Big League State Tournament: Elyria rolls into championship game behind solid defense, efficient offense
Steve Byrne | The Chronicle-Telegram
ELYRIA — Tuscarawas County put 15 runners on base in Sunday’s Big League state tournament game at George Day Field. Elyria put 14 on.
The difference? Eight of Elyria’s runners came home. For Tuscarawas, only one did.
Elyria advanced to today’s championship round of the double-elimination tournament with an 8-1 victory. Elyria will try to wrap up the championship today at noon against the winner of Sunday’s lower-bracket game winner.
“They have to be frustrated,” Elyria coach Kevin Brubaker said. “We played some good defense. We made some errors (four), which will happen, but we got out of our troubles when we made some good plays in the field.”
Like the one Nolan Neuschaefer made in the second inning, which bailed Elyria out of an inning that saw two Tuscarawas batters on base via errors. With runners on first and third, Justin Miller drilled the first pitch from Joe Fitch into left-center. Neuschaefer headed full steam toward the gap, took a flying leap and stabbed the ball in the web of his glove before doing a belly-flop on the grass.
“Yes, I saw (the ball),” Neuschaefer said. “I thought I had a chance to get it. I just made a try at it and I came up with it somehow.”
That catch saved at least one run and quite likely two. Elyria was ahead 2-0 at the time.
Neuschaefer made another heads-up play in the seventh inning. With Tuscarawas in a hit-and-run situation, Jordan Powell slapped a sinking line drive that Neuschaefer caught on the run and immediately fired to Seth Harshberger at first base to double up Evan Long.
Neuschaefer had a good day at the plate as well, scoring two runs and driving in another. Fitch, switched to third base after pitching the first 4 1/3 innings, started a double play in the sixth that got Elyria out of a first-and-second, one-out situation.
“Those were the kinds of plays that made the difference for us,” Brubaker said.
The pitchers also managed to wiggle out of some tight spots. Fitch had runners on second and third with no one out in the first inning before coming up with two strikeouts and a groundout to the mound. He loaded the bases with one out in the fourth before inducing Mike Smith to fly out to shallow left field and Brian Gasser to pop up to second base.
Dan Poskocil came on in relief of Fitch with one out and the bases loaded inn the fifth. Poskocil threw only six pitches and struck out Quin Cummings and Albert Trolio to end the threat.
“We got out of Joey what we needed,” Brubaker said. “We knew Danny was the kind of pitcher who can suck it up in that situation and make the pitches. He can get warm quickly and throw strikes.”
Elyria was able to get its runners home with a minimum number of hits. Elyria loaded the bases with no one out in the first on a walk to Neuschaefer, a bad throw to second on a bunt by Jon Koepf and an infield hit by Eddie Cruz. Fitch got one run home on a sacrifice fly to center and Poskocil grounded out to shortstop to drive in another.
Five runs in the second gave Elyria a 7-0 advantage. Tory Stewart and Brenton Brada got aboard on errors and Gus Long’s sacrifice fly scored pinch runner D.J Halluer. Neuschaefer walked before he and Brada pulled a double steal to put runners on second and third. Koepf’s groundout, a single by Cruz, a double by Fitch and a hit by Poskocil gave Elyria its seven-run lead.
Stewart singled to lead off the Elyria third. Pinch runner Jake Suetta took second on a ground ball to first and scored on Neuschaefer’s two-out single to center.
Tuscarawas’ only run was scored in the third inning when Long’s two-out double brought Gasser home.
Contact Steve Byrne at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.
| |
|
Filed by Steve Byrne | The Chronicle-Telegram July 14th, 2008 in Sports. Popularity: 8% |
 Email this story
 Print this story
Read comments and discuss this story
Report an innappropriate comment
|
In order to comment, you must agree to our user agreement
and discussion guidelines.
You must be registered and logged in to post a comment. If you aren't already registered, click here. If you are registered, click here to log in.
Write a Comment