{"id":32630,"date":"2023-07-28T18:18:53","date_gmt":"2023-07-29T00:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/connie-mack-world-series-down-to-final-four-teams\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:01:16","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:01:16","slug":"connie-mack-world-series-down-to-final-four-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/connie-mack-world-series-down-to-final-four-teams\/","title":{"rendered":"Connie Mack World Series down to final four teams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Dallas
Dallas Tigers pitcher Jack Hickerson makes a pitch to NOLA Cardinals Tanner Hornback in the top of the first inning during Game 1 of Connie Mack World Series bracket play on Sunday at Ricketts Park. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Turkeyboy Photography)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

FARMINGTON \u2013 As the Connie Mack World Series field narrowed to just four teams, the paths for which a winner will be determined are still very much undecided.<\/p>\n

The Midland Redskins, which lost their opening game in bracket play earlier in the week, staved off elimination on Thursday for the third straight day, beating the Dulin\u2019s Dodgers by a score of 6-1.<\/p>\n

Meantime, the Colton Nighthawks, coming off a stinging loss just 12 hours earlier, came back to Ricketts Park on Thursday afternoon to beat the Tulsa Sandlot by a final of 5-0.<\/p>\n

And in a battle of the only unbeaten teams remaining in the CMWS, the Dallas Tigers scored their second walk-off victory in less than 24 hours, beating the Southern California Renegades by a final of 10-9 in nine innings.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s a recap of all the Thursday action.<\/p>\n

Dallas Tigers 10, Southern California Renegades 9<\/div>\n

The Dallas Tigers earned their second straight walk-off win, rallying from a two-run deficit before beating the Southern California Renegades by a final of 10-9 in nine innings at Ricketts Park.<\/p>\n

Brady Gray\u2019s solo home run over the right field wall with two outs in the bottom of the ninth lifted the Tigers to the win. It\u2019s the second straight walk-off victory for the Tigers in the CMWS, both of which occurred over the span of less than 24 hours.<\/p>\n

The game, featuring the only two remaining unbeaten teams in bracket play during the Connie Mack World Series, lived up to the expectations with both teams coming up with clutch hits in crucial situations.<\/p>\n

Gray\u2019s home run, on a 3-2 pitch, keeps the Tigers record perfect in the series while handing the Renegades their first loss during the tournament. Both teams are still playing for a chance at the World Series title, with the Renegades needing a win over the Colton Nighthawks in an elimination game at 1 p.m. at Ricketts Park.<\/p>\n

\"Southern
Southern California Renegades pitcher Jacob Kennedy throws a pitch to a Dallas Tigers batter in the bottom of the fourth inning during pool play of the Connie Mack World Series at Worley Field on Saturday. (Turkeyboy Photography)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The Tigers are the only team which can win the championship on Friday night. A win in a 5:15 p.m. start time semifinal match against the Midland Redskins would put Dallas in the championship round needing only one win in their next two games to claim the championship.<\/p>\n

For Dallas, which rallied for a walk-off win over the Colton Nighthawks in a third-round game that started at 9:45 p.m. on Wednesday night and didn\u2019t conclude until after midnight on Thursday morning, the win is another confidence boost heading into the weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe boys just stayed focused in both those games and kept getting after it and believing in themselves,\u201d said Tigers head coach Brett Bergman. \u201cIt showed up again tonight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gray, who will be coming back to Farmersville High School this fall as a senior and has already committed to Abilene Christian College, didn\u2019t waver in his moment in the spotlight on Thursday night, less than 24 hours after he scored the tying run in the third-round comeback win over the Nighthawks.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Gray) is such an exceptional catcher and a great leader of this team,\u201d Bergman said. \u201cI\u2019m glad he got that moment in that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gray has gone 9-for-17 at the plate during the Connie Mack World Series, scoring seven runs with five runs batted in.<\/p>\n

The Tigers appeared to have the game well in hand after the first four innings, leading by a score of 7-2 before the Renegades rallied with four runs in the fifth inning.<\/p>\n

Trailing 7-6 into the sixth inning, Blake Wilson gave the Renegades the lead with his three-run home run to left center field, which appeared to change all the momentum of the contest.<\/p>\n

Wilson, a recent commit to the University of Washington, has had a strong series, with a batting average topping .470 with three home runs while driving in seven runs and scoring eight times. His home run in the top of the sixth inning puts him among the leading candidates for all-tournament team honors.<\/p>\n

The Tigers fought back, thanks to a two-RBI, two-out single by Caleb Hoover in the bottom of the sixth inning which tied the game at 9-9. Neither team could get a run across in the seventh or eighth innings before Gray\u2019s home run ended the contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have confidence and belief going into the weekend,\u201d Bergman said. \u201cI think that creates some momentum and that\u2019s what we\u2019ve got going for us now.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Colton
Colton Nighthawks' Logan Kelly beats the throw and slides safely into third base while Albuquerque Baseball Academy third baseman Kai Fitak attempts the tag in the top of the second inning during bracket play of the Connie Mack World Series on July 24 at Ricketts Park. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Turkeyboy Photography)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Colton Nighthawks 5, Tulsa Sandlot 0<\/div>\n

After suffering a walk-off third round loss to the Dallas Tigers in the early hours of Thursday morning, the Colton Nighthawks bounced back in the right way, staving off elimination with a 5-0 victory Thursday afternoon over the Tulsa Sandlot at Ricketts Park.<\/p>\n

The Nighthawks, one of two teams from the state of California still playing in the CMWS, got a pair of runs batted in from Tyler Holley and a dominant pitching performance from Ryan Halamicek, who gave up eight hits and a pair of walks while throwing 6 \u2154 innings and picking up the much-needed win.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe knew we had to get back out here and hustle and not let last night get to us,\u201d said Nighthawks coach Ruben Montano. \u201cIt showed a lot of heart and character to get back out there and play the way we needed to.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Nighthawks jumped out to a quick 2-0 lead in the bottom of the first inning when Holley drove in a pair of runs with a single to center field that scored Ryder Young and Marcos Rosales.<\/p>\n

The Nighthawks added runs in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings to preserve the win, while Sandlot struggled to advance runners. On the night, Tulsa left eight runners on base.<\/p>\n

The Tulsa Sandlot, coming off an 18-6 win over their in-state rival Oklahoma Express on Wednesday, are eliminated from the CMWS with a record of 2-5, which included an upset win in the first round over the Midland Redskins.<\/p>\n

\"Midland
Midland Redskins's Maddox Riske hits to the left field for a single in the bottom of the ninth inning against D-BAT United on Wednesday at Ricketts Park. (Curtis Ray Benally\/Turkeyboy Photography)<\/span>cca<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>
Midland Redskins 6, Dulin\u2019s Dodgers 1<\/div>\n

Diego Alvarez threw five innings of shutout baseball as the Midland Redskins fought off elimination for the third straight game, beating the Dulin\u2019s Dodgers by a final of 6-1.<\/p>\n

Alvarez, who came into the game at the start of the third inning after starting pitcher Drew Erdman left with some pain after the first inning and pitcher Nate Taylor surrendered a run on two hits in the second inning, stymied the Dodgers the rest of the night, throwing 77 pitches and striking out five batters.<\/p>\n

Meantime, the Redskins got a pair of runs from Clay Burdette and a pair of runs batted in from Evan Haeger, scoring a pair of runs in both the fifth and sixth innings to preserve the win.<\/p>\n

Alvarez fanned a pair of batters in the third inning and again in the fifth inning, keeping the Dodgers offense off-balance much of the game.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Alvarez) has been solid for us off the bench and we weren\u2019t expecting him to go five innings,\u201d said Midland coach Dave Evans. \u201cBut he had good stuff and we were able to sneak in a couple of runs to give him the help he needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mason Parsons took the loss for the Dodgers, giving up five runs in 4 \u2154 innings of work. The Dodgers, winners of last year\u2019s Don Mattingly World Series and automatic qualifiers for this year\u2019s CMWS, finish the tournament with a record of 4-3.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Midland, Colton fight off elimination; Tigers again score walk-off victory<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":32631,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2129,470,2127,799,28,2428,2128,346],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-32630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-american-amatuer-baseball-congress","tag-baseball","tag-connie-mack-world-series","tag-farmington","tag-headlines","tag-high-school-baseball","tag-ricketts-park","tag-sports"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32630"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":81870,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32630\/revisions\/81870"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32631"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32630"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=32630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}