The Irvine, Calif. D-Backs used a three-run surge in the fifth inning to defeat the Clackamas Cavaliers from Oregon 5-2 Sunday in the 14uAAA championship of the USSSA Spring Training II basebll tournament at Victory Lane Sports Park in Glendale.

Cavaliers starting pitcher Tanner Crooks, nursing a 2-1 lead through four innings, hit a wall in the bottom of the fifth, when the D-Backs rallied.

Justin Norbeck led off the inning with a sharply hit single to centerfield and scored when Scott Majors laid down a sacrifice bunt that was fielded poorly by the Cavaliers. The ball was thrown down the third base line as Norbeck rounded second base, allowing him to score all the way from first.

With Majors in scoring position on the errant throw, Connor Rogers singled him home on a sharp grounder past the shortstop into left. After Crooks was pulled for relief pitcher Aaron Ahlstrom, who recorded two quick outs, Shane Carrier drove the ball deep to center, where it bounced to the wall for an RBI double, scoring Rogers. Ahlstrom struck out John Balliet to end the long inning, but the the D-Backs had a 4-2 lead.

“Once we got down early in the game, I told the team to not panic,” said David Kruse, D-Backs coach. “That’s been our motto all weekend long. In our first game, we were down 9-2 and came back to win, so being down by one run didn’t scare us too much.”

The Cavaliers started out the game with promise. In the first inning, the Cavaliers drew first blood on an RBI double by Brody Haehlen.

The Cavaliers were quick to relinquish its one-run lead in the bottom of the second inning when Crooks threw a wild pitch that rolled all the way to the backstop, allowing D-Backs baserunner Matt Kaplan to score from third base to tie the game 1-1.

Crooks held off the D-Backs for the next two innings despite allowing two walks, two hits and suffering from two team errors during that time. His erratic pitching would not hold up into the fifth inning, but it did allow the Cavaliers to recapture the lead for the final time in the top of the third inning when they conjured up some two-out magic.

Ahlstrom hit a line drive single down the line in right and stole second. With Ahlstrom in scoring position and two outs, Cade Wilkins blistered the ball into right field and picked up the RBI, securing a 2-1 Cavaliers lead.

The D-Backs tacked on an insurance run in the sixth. Levett Parker hit a leadoff triple and scored three batters later on an RBI single by Norbeck.

Parker and Norbeck were the offensive stars of the game for the D-Backs, combining to go 4-for-5 with two RBI.

From there, relief pitcher Kai Abe dazzled the Cavaliers for the rest of the game with an impressive array of breaking pitches to pick up the win. He pitched four innings, recording four strikeouts and walked two.

Abe said that throwing a steady diet of breaking balls is not typical for him.

“I am mostly a fastball pitcher, but [the Cavaliers] were hitting my fastball and I had to adjust,” Abe said. “Once I started throwing breaking pitches, I was successful.”

Abe credited his father for teaching him everything he knows about pitching.

“My father pitched professionally in Japan,” Abe said. “He has had me throwing the ball around since I was five years old. Today, it paid off.”

The D-Backs used two pitchers in the winning effort. Majors started the game and pitched three innings, allowing two runs and three hits. He struck out two and walked three.

D-Backs team trainer and former Chicago White Sox catcher Matt Sharp said that the team was very excited to play in the championship game and it showed on the field.

“This is a fantastic time for baseball,” Sharp said. “We’re in Arizona with Spring Training going on. The kids were stoked to travel out here and took advantage of this opportunity.”

The Cavaliers travel back to Oregon with a loss in their final game of the tournament, but coach Eddie Wilkins said that the trip was a worthwhile experience.

“The team was ready to play and even though we lost, the kids are very proud of themselves,” Wilkins said.

Wilkins said that the team has been practicing since January but adverse weather as well as players being involved in other sports made consistent practices impossible until the final two weeks before the tournament.

“Oregon isn’t known for the best baseball weather, but we battled through it to get to this point,” Wilkins said with a laugh.