Nabf regional results, aug 5 2013
 
Good morning baseball fans, it’s a beautiful day in Portland. The Portland rockets, defending champions of the nabf regional tournament, were unable to reclaim the crown this past weekend at derby city in Louisville ky.  Rockets go 2up and 2 down in the 6 team field, but the boys of summer proved to men who battled. Rockets lost the opener 11-10 in 12 innings to the host Louisville stars , defeated the Louisville mustangs on fri 3-0, beat the Cincinnati chiefs 9-7 to advance to semi-finals, then ran out of steam, losing sat nite to the Cincinnati cobalts 15-11.  
33 runs in 4 games, the Cincinnati coach  joe sprigs stated this Portland team was the best hitting team he has seen in 5 yrs. Justin Marrero and zach tanner put on a fireworks show themselves, each belting 3 home runs. Marrero went 8 for 15 scoring 7 runs , 9 rbi to lead the attack. Tanner, mitch waters, chris miller, nick hollowell all had 5 hits. 
True we had to fire our pitching coach, but fri after after a 4 hour late game, it was dan bollenbacher with a complete game shutout  rockets win 3-0. dan beat the mustangs on a 4 hitter, striking out 9 1 walk. He said you asked for it, you got it. Way to deliver big fella.
Sat facing elimination, Michael caley come on down. Michael from markle makes his presence known and knocks off the chiefs 9 7 going all the way scattering 11  hits striking out 11. gutsy performance and nerve racking.  Marrero who also had 5 extra base hits was an rbi machine in backing caley. 123 pitches on one hot day. What an effort.
My appraisal , these rockets who finished the year 33-8 , were the best team in the tournament. But could not get through some tough middle innings- did not help 2 pitchers left Saturday moring for their pro workout with the Washington wild things,  why couldn’t junior santos and Dylan brammer have received that call a couple days later.
By the way, thurs nite Dylan brammer came in  clocked at 91 mph and missed bats. I mean he struck out 6 in a row, and 8 of 10 hitters unbelieveable. He called me on the way home and thanked us for a great seaon with a great team. Dylan did not allow an earned run all year long. 
Rockets finished sat. losing to the cobalts but did not go quietly, tyler Reynolds the starter ran into a tough stretch rockets down 6-2 after 3, then after shorts stints by alex delk, Justin miller we down 13-2 but rockets rally, score ends 15-11 made it interesting. 
Good to see Rodney bollenbacher who made the trip and also Portlands own doug blankenbaker on hand.
 
Thanks to zyler cosby and his family who live in the Louisville area for the banquet.  They put on a feast for our team. 
Also many of the guys made the trip to Louisville slugger, the bat making company.  We were able to go to the back room and pick off the pro bat rack getting finished bats for $30. 
Good luck jackers in ft wayne, they play in the championship in ft wayne vs the cougars, both teams were in Portland at the wbc tournament last weekend. 
Thanks to all who have followed us, neal Spencer a rocket fan along with our friends at theinmans, and all our supporters. All those folks at sesame street, all those golf carters and those businesses who banner up with us.  
Rockets 33-8   certainly one of the best teams ever, right up there with the 96 team ray miller went 43-7 that year, and since it was joe luce’s birthday yesterday we will call that joe and matts team.
This team has a core of players who play for the love of the game and will be back 
Not like the cubs , who say wait, we say we cant wait till next year.
Cant wait
Randy miller pg 14
 
Stat line :  ab   r  h   rbi  xbh   K
Tinsely      17  6  4  1        1     8 
Marrero      15  7  8  9       5     4
Waters        15  4  5  2              4
Tanner        18  4   5  6      4     1
Hollowell   16  2   5  2      3      3
Bowers       10 1    2                  3
Miller          12 2   5 1               2
Hug             13  2  4 2               1
McCowan    14 2   2  1              4
 
Just got a text from Louisville, 
Stars defeat cobalts 9 5 to advance to battle creek
 
Side note:  canton stallions and Portland rockets are teaming up to play ina new york city tournament. Tinsley, tanner, waters, Marrero, bollenbacher have been asked to join.
Check with mitch waters on this one