By CHRIS MALEY
www.cliftonparkworldseries.com
CLIFTON PARK – Tri-Valley, CA played an all-around solid game Sunday at the World Series Field in Clifton Park, beating Jasper, IN 5-0. The win improves Tri-Valley to 2-0 in the American Division, while Jasper falls to 1-1.
Tri-Valley starter starting pitcher Devin Rocha threw six scoreless innings and struck out eight while allowing five hits and four walks.
On the other side, Jasper starter Tyler Dorsam went seven innings of five-run ball. He gave up 10 hits, walked two, and struck out three.
Tri-Valley struck first in the contest with two runs in the first inning. Joe Vranesh reached on an error by the shortstop and Michael Pangelinan knocked in a run with an RBI single.
The Pacific Southwest champion threatened in the second after Rocha singled, stole second, and advanced to third on a wild pitch. Despite having three outs to work with, Tri-Valley was unable to knock Rocha in from third.
Tri-Valley was more fortunate in the fourth when Nick Moroney and Quinn Cambra both produced RBI-singles to allow themselves some breathing room. Vranesh reached on another error shortly after to stretch the margin to 5-0, and Tri-Valley never looked back.
“Obviously the goal is to win your division,” Tri-Valley manager Randy Moore said. “We’re not letting up at all, we haven’t secured anything.
“Devin (Rocha) has a great arm but he hasn’t always been consistent getting out of jams,” Moore said. “Today was a breakthrough”
Rocha got out of two huge jams in the third and fourth innings that proved to be the critical moments.
After walking the bases loaded in the third, he got T.D. Nottingham to pop out with one out and Ben Schuetter to strike out to end the threat.
In the fourth, Jasper started the inning with three straight singles, two of them via infield hits. And just like the previous inning Rocha escaped unharmed. He struck out the next two batters and got shortstop Craig Shepherd to pop-up to hold the score at 5-0.
“I got out of tough situations. I just didn’t think about it,” Rocha said. “I thought about what I should do.”
Quinn Cambra went 2-for-4 with an RBI and a run scored, while Moroney went 1-for-3 with an RBI and run scored as well.
Cal Kruger and Tate Blessinger each went 1-for-2 with a walk for the Ohio Valley Champs. No other Indiana player reached base more than once.
“We’ve got two to go, we knew it was going to be a good team,” Jasper manager Mike Blessinger said. “”We don’t come away being too discouraged…We were just one big bit away. We couldn’t get timely hits.”
After a three-hour rain delay that was called with two outs remaining in the contest, Moroney came back in after starting the seventh and shut the door.
The Pacific Southwest Champs are slated for 5 p.m. Monday against Glen Allen, VV and Jasper will have another early call when they face Atlantic Shore, NJ at 10 a.m.

Here is the link to the contest as it happened via Cover It Live here.

Video from Global Sports and their view from behind the plate. The good news, is that Maurice had a new interface shipped and we do have audio!!