AMERICAN LEGION BASEBALL SOUTHWEST REGIONAL : Newbury Oaks Sweeps to Title

Trent Martin looked skyward as he crossed the plate for the final time on Sunday. It was a look that was equal parts exhaustion and exuberance and it signaled an end to hours of exasperation.

He let out a sigh that could have been felt in Fargo, N.D.

“It was pure relief,” Martin said. “I always wanted to come up with men on base and the game on the line and come through. I think that’s everybody’s dream.”

Martin’s two-run double in the top of the 15th inning capped 24 hours of emotion-packed baseball for Newbury Oaks, which scored a 5-2 victory over Las Vegas in the championship game of the American Legion Southwest Regional at Cashman Field.

Newbury Oaks (36-2) swept a pair of games Sunday and will open play Wednesday morning in the eight-team World Series at Fargo. Newbury Oaks will face the winner of the Midwestern Regional.

After hammering Honolulu, 10-3, in the morning semifinal--which started at 8:15 a.m.--Newbury Oaks played a final that was a roller-coaster ride of epic proportions. And not merely because the game lasted 4 1/2 hours.

Newbury Oaks carried a 2-0 lead into the bottom of the ninth, and starter Tighe Curran was cruising along with a three-hitter. But then Curran surrendered three consecutive singles that, along with a throwing error, allowed Las Vegas (41-11) to send the game into extra innings.

“I never would have forgiven myself if we’d lost,” said Curran, who came out after nine. “I was soooo depressed.”

With two runs in, one out and runners at the corners, Curran picked Chad Stevenson off first and got Trever Condie on a grounder.

With the pressure mounting as the innings rolled on, Newbury Oaks finally broke through in the 15th. Ryan Kritscher opened the inning with a single and was sacrificed to second and balked to third. David Lamb was then intentionally walked and stole second. Martin followed and delivered the clutch blow of the day: a ringing double down the line in left. He scored on a pinch single by Adam West.

It capped a Las Vegas-style day for Martin, who was seven for 11 in the two games. He was 14 for 27 in the tournament and was selected the most valuable player.

“It was tough, my God,” Martin said. “We kept waiting for the big hit.”

Newbury Oaks could have folded its tent at any time in the extra innings. By the time the game ended, the team had played 33 innings in 21 hours.

Right-hander Jeff Naster, battling a sore elbow, gutted it out for five innings of two-hit relief and was the winner. His arm was so tender afterward that he could barely lift it.

“I did it, basically, because I felt I had to,” Naster said. “I wanted to win this game more than anything. We all did.”