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June 6, 2011 FLASH
bryan@prepcasts.com
Four new champions wear home the baseball crowns and medals
for 2011. In a week of booming bats, big innings, home run
records and exciting finishes. Take a look.
CLASS 4
The first semifinal game
was a classic! The Francis Howell Vikings and Vianney Golden
Griffins put on a hitting clinic. If you like hitting, you
would have been in heaven!
There were 27 runs, 34 hits, 7 home runs, 12 doubles.
Howell jumped out to an 8-2 lead after 4 innings. Home runs
by Jake Ivorty (3rd) and Brett Graves (4th)
provided this cushion. Vianney sliced off 1 run in the 5th
to make it 9-4 Howell. A huge 5 run 6th inning for Vianney
that featured the second home run of the day by Ryan Snyder
tied it at 9-9. Now the real fun begins…Vianney scored two
runs in the top of the 7th, Howell answered with
two to tie it as Jake Ivory drove home the 11th
run to tie it up at 11-11. Vianney has a lead off HR in the
8th inning by Zach Knese and they pushed across
another run to grab a 13-11 lead. In the bottom half of the
8th, with two out and a runner on first, Zac
Perkins blasted his first HR of the year over the
center field fence to tie the game at 13-13. At this point,
even with two out, one could feel a huge momentum leap into
the Viking dugout. Sure enough, three batters later Brett
Peel blasted a double to right center sending home Jacob
Rhodes with the winning run. It was a great game! All the
fans, players, coaches (and announcers) were exhausted as
the emotions of the game had drained everyone. Yet, there
were three more
games still on the docket.
The other semifinal game
had the
Liberty
Bluejays jump on the Ozark Tigers immediately! The first
five batters of the 1st inning reached base and
scored as the Bluejays snatched a 5-zip lead. Ozark rallied
in the top of the 4th to cut the lead to 6-3 but
when Liberty answered with four runs in the bottom of the
inning, the outcome seemed decided. The Bluejays scored
three more runs in the 5th to close out a 13-3
victory. Zach
Pirello was 3-4 with 3 runs scored at the top of the order
and home runs from Todd Hinkley and Dylan Stevens provided
the muscle in this one.
The
sizzling bats of the Howell Vikings burned
Liberty
for four runs in the opening inning of the Championship
game.
Liberty
closed the gap to 4-3 in the top of the 3rd
inning as Dylan Stevens poked another blast over the boards.
Howell, sensing the challenge, answered with four runs of
their own and stretched the lead to 8-3. This inning saw
four hits, an error, walk and
HBP.
From then on, the sharp pitching of southpaw Steve Diehl
kept the Bluejays at bay as Howell wins its first state
baseball title since 2003, 9-5. Loaded from top to bottom in
the lineup, the Vikes had the #9 hitter, Jacob Rhodes, go 3
for 4 as he was a key component of each scoring inning.
Congrats to Tony Perkins on a 32-3, state title year!
CLASS 3
The first
semifinal saw the
Westminster
Christian
Academy
Wildcats follow a familiar script. As in the quarterfinals,
the Cats have a HUGE early inning to set the tone. In the
semifinal against Kennett, WCA scored 8 runs in the 2nd
inning as they galloped to a 9-2 lead. Tate Matheny and
Connor Einertson went yard in this inning. Kennett kept
fighting! The
Indians scored in each of the first six innings and actually
closed the gap down to trailing only by a 11-9 score as WCA
came to bat in the 6th. Three walks, two hits and
a sacrifice pushed the WCA lead back to the final score of
15-9 during the home half of the 6th. Jeffrey Dollins (3
run-HR), Thomas Stillman
and Alex Bohnert (2 run HR) all homered for the
Indians in this game that had five home runs.
The other semifinal game was an abbreviated, 6
inning, 15-5 win by the
Savannah
Savages over the
Springfield
Catholic Fighting Irish. It was a 6-5 lead for
Savannah
when they scored 7 runs in the 5th inning to
break this one wide open. Three walks, two
HBP,
and 2 hits equaled 7 runs in this case. The Savages banged
out 14 hits in the nightcap of the semifinal day.
The Championship game of class 3 was an unusual one
for this Championship series. There weren’t any home runs or
any big innings!
Westminster
used more of the small ball tactics and capitalized on some
defensive miscues to grind out a 6-3 championship victory
over
Savannah.
Each team had seven hits but
Savannah
hurt themselves with five errors. For the second consecutive
night, Alec Mitchell starred in his relief appearance for
WCA. He hurled
2.2 innings of hitless baseball to tighten things down for
WCA. On Friday, he had thrown 2 innings of hitless baseball!
What a weekend for him! It was the first trip ever to
the final four for
Savannah
and the first championship for WCA in its 3rd
trip.
Class 2 and 1 -- continue to next page
Continued
