The St. Thomas Tropical Waves 25+ Baseball Team advanced to the championship of the 2009 Men’s Senior Baseball League World Series Friday in Phoenix with a 14-10 victory over the Orange County Stars in the semifinals.

The Waves scored one run in each of the first three innings to take a 3-0 lead. The Stars then scored two runs off Waves starting pitcher and manager Jerald Gooding, making the score 3-2 in the bottom of the fourth inning.

The Waves answered the Stars with five runs in the top of the sixth to take a six-run lead, 8-2. However, the Stars were not to be outdone as they responded with five runs of their own to close the margin to one, 8-7. Gooding was forced to replace himself on the mound with Tony Neizyniecki to finish the inning.

The game remained close as Neizyniecki held the Stars scoreless in the bottom of the seventh inning, after the Stars had done the same to the Waves. Gooding called his own number as he put himself into the game to pinch-hit with two outs and the bases loaded. He delivered a bases-clearing, grand slam home run as the Waves erupted for six runs in the top of the eighth. The Stars scored three runs in the bottom of the inning off Neizyniecki, but the Waves emerged victorious.

Earlier in the day, the Waves defeated the Santa Barbara Titans, 8-6, in the first round of the playoffs. The Titans scored five unearned runs in the first inning off of Gooding, who threw a complete game. The Waves kept the game close, scoring three runs over the next five innings.

The Titans scored one run after the first inning off Gooding. Akeem Francis led off the eighth inning with a double down the leftfield line. He was followed by Kyle LaMotta who hit a double in the right-center field gap to score Francis. Kahlil Henley then reached first on an infield single.

Lloyd Jackson hit a sacrifice fly to center to advance LaMotta to third. Henley then stole second base to put himself in scoring position. Richard Clendinen followed with a two-run triple over the rightfielder’s head to tie the game at six. Neizyniecki drove in the go-ahead run with a fielder’s choice off the second baseman’s glove later in that inning. Steve Parris then hit a sacrifice fly to centerfield to give the Waves another run and the two run lead.

The Waves started the tournament slowly as they lost their first four games of the six-game round-robin format. All of the losses were to eventual playoff teams, the Titans (21-7), the West Coast Big Foot (12-11), the Oregon Outlaws (19-6) and finally the Stars (15-6).

The Waves captured their first victory, 15-8 over the Arizona Pirates. The Waves scored 11 runs in the top of the first inning and 9 runs in the seventh to defeat the Des Moines Bruins, 25-12. The Waves were able to squeeze into the playoffs with the sixth and final seed at the conclusion of round robin play.

2009 is the 11th consecutive year the Waves have entered this tournament and the 17th consecutive year St. Thomas has had a team in the tournament at any age level. The Waves won this tournament in 2003. St. Thomas has three teams in the tournament this year, the Waves, the 65+ Suns who finished their round-robin play with a record of 1-3-1 and the 45+ Hurricanes who begin play on Monday. Collectively, the St. Thomas teams have made seven trips to the finals and won three times. The Waves will go for their second championship and St. Thomas’ fourth at 4 pm eastern/ 1 pm pacific on Saturday.