Little League baseball: Elyria opens strong, rips Miami in Big League state tournament opener
Steve Byrne | The Chronicle-Telegram
ELYRIA — Even without the strong hitting and the gifts handed to it, Elyria would have been tough to beat in Friday’s first-round game of the Big League state tournament at George Day Field.
Seth Harshberger was the reason. Harshberger, a senior at Elyria High School, scattered six hits over six innings as Elyria throttled Miami 12-1 in a game halted after six innings by the 10-run rule.
Harshberger walked two and struck out three. He had only one perfect inning, but escaped from two-runners-on jams three times.
“We kept everything down,” Elyria manager Kevin Brubaker said. “Seth’s pitch count was down and he kept the ball down in the strike zone. Not only that but when we had to have the defense step up the guys behind him made the plays.”
Elyria committed just one error and rapped out 12 hits. Harshberger, Jon Koepf and Eddie Cruz each had two hits. Harshberger, Dan Poskocil and Tory Stewart each scored twice.
Elyria will play the winner of today’s game between Tuscarawas County and Maumee on Sunday at 11 a.m. Tuscarawas defeated Englewood, 10-6, in Friday’s other game.
“We had not played since a doubleheader on Sunday,” Brubaker said. “It was good to finally see some some live stuff (pitching).”
How different things were for Miami, which committed eight errors and saw its pitchers throw six wild pitches. Five of those errors and five wild pitches occurred in a nightmarish third inning in which Elyria sent a dozen batters to the plate and scored nine runs.
Cruz, Poskocil and Stewart scored on wild pitches in the third. Joe Fitch crossed the plate via a passed ball. Fitch drove in a run with a double and Koepf and Brenton Brada had RBI singles. Nolan Neuschaefer had a run-scoring sacrifice fly. Elyria needed just four hits to get its runs in the third.
Miami didn’t record an out in the third until the ninth batter came up. Oddly, the inning ended on a double play.
Elyria scored three more in the sixth. Poskocil and Harshberger singled with one out ahead of a wild pitch and Stewart’s two-run double. Tyler Robinson sent Stewart across with a two-out single.
Miami got its only run when losing pitcher Matt Bloomquist drove in Sam Stevenson with a one-out hit in the bottom of the sixth. Bloomquist started the inning with a walk and went to third after J.T. Corcoran doubled to right-center field. Bloomquist singled sharply to second to end the bid for a shutout.
Harshberger struck out Cody Yates and got Jordan Kuhn to ground out to shortstop to end the evening.
Miami will play Englewood today at 3 p.m., following the Tuscarawas-Maumee game.
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Filed by Steve Byrne | The Chronicle-Telegram July 12th, 2008 in Sports. Popularity: 9% |
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