By Andrew Knepper

Long Beach, Calif. -- The sixth and final day of the 2008 Area Code Games started off with the Oakland A's and the Chicago White Sox and after a long week where 17 games have been completed so far, we have arrived to the last innings for these promising young players. Having to travel back East later on Sunday, the A's started the morning game fresh off of a nine inning performance last night in which they downed the Yankees, 7-3.

The morning started off with a perfect inning by Ryan Crowley, who struck out the first batter then induced two groundballs that were cleanly picked by third baseman Justin O'Conner and second baseman Nathan Goro, respectively. On the hill for the Athletics, Ethan Ogburn fanned his first hitter of the day, but one upped the opposing pitcher by fanning the side.

The second inning started with a new pitcher for the White Sox, Jon Reed, and he threw a perfect inning, fanning a batter in the process. Ogburn remained in the game for the A's and struck out his fourth consecutive hitter but then gave up a hit to Ozney Guillen, who advanced to third on an error by the shortstop. Guillen was stranded as Ethan continued to mow down hitters, ending his two innings with all of his outs by strikeout.

The White Sox threw another hurler on the mound to start the third inning and Chad James started his inning of work with a grounder to short, a strikeout and another grounder to third. Ogburn came out for his third inning of work and gave off a leadoff single to Justin O'Connor, but worked himself out of the inning with two fly balls and a punch out on a steal attempt.

With the fourth and fifth innings mirroring each other with zeros on the board, the A's started off the sixth inning with back-to-back singles. White Sox pitcher Archie Bradley struck out Demertius McKelvie and catcher Luke Maile threw out the runner on first to help get Bradley get out of a jam. Drew Cisco same in for the Athletics and struck one out, induced a grounder to second and shortstop Jordan Rorex made another clean pick to end the sixth inning.

To start the final inning, Andrew Heaney came in and threw and efficiently struck out the side. Going into the final half inning with a scoreless game, the White Sox were looking for a break as they only needed a single run to pull out the win, but Drew Cisco retired the side.

In a rare occurrence at the Area Code Games, the game ended in a 0-0 tie and we now move forward to game 19 of the week. Will we get some runs across the plate or have another pitching duel?

New York Yankees 7, Cincinnati Reds 3

The second game pitted the New York Yankees and the Cincinnati Reds in a seven inning game that capped the week for both teams. Starting for the Yankees was Steven Matz and for the Reds, Andrew Walter. Matz started off with a perfect inning while Walter allowed a lead off hit that proceeded to score on a wild pitch later in the inning as the Yankees took a 1-0 lead.

The Red scored just like the Yankees to start the second as Micah Green scored on a Wild pitch. For the Yankees, Nelfi Zapata led off the inning with a single, then stole second to get into scoring position with no outs. Patrick Stover and Mike Trout then walked to load the bases with one out. A mental error by the pitcher allowed a run to score when he had a double play ball but proceeded to underhand one to the first baseman to make the score 2-1 in favor of the Yankees.

In the top of the third inning, the Reds scored on a Tony Piazza single as Seth Mejias-Brean crossed the plate to tie the game 2-2. Trent Stevenson then came in for the Reds and was helped by his defensive unit as they turned a 6-4-3 double play. Stevenson then struck out a Yankees hitter to end the inning.

The Yankees struck once again in the bottom of the fourth inning as Stetson Allie walked and Stover knocked him in on an error by the Reds' right fielder that made the score 3-2. To end the inning Micah Green made a web gem on a hard hit ball to left center that was running away from him. With his 6.6 speed and good knowledge of the corner outfield, Green was able to track it down with a leaping extension.

In the bottom of the sixth inning, Jake Barrett walked the first three batters of the inning and then Cade Kreuter came up and hit a base clearing double to increase the Yankees' lead to 6-2. Cade then advanced to third on a fielder's choice and scored on a wild pitch to make it a five-run lead for the Bombers.

In the top of the seventh inning, the Reds scored a run on a double by Jake Williams off of Marcus Stroman for the final run of the ballgame. Stroman didn't allow any more damage and capped off a strong week of play both on the mound and in the field. He played shortstop the entire week and on the Gun was hitting around 88 MPH.

Texas Rangers 4, Milwaukee Brewers Blue 2

The 2008 Area Code Games came down to this. When the schedule was created a couple of months ago, the conventional thinking was the Rangers and the Brewers Blue would be a great game to cap off the most important week of baseball for the nation's elite prep talent.

The kids from Texas against the kids from California...No one knew that both teams would enter Sunday with a 3-1 record with the winner taking bragging rights for the next year.

The Rangers struck first when they scored three runs in the bottom of the second inning. The inning started with Todd Glaesman got on base via a Brewer error and Chad Kettler reached base on another error. Logan Vick then singled in Glaesman, giving the Rangers a quick 1-0 lead. Cohl Walla grounded to first and his sacrifice brought home Kettler, pushing the Texas lead to 2-0. Vick then came around to score on Cody Robinson's single, extending the lead to 3-0.

Matt Hobgood started on the mound for the Brew Crew and surrendered the three runs in the second inning. The Rangers then struck again in the botom of the third to make it a 4-1 game as the Californians were able to manufacture in the top of the third.

Austin Wilson led things off in the top of the fifth with a single and moved to second when the right fielder Glaesman let the ball past him as the runner moved up to second on the error. Wilson then scored when Spencer Kuehn reached on an errant throw by the Rangers' third baseman. With the Wilson run, the Brewers cut into the Rangers' lead by a run (4-2) but were unable to get anything going offensively over the final two innings.

Rangers' starter Shelby Miller went three innings, surrendering only one run while striking out two. He was then relieved by Chase McDowell who gave up the Brewers' second and final run.

Miller, McDowell and Tyler Duffey all kept the Brewers' bats in check, shutting down a potent offense. Duffey came in and slammed the door shut on the Californians, throwing two scoreless innings to close out the unofficial championship game. The Brewers' Spencer Keuhn had a chance to tie the game with a hit as he came to the plate with runners in scoring position. Keuhn wasn't able to work the count or frazzle the pitcher, as he popped up to the second baseman to end the game.

The Brewers Blue definitely had their chances to win this game, but they left eight men on base. The Rangers standed seven but in the end all that mattered to them was the scoreboard.

With the win, the Texas Rangers ended up a 4-1 record, their only loss coming against the Oakland Athletics on Friday. The Rangers not only took the game, but the title of 2008 Area Code Baseball Games champions.