In a classic battle between the division leaders, the Orioles and A’s battled tooth and nail to a 10-10 tie in seven innings. The excitement kept building throughout the entire contest and can be summed up in a great father-son discussion following the game between Coach Luce and his son William. William made a diving catch in foul territory in the bottom of the sixth to keep the A’s from scoring the winning run. After being asked by Dad, "Did you enjoy that game?"  ….William responded…."Dad, it was so loud out there!"    "What do you mean?"  …  "When I caught that ball all I could hear was screaming mammas!!!!"    William ,you had a third of it right…it was a bunch of screaming moms, dads and coaches!  Great job by both teams!  Just to give a flavor of how close this game was…both teams scored in 4 innings, each team held the other team scoreless in 3 innings, each team sent 39 batters to the plate and reach team recorded 23 hits, each team had 6 outs/assists by the pitcher (Freeland/Luce), 4 outs/assists at second (Pollock/Hudson), 4 outs by the SS (Turrentine/Sally) and 6 putouts at first (Macfie/Davis). You can’t leave out the great job of the third basemen for both teams knocking down balls to stop runners from advancing…Whatley for the A’s and Luce for the O’s.  WOW!!!   It doesn’t get much closer than that!   The O’s runs would come from Robert Luce (4-4, 2R), Hudson Davis (3-4, 1R), William Luce (3-4, 2R), Lee Hudson (3-4, 2R), Kristopher Sally (3-4, 2R) and Steven Cain (3-4, 1R), Michael Wolf (3-4), Banks Gaines (2-4), Miles Watson and Shaler Smith would make great contact. The A’s runs would come Read Perkins (4-4, 1R), Thomas Whatley (3-4), Edward Pollock (2-3, 2R), Thomas Slade (2-3, 1R), Will Turrentine (3-3, 2R), Austin McCalla (2-3), John Price (2-3), Andres Garcia (1-3, 1R), Jennings Huskey (1-3, 1R), Tom Freeland (1-3, 1R), Sam Macfie (2-4, 1R) and Julian Espada. A’s game ball winners were Andres Garcia for his clutch hitting and lightning-fast baserunning, Read Perkins for going 4-4, stopping some hard hit balls at second and scoring the tying run in the bottom of the seventh on a pop up to the SS, and to third base coach Jeff Macfie for the great coaching on the pop-up and the runner tagging up!  Orioles award winners were Hudson Davis-Hustle, Miles Watson-Defense, William Luce- Big Bat, and Robert Luce-Tough man. Robert was drilled in the face by a ball in the sixth inning and rallied to return to his spot in the seventh!   

 A cool damp night was the site at Timmons field. A game with everything on the line for two outstanding teams with a lot of talent on both sides. Like a heavyweight fight the two teams through punches until the 5th round when the Marlins came with a knockout punch. The Tigers struck 1st with a run by Neal Satterfield who had a triple on a bomb to right center. The Tigers then added 2 more runs in the 3rd with Aubrie Lauderdale and Worth Gentry scoring on hits by Chase Poplin and Wes Reeves, making the 3-0 Tigers. The Marlins then couterpunched with 4 runs in the bottom of 3rd sending 8 batters to the plate. Will Carlon lead it off with a single up the middle. The Marlins the put the bunt and steal on with Michael Redman up at bat. He laid down a perfect bunt up the 3rd base line about 10 feet in front of the plate and had an infield hit and moving the runner. The Tigers with great pitching from Wilson Strausbaugh(8 so no walks) struck out the next 2 batters. So it was left up to Ian Miller(3-3) to get the job done with 2 outs. Miller delivered a hard hit ball that scored one run. Then Bryce Reeves hit a shot up the middle to score another and Rudy Johnstone(3-3)hit a shot to left to score Miller and Reeves making the score 4-3 Marlins. Reeves then shut down the Tigers with a 1-2-3 inning in the 4th and Strausbaugh held the Malrins in check in the bottom of 4th. Johnstone came in relief for Reeves who reached his limit and shut down the Tigers in the 5th with 3 strikeouts. The Tigers needing some breathing room scored 5 in the 5th and sent 8 batters to the plate. Charlie Fink got on base 1st with a walk followed by another shot by Miller to center field. Reeves and Johnstone followed with both having dbls. Walker Carroll then walked and scored when Mitchell Bryant hit a hard ball to center scoring 2 more runs. The Marlins took the lead up to 6 runs going into the last chance 6th for the Tigers. Johnstone got the Tigers 3 up 3 down to end the game and help win the Marlins the regular season championship. Classic game that will go down in the books as an all time great in the minors division. Good Luck in the Tourney Tigers and Great Job MARLINS!