Desert Oasis rears back, fires
SHELBY, N.C. — A long Monday ended in smiles for the Desert Oasis Aces.
The Nevada state champion got a near no-hitter from starting pitcher Jimmy Gamboa and cruised into the championship game of the American Legion World Series with a 6-1 win over Gonzales (Louisiana) in the semifinals.
Desert Oasis will face Wilmington (Delaware) in the championship game at 4 p.m. Tuesday.
In a sense, Desert Oasis was playing its second game of the day after its pool play finale against Randolph County (North Carolina) didn’t end until early Monday morning. But there was no sense of exhaustion from the Nevadans.
“We were full of energy today,” Gamboa said.
Perhaps none more so than Gamboa, who put on the second stellar starting pitching outing of the semifinals. In Monday night’s first game, Wilmington’s Jack Dubecq took a perfect game into the bottom of the seventh inning before Midland (Michigan) rallied to tie the game and force extra innings.
In the second semifinal, Gamboa didn’t have to worry about a perfect game, with Jack Merrifield reaching on an error in the bottom of the first inning for Gonzales (44-7).
Otherwise, Gamboa was cruising for Las Vegas (50-16).
“My fastball, my offspeed (were working). … My offspeed I was just painting, getting them to whiff,” said Gamboa, who struck out nine.
But Gonzales finally got to him in the bottom of the seventh. Preston Thrash’s two-out single broke up the no-hitter and drove in Blaise Foote, who had drawn a leadoff walk.
“I got a little fatigued. At that point I was just trying to get it over the plate as best as I can,” Gamboa said.
“I wanted (the no-hitter) for him,” Desert Oasis coach Paul Buboltz said. “Obviously he’s a big-time pitcher in a big-time spot, I’m sure he’s thinking about it a little bit out there. It’s tough as a 17-, 18-year-old kid in that kind of spot, but he did a phenomenal job all night.”
It helped that Gamboa’s teammates were hitting the ball.
LEGION
game-day experience, Laimbeer also thanked the media. So like the Posse’s demise, there also was a surreal aspect to the Aces’ finale.
There was a pro football element to it, too.
Davis comes up Aces
The Aces gathered at center court to salute the 5,737 who showed up for a meaningless game and cheered as if it were Game 5 of the WNBA Finals. Sly and the Family Stone’s “Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)” was played over the public address system.
Aces point guard Kelsey Plum fired a T-shirt in the general direction of where a familiar face with an even more familiar dutch boy haircut was standing and cheering.
During the game, Mark Davis had been sitting in the Aces’ version of UNLV’S Gucci Row.
Whereas the Lakers of the Showtime era had Jack Nicholson and Dyan Cannon and the Knicks have Spike Lee, the Aces have the owner of the NFL’S soon-to-be-las Vegas Raiders on their A list of spectators. Only Davis didn’t engage the Atlanta players in verbal sparring the way Lee would with the Pacers’ Reggie Miller back in the day.
“First off, I love women’s basketball,” Davis said of becoming a regular at Aces games. “(The women) are fantastic. I’ve watched them for so many years (but) they’re getting so much better now.
“This team has been really exciting. They got off to a slow start, but they picked it up and ended up giving it a good run.”
Women’s pro basketball games that start at 3 p.m. on Sunday leave plenty of time for the business of pro football. But you usually don’t see Cowboys owner Jerry Jones sitting out in the open and posing for selfies and interacting with fans wearing pro football T-shirts who charge down from the cheap seats during timeouts at Dallas Wings games.
When the Wings honored women’s basketball trailblazer Nancy Lieberman of the old Dallas Diamonds, Jones sent a video greeting. Dallasnews.com filed it under “Other” among the sports stories on its website.
Uniform appeal
“What they’ve done is just fantastic,” Davis said as Aces fans finally started heading for the exits. “We look to them as our sisters in bringing professional sports to the area, and we’re just excited to be a part of it.”
And here you thought it was only about the uniforms.
The Aces’ primary colors of silver and black mirror those of the Raiders. But, as Davis pointed out, the Aces have added gold accents to create their own identity, or perhaps cherry-pick the one their NHL brothers engendered during their wildly successful debut season in Las Vegas.
“They added a little gold that brings the Knights into it,” Davis said. “But it’s still silver, black and gold, so yeah.”
Long after Plum and her teammates had flung commemorative T-shirts into the stands, smiling supporters of women’s professional basketball still were milling about.
The Aces did not make the playoffs, but their inaugural season was a success. There was no need to switch the season finale to Atlanta. Unlike the 55-yard line and Edmonton Eskimos fans and the Imperial Palace, the Aces will be back.
Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow
@ronkantowski on Twitter.