June 15, 2009 — The St. Croix Elmo Plaskett East Little League 11-12 All-Stars beat the St. Thomas Elrod Hendricks East 11-12 All-Stars 10-1 Sunday to win the V.I. Little League 11-12 championship at the D.C. Canegata Ballpark.
The victory earned the St. Croix squad the right to represent the territory later this year in the Caribbean tournament in Curacao. The Crucians, after dropping the opening game of the best-two-of-three series on Friday, first staved off elimination on Saturday with a 6-2 victory before crushing the Thomians on Sunday in the bullet game. Stephen Rodriguez pitched four-and-a-third strong innings before turning things over to Christopher Joseph.
Controversy abounded in the third inning after the umpires disallowed what appeared to be a go-ahead two-run home run off the bat of St. Thomas' Emari Mills, and from that point on it was all St. Croix.
The home team got on the board in the top of the second inning with the game's first run on a wild pitch to take the early lead.
The score would remain unchanged until the top of fourth inning, since the apparent home run was disallowed in the bottom of the third. St. Croix picked up one run in the top of the inning to extend its lead to 2-0 after four innings as St. Thomas came up empty in the bottom of the inning.
St. Croix would then jump out to a 6-0 lead in the top of the fifth on a two-run double by Evanston Matthew, a wild pitch and a passed ball to take command of the game. St. Thomas' brightest moment since the third-inning controversy would come in the bottom of the fifth inning by way of a solo blast over the left-field fence off the bat David Sacana. It would be their only run of the game.
The home team, however, was not done scoring yet, as they really sealed the deal in the top of the sixth and final inning with four more runs for an insurmountable 10-1 lead and the V.I. crown. They scored four runs on a two-run double by Darren Stevens, an RBI double by De'Ondre Simmonds and an RBI single off the bat of Matthew.
Rodriguez got the win on the hill for St. Croix, while Jose Byas got the loss. Top batters for the winners were Matthew, 2 for 4 with three RBIs; Stevens, 3 for 4 with two RBIs; and Armand Berrios, 3 for 3. For St. Thomas, Sacana went 1 for 2 with a home run and one RBI and Mills went 1 for 1.
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