Post 59/KFC (54-12) State Champions

Front row from left to right: Christian Muscarello, Michael Shea Muscarello, David Lopez, Ray Finley
Middle row: Coach Alex Gaynes, Cody Johnson, Tom West, Jacob Llamas, Kyle D’Alessio, Eric O’Brien
Back row: Seth Mejias-Brean, Joe Pavlovich, Sterling North, Marcus Aguilar

The Cocio-Estrada Post 59/KFC American Legion 19U (54-12) lost to Las Vegas Sunday night 12-8 in the Region 8 – Western tournament.

Post 59/KFC was the Arizona State Champion and they were two games away from the American Legion World Series which takes place in Fargo, ND August 15-18.

They went up early scoring one off the bat of Seth Mejias-Breen in the 1st inning. Las Vegas scored 3 in the second and 4 in the third to go up 7-1. Chris Muscarello brought in another run in the 5th but Las Vegas got the run back in the bottom of the 6th to make it 8-2.

Muscarello double in a run in the 7th but Las Vegas came right back with 4 runs in the bottom of the inning making it 12-3.

Sterling North doubled, Ray Finley had 2 RBIs and David Lopez had an RBI in a four-run 8th to cut the game back to 12-7 and then Finley added another RBI in the 9th but they ran out of time.

The Tucson team lost to San Bernardino, CA 11-1 on August 6; defeated Albuquerque, NM 5-4 on August 7 and Greeley, CO 10-5 on Saturday to get to the Las Vegas game. Defeating Las Vegas would have forced another game against them Monday night. Fairfield, CA plays Las Vegas for the Region title Monday night. Fairfield needs to defeat Las Vegas twice.

Player stats for the Region can be found here: http://www.baseball.legion.org/2009/r8/html/az.htm

Jamie Dillard (Salpointe – Concordia University OF/1B)
Joey Pavlovich (Salpointe – Cochise College P)
Matt Brown (Salpointe P)
Jacob Llamas (Salpointe CF)
Eric O’Brien (Sabino – Pima OF)
Ray Finley (Sabino C)
Marcus Aguilar (Sabino P)
Will Holbrook (Sabino P)
David Lopez (Sabino 2B)
Nick Casadei (Sabino INF.)
Cameron Blazevich (Cat Foothills OF/C)
Breck Ashdown (Cat Foothills P/INF.)
Christian Muscarello (Cat Foothills SS/2B)
Michael Shea Muscarello (Cat Foothills OF)
Tommy West (Cat Foothills P)
Sterling North (Cat Foothills P/1B)
Kyle D’Alessio (Cienega – Hardin-Simmons P)
Cody Johnson (Cienega – Pima P)
Seth Mejias-Breen (Cienega SS)

Photo courtesy Post 59/KFC – player information from press release