Bucs One Win From Sectional Title
The Buckhannon-Upshur Buccaneers certainly made a statement to the Elkins Tigers that this was going to be their tournament to win in the Region II, Section 4 winner’s bracket game Tuesday night at Robin Harvey Memorial Field.
The Bucs, who backed into the tournament with a four-game losing streak and were outscored by a 55-18 margin in those four contests, jumped on the Tigers early and often in a 15-4 five-inning rout.
“This was a very important victory for us,” Buckhannon-Upshur head coach Mickey Tenney remarked. “We certainly weren’t playing well coming in here while Elkins was peaking at the right time. But our kids played smart baseball tonight and were able to shake off last week’s performances.”
The victory upped the Bucs’ record to 16-9 and propelled them into the Section 2 title game against Elkins, which was to have been played Thursday night. In other sectional games, Elkins defeated Lewis County by a 13-8 score in the opener on Monday night and then defeated the Minutemen by a 7-2 score in the elimination contest Wednesday night.
If an ‘if’ game will be needed to determine the sectional winner in the double elimination tournament, it will be played today at 4:30 p.m. at Elkins, weather permitting.
The Bucs chased off Elkins starter Ryan Ware in the top of the first before he recorded an out. Brock Hyre, J. R. Tenney and Levi Bender all drew free passes to load the bases for Tanner Collins, who laced a double down the right field line to score Hyre and Tenney.
A walk to Jordan Westfall loaded the bases again and Tyler Davis doubled down the left field line to plate Bender and Collins, giving the Bucs a quick 4-0 lead.
The Bucs kept the bats going against reliever Heath Broughton in the bottom of the second inning. The Bucs sent eight batters to the plate and scored four runs on five hits, with Bender, Collins, Westfall and Davis all knocking in a run to up the B-U advantage to 8-0.
Elkins’ third reliever, Ben Rossi, didn’t fare any better than his teammates in the bottom of the third frame. The Bucs sent all nine batters to the plate and came away with five runs on five hits. Tenney, Collins, Westfall and Davis each knocked in a run for the Bucs, upping their lead to 13-0.
Hyre and Collins each drove in a run for the Bucs in the bottom of the fourth off of Elkins’ fourth pitcher, Andrew Fansler, to treat the Bucs to a 15-0 lead.
B-U starter J. R. Tenney held the Tigers to one hit over four innings, but gave up four meaningless runs to Elkins on four hits in the top of the fifth.
Tenney went the distance to up his record to 7-1, walking just three while fanning four.
“J. R. pitched a great game for us,” coach Tenney remarked. “He kept the ball around the strike zone and let his defense make the plays behind him.”
The Bucs pounded out 15 hits, with Hyre, Westfall and Davis all getting three apiece. Collins drove in a game-high five runs, while Davis knocked in four.
Michael Sfameni, Brett Shreve, Chris Knight, Alex Gaaserud and Lance VanNoy each had a hit for the Tigers.
Tags: bracket game, buccaneers, buckhannon, double elimination tournament, elkins weather, game losing streak, head coach, hyre, minutemen, right time, robin harvey, rout, title gameRelated posts
Posted on May 11th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Total Ware
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