Tampa Refuses to Give up Title

The Greensboro Colts found Tampa too tough to tame on Wednesday night in the Colt World Series championship game at Lafayette, Indiana. Our local Colts saw the bottom drop out in the bottom of the fifth inning when Tampa pushed 5 runs across the plate to take a 11-7 lead over Greensboro, and then Tampa would go to win the game and take the Series. Greensboro committed 3 of it’s 4 errors in the game-changing 5th inning and an experienced Tampa team took full advantage of the mistakes to win their 4th consecutive World Series title.

Our Greensboro squad finished the tournament(Series) with a 5-1 record, and Tampa also finished 5-1. Greensboro beat Tampa in the first game of the Series by a 5-2 score and then Tampa beat us on Wednesday 11-7. So the two teams split their games at 1-1, Tampa just happened to get their win on the night when the Final game was on the line. The Greensboro Colts were leading in the game on Wednesday, they were up 7-6 before that dreaded bottom of the 5th.

Tampa scored all of it’s runs in bunches as they got 3 in the first inning, then 3 more in the 2nd, and then added 5 big runs in that rough bottom of the 5th. Greensboro had several leads throughout the game up 2-0 after the top of the first, then our Colts led again after their at bat in the top of the second with a 4-3 advantage. After Tampa’s three runs in the bottom of number 2 to go up 6-4, Greensboro rallied and jumped back in front 7-6 in the 4th. Then came that 5th inning when everything just seemed to fall apart.

The four errors in the bottom of the 5th made it an 11-7 final, but the Greensboro Colts also suffered with 6 wild pitches from it’s staff and with the Tampa team having the experience of having won 3, now make it 4 straight World Series, they(Tampa) were ready to capatilize on the Greensboro mistakes. The Greensboro Colts showed class and sportsmanship in winning and losing and the local fans out in Indiana were very happy to have Greensboro in the finals it just wasn’t meant to be this time around, and even the other teams that had lost earlier games had all banded together to pull for Greensboro.

Always remember, this was a great experience for the Greesboro Colts and they have so much to be proud of. Alan Ashkinazy did an excellent job of leading his team to the World Series final. Warren Slack(Southwest Guilford), Chad Hockaday(SWG), Blaine McCraw(SWG), Austin Moyer(Southeast Guilford), Jeff Medley(SEG), Cameron Cockman(SEG), Clint Moore(Grimsley), Alan Craven(Grimsley), Nick Jones(Page), Timmy Dezern(Page), Frankie Johnson(Dudley), Michael Dimock(High Point Wesleyan), Brandon McKinney(Northwest Guilford), Jake Rierson(NWG), Caleb Shelton(Western Guilford), and Davis Turner(Northeast Guilford) again all have so much to be proud of and to be thankful for. This will go down as a major moment in their athletic history and it will be remembered as an experience of a lifetime. Remember you were 5-1 overall and Tampa was 5-1 overall, you beat Tampa 5-2 and they beat you 11-7, “What do you say about the best 2 out of 3 with game 3 next Monday at Stoner-White Stadium at 7:30pm?

It’s also good to know that Larry Moore, Bernie Meyers, Dave from over at Page HS, and maybe even Ned McMillian made it out to Lafayette for the Series and we have to thank Kevin and Sharon Moore for their updates each night when all the action was going on. Be sure to sign Alan Ashkinazy to a long-term contract and we’ll watch for all these kids to be somewhere doing something big next summer.