Amazing A's reborn in 9th

Yeager's 3-run triple in 9th leads A's back from 4-run deficit

The next time Clinton Yeager tells the little leaguers he coaches to never give up he'll have a good story to back it up, one of an 8-run, ninth-inning rally he led with a 3-run triple to give the A's an 11-7 victory over the first place Nationals.

Yeager left his little league season-ending party early so he could arrive at his North Bay A's game late. He arrived to an A's team in disarray. They trailed the Nationals 7-3 after five sloppy innings, making errors, lacking hustle, failing to communicate and 1-for their last 15 after three gift runs in the first.

The A's (7-3) continued to play poorly against the Nationals (8-2) after Yeager arrived in the fifth, but Kevin Metcalfe graciously gave up his spot in the lineup for Yeager to begin the A's return to unselfish, spirited play. Shawn Purcell, who also arrived in the fifth after getting lost, lined into a hard-luck inning-ending double play comebacker, after Yeager (3-for-3) singled to put the tying run at the plate in the sixth. The A's also put two runners on in the 7th and 8th only to see those potential rallies die on the vine at Napa Valley College.

The A's never stopped trying even when they didn't have much hope after a ground out put the A's into a two-out, one-on situation with Billy Dodson at the plate against the REBL's top reliever, hard-throwing Roy Sisk. Dodson (2-for-3) rapped a single to left to drive in Brodie Nissen (2-for-5), who singled and scored in the first.

Steve Nojima, who pitched four gutsy innings on the day after his bachelor party, smacked a grounder to third, but he double clutched and pulled the first baseman off the bag as Nojima hustled in safely. Shane Francisco (2-for-5) followed with a solid RBI single to center and Rene Torres battled for a walk to load the bases.

Yeager stepped up to the plate and for the A's, slapping a triple down the right-field line to clear the bases with Torres, a triathalon avid, making his longest closing kick all the way from first with the go-ahead run after Francisco scored the tying run.

"My pleasure," was all the soft spoken Yeager could muster when A's Manager Ryan Metcalfe thanked him for coming just in time rescue the A's.

"This is the kind of game we won last year and the kind of games we were winning to start the season 2-0 with wins over the Nationals and Astros in our final at-bat," Metcalfe said. "We stumbled for a while mid-season, but I've tried to keep the idea that it doesn't matter what our record is going into the playoffs, but that we go into the playoffs playing well with confidence. This is the kind of win that give us the kind of confidence that we can beat any team at any time."

Although it was hard to celebrate Purcell's tardy arrival, he quietly pitched five no-hit innings with 10 strikeouts, none more loudly than his two glove-popping heaters in the ninth. He picked up the win to move to 4-1 with a league leading 69 strikeouts.

"I think that's the hardest Shawn's pitched all year," Nissen said. "Maybe he was tired of everyone talking about how hard (Sisk) throws."

Nojima also threw hard and mixed in a good curve allowing one earned run through four innings. He kept the A's ahead 3-2 into the fourth with five strikeouts and three hits allowed. Steve Hawrus nailed the first hard-hit ball off Nojima in the fourth to give the Nationals runners on second and third with no outs. Nojima might have got out of jam when he induced a grounder to second, but a big hop ate up Keith Lederer, who tried to atone by starting a 4-6-3 double play against the next batter -- and later an RBI single to drive in Yeager with an insurance run in the ninth. The Nationals followed with four straight soft singles squeaking through or over the A's infield and failure to back up and hit the cutoff man aiding the Nationals in taking a a 7-3 lead with 5 unearned runs, four of which scored with two outs.

"Shane came forward and spoke up when I needed someone to," Metcalfe said. "This team doesn't need rants and insults, but I needed a voice other than mine to let the guys know that doing the little things like baking up a base before the ball is overthrown, hitting the cutoff man. Making the simple plays isn't always the simple thing to do, but when you do this game is simple. I hope this win is the start of something good and having another veteran leader like Shane on board is going to help us."

The A's play a non-division game against the Silversox on Sunday July 29 at 2 p.m. (a Place to Play) then return to division play against the Brewers, Sunday Aug. 5 at 2 p.m. (Arnold Field in Sonoma).

Shawn Purcell reared back to throw some of his best fastballs in 5 no-hit innings.

Clinton Yeager pulled off the trifecta going 3-for-3 with a 3-run triple in the ninth.

Yeager- MVP