Pope softball team finishes 2nd at military worlds; MacDill takes title

Published Aug. 22, 2008
By 2nd Lt. Chris Hoyler
43rd Airlift Wing Public Affairs

POPE AIR FORCE BASE, N.C. -- A few of them did a double take when they saw the uniforms. They'd stop, stare a little longer, then ask the question.

"Pope? When are you guys closing?"

"So are you guys one of Fort Bragg's teams?"

"I heard there was an Army National Guard unit taking over Pope soon."

Those were all real comments from a few of the 21 teams opposing the Pope squad at the USSSA Military Softball World Series Aug. 15-17 in Kissimmee, Fla.

By the time the tournament was over, they knew who the squad in the Carolina blue uniforms was.

Day 1: Thursday, Aug. 14
The overcast sky belies the hot and humid air, a normal occurrence for mid-August in central Florida, as the Pope softball team takes the field at the Osceola County Softball Complex at 8 a.m. for their final practice before the tournament opens the next morning.
It's a loose two-plus hours of situational hitting, fielding drills and batting practice, but it's clear by the end of the session that the team is ready to go.

"I'll tell you, after watching the infield and outfield practice here, I'm feeling very good about this team," Joe Renteria, the team's coach, said. "You guys were sharp today; four wins, all we need is four wins."

For a team that has played together just once prior to this event (an early August tournament at Peters Creek, N.C.) and know each other mostly from their battles on the Pope intramural softball fields, four wins is a symbol of respect. The team, which was sponsored by Picerne Military Housing, was seeded high enough by the USSSA to receive a first-round bye, meaning they would only have to win two games on Friday and one on Saturday to punch their ticket to the championship game. Nevertheless, the focus remains on beating the team that is put in front of them.

"It doesn't really matter, we have to play everybody," Adam Jessee, the team's left-centerfielder, said.

That statement proved to be quite prophetic.

Day 2: Friday, Aug. 15
The skies are darker than yesterday as the Pope team arrives at the field shortly after 9:30 a.m. Their game, which starts at 11 a.m., will be against the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base (Ariz.) Mustangs.

Most of the buzz in the first morning of the tournament is about the balls, which have a much softer core than the average softball. That means the ball travels less and teams that play good defense, like Pope, have an advantage because the ball is less apt to fly out of the park. The Mustangs won their first game with just nine runs scored.

Early on, though, it was evident that Pope and the Mustangs would light up the scoreboard. After scoring five runs in the first three innings to jump out to a 5-2 lead, the Mustangs gave up three two-out runs to Pope in the bottom of the third, evening the game at five.

"We started out ugly, but this is a tied game now, let's go," Renteria said as his team exited the dugout for the top of the fourth inning.

It was then the rain started coming down hard, but the game continued. Pitcher Todd Petzel had to tuck a towel inside his uniform to keep the ball dry, but it didn't make much of a difference as the Mustangs scored 13 runs in the next two innings to blow the game open.

Pope made a valiant effort to comeback, capped by Jessee blasting a line-drive triple to right field to cut the Mustangs lead to two, but it wasn't enough and Pope fell by a final of 20-18.

"We have a long road now guys, six games tomorrow if we want a chance to win this on Sunday," Renteria said. "But that's why we're here, and we're going to get our money's worth."

The task on Saturday morning was daunting: Starting at 8 a.m., Pope would have to win six consecutive games in less than 12 hours just to get into the final three teams competing Sunday. Still, the team was positive.

"In softball, all you can ask for is a chance to win at the end," shortstop Jay Cortez said. "At the end, we had two guys on base, and we were in the mix right there."

Day 3: Saturday, Aug.16
The team is up at 6 a.m. and the best way to describe them is loose. Confident they were one or two mistakes away from winning yesterday, they adapt a "one game at a time" mantra and head out to the park for what they hope is an extremely long day.
"It was critical mistakes at the wrong time yesterday," Renteria said. "We exceeded our offensive goals, but defensively we didn't make the plays."

Those defensive struggles would end immediately in the day's first game against Shaw Air Force Base (S.C.).

Petzel held Shaw to just three runs and Cortez teamed with third baseman Jake Rutherford and second baseman Brian Foosee to turn three double plays in a 9-3 victory. Jessee and designated hitter Mike Johnson supplied the offense, each driving in runs on line drive hits.

"We hit worse, but we played much better defense," Cortez said. "A lot of times you just have to win games when you're not at your best."

Petzel added, "It's a different mentality with your back against the wall. We were a little more cocky."

The team had about a one-hour break before their next game, and with dark clouds looming over the field they took on the Fort Detrick (Md.)Knights.

Petzel worked out of trouble in the first inning, allowing the first four batters to reach base but then turning a double play with Cortez and ending the inning with a flyball. Down 2-0, Jessee hit his first of three home runs in the tournament, blasting a drive over the right-centerfield wall to tie the game.

Rutherford added a two-run single up the middle later that inning, and with a two-run lead Petzel took over. He held the Knights to just two more runs over the final six innings to lift up the Pope offense, which also scored just two more runs, including a home run by catcher Jason Bender. The final was 6-4.

"You have to get used to a different strike zone every game," Petzel said after the win.
"The ball was wet yesterday, and it's harder to throw my knuckleball when it is wet.

"It helps when the team is giving 110 percent out there. Jay diving at short, Adam diving in the outfield. (Our opponents) see guys on our team getting dirty, hustling, and it's a mental edge for us."

With no break in between, Pope moved right over to the next field to take on Fort Bliss (Texas) for their third game of the day.

With the score 7-4 Pope after just two innings, this game looked like it was on its way to being another Davis-Monthan contest. As the game wore on, Petzel worked around some rare errors by the Pope defense, holding Fort Bliss to one run from the third to sixth innings and getting the insurance run he needed when left fielder Chris Alexander came up with a two-out RBI single in the top of the seventh inning to put Pope back up by three.

The defense then made the big play it had lacked for the entire contest when Jessee made a full-out diving catch in centerfield to record the second out in the bottom of the seventh inning. Fort Bliss came up with a two-out RBI single after that, but Jessee caught an easy fly ball out to cap the team's third win of the day, 8-6.

"Obviously you're faster coming in on a ball than going back," Jessee said of his diving catch after the game. "As soon as I took that first step, I knew I would have to dive."

With the mid-afternoon sun starting to gain steam and halfway to an amazing feat, Pope was lucky enough to have a 90-minute break before their fourth game of the day against Fort Gordon (Ga.). It was the last break of more than 15 minutes they'd get for the tournament.

After three games with extended offensive droughts, it looked as though Pope was going to regain the offense they had Friday, scoring five runs in the first two innings against Fort Gordon, including another huge home run by Jessee, a three-run shot that put Pope on the board with no outs in the first inning.

In what turned out to be the key play of the game, the top of the third inning ended with Fort Gordon leaving the bases loaded when Foosee dove to his left and got a force out at second base by making a throw from his knees.

That play was key because Fort Gordon chipped away at the lead, cutting it to 8-5 in the bottom of the seventh and final inning. With two runners on and two out, the Fort Gordon third baseman hit a deep fly ball over the head of left fielder Alexander. He stopped at third, though, and with the score 8-7 Petzel got a flyball to Jessee to end it.

"I know you're tired, but you're playing some great games," Renteria said. "We need to get Todd a little more offense."

Jessee added, "It's hard to be patient at the plate when you are struggling, but if you are struggling, don't take it out to the field. Pick one; don't carry it out to the other part of the game."

Patrick Air Force Base (Fla.), was looking on toward the end of the Fort Gordon game, scouting both of their possible opponents for the losers' bracket quarterfinal game. When the game started at just after 5 p.m., it would have been hard to make Pope the favorite to win. Patrick had played just two games on the day, including a 17-8 destruction of the Davis-Monthan team that beat Pope.

What ensued over the next 90 minutes was, by far, the best game of the tournament.
Despite allowing seven runners to reach in the first two innings, Petzel varied his knuckleball to work out of trouble twice, leaving the bases loaded in the first and two runners in scoring position in the second. A sacrifice fly by Edwin "Banzai" Byrnes scored Rutherford to give Pope a 2-1 lead after two innings.

With one out and runners on first and third in the top of the fifth, a ground ball took a last-second hop and bounced over the glove of Rutherford at third. The score was tied at 2 and remained that way into the bottom of the seventh, when Pope had their chance to win the game in their last at-bat.

"All we need is two or three hits," Petzel said in a team huddle before the inning. "Look at the holes and drive the balls there. Finish this."

The inning started well enough, with a double by right-centerfielder Shawn "Pokey" Giselbach and an infield single by first baseman Matt Eckert. With one out, left fielder Greg Taylor hit what looked to be a double-play ground ball, but the second baseman couldn't handle it and got just one out. With two outs and winning run on third, Petzel lined a shot to the left-centerfielder, who broke early on it and made a nice catch to end the inning.

In the top of the ninth, Patrick took the lead on a two-out RBI triple by the left-centerfielder.

The Pope dugout was dejected, for the first time all day showing the wear of 10 hours of softball. They fought back in the bottom of the ninth, putting two runners on with one out. Eckert flied out to centerfield, leaving Pope with just one out to tie it. Byrnes, who had struggled all the day at the plate, took the first pitch he saw and laced a line drive to left field. Rutherford motored home and the dugout was alive again with the game tied at three.

Patrick failed to score in the top of the tenth, and with one out and the bases loaded in the bottom of the tenth, Fooshe drove the first pitch he saw to right field to win the game, scoring right fielder Billy Wester.

"We had the worst game we could have possibly played and we won," Jessee said as the team took it's 10-minute break before their sixth and final game of the day against Robins Air Force Base (Ga.). "Feed off of that."

The heat and the humidity had clearly done its damage, as many of the Pope players were completely drained when the Robins game started. Renteria made a few lineup changes to account for this, and the result was the team's best offensive performance of the day.

One change he didn't, and couldn't, make was with Petzel, who had thrown 35 fantastic innings on the day already. When Jessee, Johnson and Fooshe hit consecutive two out singles to give Pope a 5-2 lead in the top of the third, it seemed as though Petzel would have enough to get Pope through and on to Sunday. But Robins fought back, showing the offense that put up an average of more than 13 runs in their previous three wins. They scored five runs in the bottom of the fourth to take an 8-6 lead and proceeded to keep Pope off the scoreboard in the fifth.

With just six outs left before elimination, the dugout mood was a little different than at the same point in the Patrick game. The team was excited, talking about a comeback, ready to win. Five minutes later, it was clear they would.

The first four batters of the inning buried Robins, starting with a leadoff single by Fooshe. Bender then crushed his second home run of the tournament to centerfield to tie it at eight, and after a single by Giselbach, Eckert stepped up and also launched a home run to centerfield to regain the lead for Pope at 10-8.

Robins was now in a situation where they had six outs until elimination, but Petzel came up with two scoreless innings, capping 12 hours of softball and a six-game run that could only be described with one word - unbelievable.

"This is one of the best performances by a team," Petzel said. "For as long as I have played, I've never seen a team perform as well as we did in the situations we faced today."

The team was exhausted and exuberant when the day was over, but with less than 12 hours to nurse serious fatigue issues, Sunday, which at most would consist of three games, would prove to be the toughest hill to climb.

Day 4: Sunday, Aug.15
The fields at Disney Wide World of Sports Complex has hosted some of the greatest baseball stars of the last 20 years as the spring training home of the Atlanta Braves.
But just hours after winning six consecutive games at the Osceola County Softball Complex, the Pope softball team was not going to intimidated or awestruck when they walked on to the Disney Complex with a chance at the Military Softball World Series Championship.

The odds were, at best, slim. Not only would they have to win their first game, an 8 a.m. start against Fort Meade (Md.), they would then have to comeback and win two games, with no rest, against MacDill Air Force Base (Fla.), a team that had dominated all competition in its first four games, outscoring opponents 79-29.

"A lot of the teams we played (Saturday), scored 17 or 18 runs before playing us, but then they come up against a defense like ours and we shut them down," Giselbach said before the Fort Meade game.

The team took a little extra infield practice before the first game, accounting for the harder ground and more compact dirt that the field consisted of.

"All we have to do is hit hard ground balls all day and they will fly through the holes," Rutherford said. "This will hurt a team that doesn't have the defense we do."

Talk was about jumping out to an early lead, holding on and conserving energy for the championship. The last thing the team needed was an extra-inning game; unfortunately, that's exactly what they got.

Things started out well enough when Jessee hit his third home run of the tournament in the first inning, and Petzel's pitching allowed Pope to take a 5-3 lead into the bottom of the seventh inning.

But Pope's flair for the dramatic kicked in, and Fort Meade tied the game with one out in the bottom of the seventh with back-to-back doubles and a sacrifice fly.

Jessee almost put Pope back up in the top of the eighth with a deep fly ball to left field that died at the warning track. Fort Meade also left two runners on base in the bottom half of the inning, and in the top of the ninth they made the fatal mistake that would send Pope to the title game.

With runners on first and second and one out, Rutherford hit a ground ball to the shortstop. It was a routine play that Pope's shortstop, Cortez, had turned into double plays at least seven or eight teams during the tournament, but the Fort Meade shortstop made a slightly wide throw that bounced off the glove of the second baseman. Fooshe scored, and when Giselbach hit a sacrifice fly to make it 7-5, Petzel had the runs he needed to hold off Fort Meade for one last inning.

Still, even the best teams run into a wall of fatigue. Pope had played more than 60 innings of softball in less than two days; MacDill had played less than 22. The MacDill offense had too much firepower, getting the right hits at the right time, and they finished off Pope's amazing run in the first game of the championship series.

Cortez was named the most outstanding defensive player for the tournament, along with Jessee, Petzel, Rutherford and Johnson making the all-tournament team. When Renteria accepted the second place trophy, it was clear that this team, assembled in less than a month, did more than he could have ever imagined.

"For putting a team together in three weeks and playing one tourney before this one, and just to gel in one weekend like we did was unbelievable," he said. "I can't put it in any word except for that. When you try to put a lot of great ball players together on one team, the most important thing to focus on is cohesion, and that's what happened this weekend. From getting the big hit to making the spectacular defensive play, everything was right and we came out with spectacular results.

"I wish everyone at Pope was there to see what I witnessed."