It’s been a wild ride, but the Alameda Anchors, Bay Area Collegiate League (BACL) 2023 champions, made it to the West Coast World Series (WCWS) semifinal with a 7-4 victory over the California Tigers Thursday evening at McBean Stadium in Lincoln, California. The Anchors then faced the West Coast Kings in the semifinal game on Friday at 1 p.m., but unfortunately were shut out 11-0.
The Anchors fought hard to get to the semifinals and the Alameda Post congratulates the team for both their BACL championship season and getting so close to the championship game of the WCWS. And kudos to the Kings, who defeated the AE Express and won the Series championship game Friday at 6 p.m.
Here’s how the Series played out for the Anchors. They started on an unfortunate note , as they lost their first game on Tuesday, August 8, to their BACL rivals, the West Coast Kings. The Anchors scored 7 runs on 8 hits in that game, while the Kings doubled that with 14 runs on 12 hits. However, all was not lost. The Series is a double-elimination tournament, so teams are eliminated after two losses rather than just one. That meant the Anchors still had a shot at the title via the “Loser’s Bracket.” And as an unexpected bonus, the team they would have faced on Wednesday had to forfeit to the Philippines National team, so the Anchors got a bye.
The Philippines lost their first game to the Kings on Wednesday, so the Anchors faced them on Thursday at 11 a.m., and won that game 8-6. The Alameda team was then scheduled to face the California Tigers at 5 p.m. on Thursday, after the Tigers shut out the Lincoln Potters 9-0 in an earlier 2 p.m. game.
The Anchors hoped to defeat the Kings in their semifinal game Friday at 1 p.m. but it didn’t play out that way. It has been a highly competitive series. The schedule has been tough, with little rest between games, and the competition has been even tougher. We’re proud of our hometown team.
