Southeast 8, Walpole American 1: Series finale

It has been a long and wild ride for the Walpole American 12-year-old All-Star baseball team.

 It started in the fields of Walpole for the regular season; moved up Washington Street to Norwood for the District 11 tournament; into Newton for the Section 3 title; out to the Mass Pike to Pittsfield for states; down Route 84 to Bristol, Conn. for the New England Regional; then, finally, all the way down to Williamsport for the Little League World Series.

 But it finally ended here yesterday when Warner Robins (Ga.), the Southeast representative, completed its suspended game with Walpole American with an 8-1 win to bring this magical run to its conclusion.

 Walpole American’s season ends with a 20-3 record and 1-2 mark in Pool A, while Warner Robins (17-1) moves onto the United States semifinal to face Chandler, AZ.

 “It didn’t work out for us today. Georgia played a great game. You can obviously tell the fences are 225 (feet away from home plate),” said Walpole manager Brian Oberacker. “That’s a real shot. We had a couple of guys that put it out there, 210, they got all of it. But you’ve got to tip your cap to the Georgia team, their pitcher, (Dalton) Carriker, pitched one heck of a game and unfortunately we only played with them two out of the six innings.”

 With Tuesday night’s game suspended after a little over one inning with Warner Robins ahead, 2-0, Carriker started yesterday’s game with a strikeout of Walpole American’s Kyle Donnelly to end the top of the second.

 In the bottom half, the Warner Robins bats picked up right where they left off, scoring four runs to take a commanding, 6-0 lead. New pitcher Johnny Adams allowed an infield single to Taylor Lay and Zane Conlon moved special pinch runner Hunter Jackson up to second with a base hit up the middle. Carriker (3-for-3, 3 RBI, 2 runs) then delivered the big blow with a towering home run that cleared the fence in right field to make it 5-0.

 “I really think the way he came out and pitched in the top of the second and hit the big bomb with runners on base was big,” said Warner Robins manager Mickey Lay.

 Micah Wells kept the rally going with another single to center and Kendall Scott was hit by a pitch before he was forced out at second on a groundout. Adams was able to strike out David Umphreyville but Nick Martens followed with a ball that was misplayed that allowed Wells to score to make it 6-0.

 Walpole American’s bats finally awoke in the top of the third inning. P.J. Hayes drilled a double to center field before moving up to third on Tim Sullivan’s fly out to left. After Hayes scored on a wild pitch, Matt Bender shot one over the center fielder’s head for another double, but he was stranded there when Carriker snared a comebacker from Adams to keep it at 6-1.

 With Kyle Donnelly in on the mound, Warner Robins extended its lead with two unearned runs in the bottom of the fourth. Scott reached first on an error before Keaton Allen moved him up to second with a single to right. After Martens grounded out to catcher Adams, Peyton Purvis blooped one into shallow center to allow both runners to score and make it an 8-1 game.

 Meanwhile, Carriker was cruising for Warner Robins, as he allowed just four hits and struck out seven with just one walk.

 “He had a lot of giddy-up on his fastball and he was keeping us off balance with that curve,” said Oberacker. “And I think he must have made two or three plays, hard-hit balls right up the middle. Any other game that’s a single.”

 Adams led off the top of the sixth with a walk in the hopes of starting a miraculous rally. But after Carriker struck out Brendan Donovan, Brian Wolpe grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end the game.

 Oberacker said his team didn’t quite know how to react to the end of their summer.

 “We really didn’t get a chance to process this game right afterwards,” he said. “We just told them not to hang your heads because you made the Little League World Series.”