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Flyers Battle Maui in Deciding Game 5 Tonight

September 12, 2010 - Golden Baseball League (GBL)
Orange County Flyers News Release


The Orange County Flyers face Na Koa Ikaika Maui in a deciding fifth game in the best-of-five South Division Series tonight at Goodwin Field at 5:05pm. OC knotted up the series, 2-2, and will play the third Game 5 in franchise history.

Today the GBL pitching match up of record-breaking winners comes to fruition as OC's Manny Ayala, who went 14-0 in the regular season, faces Maui's Donald Brandt, now the league record holder for wins in a season with a 15-0 regular season record this season. The starters who combined to go 29-0 in the GBL this season each lost their first playoff game and will face each other head to head for the first time this season. The old GBL record for wins in a season 12, set by Ayala (Mesa, 2005) and Grant Gregg (Chico, 2005). Both Ayala and Brandt, who finished top three in the league in ERA, can earn a decisive leg up against the other in the race for GBL Pitcher of the Year honors.

OC and Maui will play a 12th game over a 13-day span after finishing the regular season with seven games in seven days against each other on Maui. The last time the Flyers were in the playoffs, they faced the Long Beach Armada in 11 games in 13 days between the end of the 2008 regular season and five games in the South Division Series, a series the Flyers won in the deciding fifth game.

Orange County enters the playoffs for the third time in six years, tied for the most playoff appearances in GBL history. Na Koa won the season series, taking 8 of 13 against OC. The Flyers are now 9-9 all-time in postseason play, going 1-3 in the GBL Championship Series against Reno in 2006 and pushing both Long Beach and Calgary to a deciding fifth game en route to the GBL Championship in 2008.

LAST TIME OUT: The Orange County Flyers offense roared to life in the middle innings, and Jake Renshaw kept Maui quiet for a 10-3 win in Game 4, tying the South Division Series at 2-2. The Flyers jumped in front with a four- run fifth inning thanks to a pair of two-run singles by Tyler Keeble and Sergio Pedroza. One inning later, the Flyers chased Maui's ace Wes Etheridge from the game on a Keith Ginter single to lead off the inning. After reliever Kaimi Mead put the next two batters on, Clayton Uyechi gave up a two-run single to pinchi-hitter David Harris. Steve Boggs added an RBI single one batter later, giving OC a 7-2 lead.

Renshaw (1-0) allowed two runs and three hits in six innings of work for the playoff win, outdueling Maui's Game 1 starter Wes Etheridge (1-1), who pitched on short rest in a game Maui didn't have to have but Orange County couldn't afford to lose. Maui took the early lead on a Jermy Acey homerun (2) to lead off the second inning. Until tonight's game, the team that scored first each time in the series held on for the win. A Flyers error netted Maui another run in the top of the seventh, but OC returned fire in the bottom of the inning thanks to two Maui errors by Jermy Acey and a Jimmy Rohan run-scoring single.

Bryan Harris pitched two innings of relief, allowing an unearned run in the seventh before tossing a 1-2-3 eighth inning, and former Major Leaguer Matt Riley struck out the side in the top of the ninth to finish the game. Riley now has six strikeouts against all six batters he has faced this post-season.

LIVING ON THE EDGE: Orange County is 5-1 all-time when facing elimination from the post-season.

YEAR---SERIES--------------------------GAME (SERIES)--------------RESULT

2006---GBL Championship Series------------Game 3 (Reno leading, 2-0)---W, 9-5

2006---GBL Championship Series------------Game 4 (Reno leading, 2-1)---L, 3-5

2008---South Division Championship Series----Game 4 (LB leading, 2-1)-----W, 4-3

2008---South Division Championship Series----Game 5 (Series tied, 2-2)-----W, 12-2

2008---GBL Championship Series------------Game 5 (Series tied, 2-2)-----W, 10-9

2010---South Division Championship Series----Game 4 (Maui leading, 2-1)---W, 10-3

2010---South Division Championship Series----Game 5 (Series tied, 2-2)-----Today, 5:05pm

OUTLAWS OUT OF THE NORTH: The Chico Outlaws completed a three-game sweep of the defending GBL Champion Calgary Vipers to win the North Division. Chico, the North Division first half winner, won a pair of games at the Snake Pit to return to the GBL Championship series for the first time since 2007, the year they claimed the GBL crown. Chico will face the winner of tonight's South Division Series Game 5 between Orange County and Maui in the GBL Championship, opening in Chico on Tuesday, September 14 at Nettleton Stadium.

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