own in the bottom of the first to lead take a 3-1 lead.
In the top of third inning the Astros added another run to make the score 3-2, but that was as close as they would get.
The A’s finally came through in the fifth inning when they scored four runs to build a 7-2 lead, and it continued in the sixth.
There is a 10 run rule after five innings. A drive to left-center field gap over the heads of the defense brought in two runs to put the game away.
Astros manager Oscar Ramirez was happy that his team competed with the A’s as long as they did, but the two-time defending champions were too much to overcome.
“They’re a really good team,” Ramirez said. “They have tons of pitching, they have good hitting. They play good defense. They’re a very experienced team.”
The A’s will look for a three-peat, in Saturday’s championship at 11am.
