9 pm Saturday
The Peninsula Merchants went 3-1 on Saturday and have advanced to the winners bracket final of the 2008 National Softball Association Fastpitch World Series at Rock Hill, S.C. They finished second in their pool going 2-1 in pool play and have won their first two games in the championship (Gold) flight.
On Friday night they defeated GP Gwaltney 11-1 as Paul Hall, Zack Warne and Ken Musselman each drove in a pair of runs. Joe Hineline earned his fifth win of the season throwing a two-hitter. He also had a perfect game at the plate with two walks and a hit by pitch and scored three runs.
On Saturday morning they fell 3-2 to the S.C. Tornados. The Merchants couldnt take advantage of seven walks and a hit batter as they only managed a pair of bases loaded walks to Paul Hall and Russ Rostowski to score runs in the second inning. Zack Warne had the lone hit for the Merchants with a two-out single in the third.
To close out pool play, the Merchants defeated Wheat's Excavating (NY) 3-2. Zack Warne pitched five innings allowing two hits and two runs, before giving way to Dewey Dyke who threw the last two innings and struck out five for the save. The Merchants scored a pair of runs in the sixth off an error and a fielders choice by Ken Musselman.
The win gave the Merchants the #2-seed out of its pool to head into the championship (gold) flight. In its first championship round game, Paul Hall's single in the fifth proved to be the lone run as they defeated the Salem (VA) A's 1-0. Dyke earned his first win for the Merchants throwing seven innings and striking out 13. Warne was 2-for-2 with a double and a triple to account for half of the Merchants four hits.
The team closed out Saturday with an 11-5 victory over Key AC to advance to the winners bracket final, assuring the team no worse than a third-place finish. The victory puts them into a 9 am Sunday morning contest against PA Power who defeated SC Tornados 4-3.
Zack Warne, Richie Pfaff, Ken Musselman and Russ Rostowski each drove in a pair of runs as the Merchants had 13 hits in the contest. Joe Hineline, Warne, Pfaff and Musselman all had two hits each in support of Dewey Dyke who earned his second win of the tournament.
