Capahas stay alive at NBC World Series with win over Wichita Alumni

A day after becoming a victim of the run rule in a 21-run loss to the Liberal Bee Jays, the Capahas were the run-rule enforcer against the Wichita Alumni on Monday.

Adam Connor's fourth hit of the game and fourth RBI enacted the eight-run rule in the eighth inning as the Capahas won 13-5 to eliminate the Alumni from the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kansas.

"I couldn't be prouder of this bunch as I was disappointed last night," Capahas longtime manager Jess Bolen said. "But teams usually do that. Usually when you have a stinker, you come back and play good baseball the next night. They couldn't wait to get back to the ball park, and that's a good sign, too. The day went by slow, and everyone was wanting to get out there, man, because they couldn't wait."

The Capahas banged out 13 hits, including five doubles and a home run.

"I was really impressed with the way we stepped out there and started hitting, my goodness," Bolen said. "We stepped out the first inning and just started hitting bullets."

The Capahas scored two runs in the first inning and added single runs in the second and third innings.

Laban Petzoldt, who went 2 for 5 with four RBIs, drove home the first run, and later scored on a groundout by Drew Morecraft, who also had two hits and two RBIs.

Kyle James led off the second with a 400-foot-plus bomb over the center-field fence.

Connor had the first of his two doubles in the third inning to score Alex Heuring.

Capahas starting pitcher Adam Pennington held the Alumni scoreless over the first three innings.

"I couldn't say enough about Adam Pennington," Bolen said. "He started out just really tough early in the game and established -- pitchers have to establish something -- and he established real early, 'Hey, I'm going to be here all night.'"

Wichita did score two runs in the fourth and one in the fifth to close the gap to 4-3.

However, the Capahas regained their four-run lead with three runs in the sixth. Gilbert had a two-run double in the inning and later scored on a double by Morecraft.

Wichita responded with two runs in the seventh to pull within 7-5, and the Alumni had a chance to pull even with runners at second and third with only one out.

Pennington wiggled out of the jam, inducing a comebacker to the mound for the second out before retiring the final batter on a groundout to first.

"They easily could have tied things up there with a flair single." Bolen said.

It was the final inning for Pennington, who struck out four and walked two over seven innings. He allowed nine hits and five runs -- four earned.

The Capahas then broke the game open with five runs in the bottom of the inning. The big hit in the inning was a bases-loaded double by Petzoldt with nobody out that cleared the bases.

Brady Wright pitched a scoreless eighth inning for the Capahas, setting the stage for Connor's game-ending hit. Connor, who had two walks, reached base in all six of his at-bats.

The Capahas will face the Newton (Kansas) Rebels at 1 p.m. today in another elimination game. Bolen said Heisserer likely would start on the mound.

"If we hit the ball the way we did today, it will give us a chance no matter who we throw out there," Bolen said. "It's probably going to be a bullpen game tomorrow. There's going to be a lot of guys who threw last night that we're going to have to depend on getting some innings out of."

Wichita 000 210 20 -- 5 10 1

Capahas 211 003 51 -- 13 13 2

WP -- Adam Pennington (2-0). LP -- Drew Palmer. 2B -- Seramy (W), Andy LaRoche (W). Battwell (W), Cody Gilbert (C), Adam Connor 2 (C), Laban Petzoldt (C), Drew Morecraft (C) . HR -- Kyle James (C). Multiple hits -- Wichita: Seramy 2-4, LaRoche 2-4, Harberten 2-5, Battwell 2-4; Capahas: Gilbert 2-3, Petzoldt 2-5, Connor 4-4, Morecraft 2-5.