Reds rally for big win in Cooperstown

The Lodi Reds survived their first knockout game on Wednesday at the Cooperstown All Star Village tournament, a 52-team affair in Cooperstown, N.Y.

The Reds finished pool play with a 4-1-1 record for the 11th seed, and fell behind for a short time before rallying to beat Yorkville Fury Black out of Chicago 11-3. The win sent the Reds into the tournament’s Sweet 16.

Pitcher Preston Plath threw a complete six-inning game with 10 strikeouts.

“We pitched the team backwards all night long,” Reds manager Jason Evans said. “We were throwing off speed on fastball counts, fastballs on off speed counts. That was a huge bonus.”

After taking a 2-0 lead early, Yorkville launched a three-run home run to take the lead in the top of the third inning. That lead didn’t last long — Gavin Mora responded for Lodi with a three-run blast of his own, and the Reds were off and running.

Mora finished 2-for-4 with two runs, JoJo Elsbree was 2for-3 with a run, Plath was 2for-4 with a run, Carson Devine was 2-for-3 with two RBIs, Joe Focacci had a double, two RBIs and two runs, Parker Burks had a double, two RBIs and two runs, and Gage Jimenez and Noah Silvia each had singles.

Lodi is back in action today against another California squad — Tabu out of the East Bay. The game is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. Eastern time, but Evans said thunderstorms are expected to hit the area, so he’s not sure if it will happen as scheduled. Wednesday’s game was pushed back into the evening due to weather issues, and even then he said it was a wet, muddy game.