MACOMB, Ill. - Western Illinois baseball concluded the annual 'Purple & Gold World Series' on Friday evening (October 26). 'Team Purple' won the decisive game three by a score of 5-0 to take home the 'Bovach Trophy' (named after team managers Dan Kovach and Jake Blakey).
"I was never in doubt, even after game one. I had confidence
in my players; coach Russell and myself drafted good players." said 'Team
Purple' coach Dusty Napoleon, "Our players came out ready to play in games two
and three."
"We came out and played hard for three days, but they got hits today and we didn't." said 'Gold Team' coach Shane Davis, "Brian (Loconsole) set the tone, he has good stuff and when he's on he's really hard to hit. You're not going to win many games if you don't have a hit till the last inning. The way we won on Wednesday was by putting pressure on them and we weren't able to get into our game today."
The decisive game was highlighted by the great pitching of Brian Loconsole and Aaron Michel. Loconsole picked up the win after throwing 3 1/3 scoreless innings. Michel came in relief and closed out the game.
"Brian Locosone came ready to throw for us," said Napoleon. "He got after it and really attacked the hitters. Aaron Michel came out of the bullpen and did great. We didn't have to use John White today even though we had him ready if we needed him."
Offensively, 'Team Purple' got the bats rolling late in the game. After a scoreless three-innings, they posted three runs in the fourth inning and two more in the fifth.
"Koshaun Mosley had a base hit in the fourth, then Joey White had a great sac bunt." continued Napoleon, "Steve (Kedroski) then came up and had a two-out, two-run homerun. We got all our runs with two outs. That just shows we have great players and great senior leadership. If you look at who stepped up for us, it was the seniors. Joey White was named the MVP, Brian Loconsole was one of the pitching MVP's, Steve (Kedroski) had a big home run for us and Dan (Dispensa) was great throughout the series."
The 'Purple & Gold World Series' wraps up fall play for the Leathernecks. The team will now be off until mid-February when regular season play begins.
"The fall world series is a reward for putting out a good effort, which the players have all fall for us. We learned a little bit more about our team and they learned a little bit about themselves. Overall it was a great experience." ended Davis.
