Zion 11, Chico 10
ST. GEORGE — Robert Muro was the Western Baseball League MVP for one reason — he delivers when his team needs it most.
Muro, the Zion Pioneerzz' diminutive third baseman, shook off a wrist injury and hit two late-inning home runs as Zion defeated the Chico Heat 11-10 to clinch the WBL championship Saturday.
"This means so much to the players," Zion manager Mike Littlewood said. "We've devoted four months of our lives to this. We earned it."
The Pioneerzz won the championship series three games to one and captured the clinching game in dramatic fashion.
Muro, who injured his wrist Friday night and did not start, ripped his second homer with none out and one on in the bottom of the ninth.
The two-run bomb helped Zion overcome a similar two-run blast by Chico's Tim Cooper in the top of the eighth.
Zion started the game with hot bats. Four of the first five hitters got base hits in a three-run first-inning rally.
Kalin Foulds, Brian Grebeck and Joe Trippy all scored in the rally, with Rod McCall delivering the big blow. He knocked a two-run double down the third base line with one out.
Zion brought home two more runs in the bottom of the second with another four hits, including a double by Freddie Diaz.
Chico showed it would be no pushover, notching runs in the first and third innings. The Heat then tied the game 5-5 with three runs of their own in the fourth.
Chico took its first lead of the game on a solo home run by Ray Brown that chased Pioneerzz starter Nate Yeskie.
Zion took the lead in the sixth with a two-run double hammered to the left-center gap by Tim Belk that made it 7-6.
The lead see-sawed in the seventh, with both teams scoring two. Zion's runs came on back-to-back homers by Muro and Diaz.
Zion got in a position to clinch the WBL title by outlasting Chico 14-11 Friday night in a game that featured 11 pitchers and 26 base hits.
That game was in stark contrast to Game 2, a 1-0 pitchers' duel won by Zion and ace Mike Smith. Smith allowed just six hits in that one and was 3-0 with an earned-run average below 2.00 in the playoffs.
Smith, Zion's first-ever signee in 1999, has announced his retirement. The 30-year-old righthander is head softball coach at Biola University, an NAIA school in Southern California.
Smith was named the series MVP.