Padres catcher Scott Caldwell has played Mavericks Baseball for 18 years and never won the Rithet Cup playoff championship.
“This is the year,” Caldwell said, his white uniform completely black with dirt, after the Padres downed the Giants 7-2 in Game 1 of the best-of-three final at Lambrick Park on Wednesday night. The second game goes tonight at 6 p.m., and a third game, if necessary, is on Friday at 6 p.m.
Shortstop Chris Hamblin powered the Padres to victory, slamming a two-out, bases-loaded home run in the top of the seventh inning off Giants reliever Mathew Atkinson.
“He just hung a two-and-two curve ball over, the bases were loaded, and I took it out,” said Hamblin, one of the Padres top hitters this season.
Up until Hamblin’s dinger, the game had been a nail-biter. The Padres opened the scoring, getting a couple of hits off towering Giants pitcher Shaun Laing in the second inning. With the bases loaded, and one out, Hamblin brought in Ryan Adkins with a sacrifice fly.
The Padres took a 2-0 lead in the top of the third after Caldwell reached base when Giants right-fielder Greg Dealy lost track of a high fly ball in the sun. Caldwell scored on a nice bunt by second baseman Patrick Nahirney.
Then the Giants countered. Centre-fielder Sean Cowland stole his way to third base, and an RBI by first baseman Tony Dill got the regular-season champions started in the bottom of the third.
“[Tonight], it really came down to two very, very good left-handed pitchers. Graham Campbell threw an absolutely fantastic game,” said Giants coach Gord Paterson, his team down but not out. “We’re confident in our ability to come back and win two games in a row.”
Helped out by a couple of Padres errors in the fourth, the Giants tied things up. An overthrow to first base allowed third baseman Jeremy Campbell to come home on what should have been the third out of the inning.
“It was a tight game,” Hamblin said. “We were just able to break it open in the top of the seventh.”
The Padres looked poised to take control in the sixth, but were denied by the Giants. With the bases loaded and one out, Padres first baseman Dave Auger blasted the ball directly to Giants second baseman Nate Petzold, who then caught the runner leading off first base for a neat double play.
The seventh, however, was another story, as Atkinson took over on the mound for the Giants. Caldwell led off with a walk for the Padres, and third baseman Aaron Banner reached on an overthrow. Nahirney singled, and Caldwell charged home, sliding through the dirt around Giants catcher Jarred Lehive, who’d been pulled off the plate by the throw to home. The Padres continued to load the bases, and Hamblin clinched it with his long ball.
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