Successful second inning

Hughesville 9-10 takes 1-0 lead in championship series

Friday, July 4, 2008

Click here to enlarge this photo Staff photo by GARY SMITH Hughesville’s Ryan McCarthy waits on a pitch from Andrew Dameron. E-Mail This Article | Print This Story

However, in Game 1 of a best-of-three District 7 baseball championship series in the 9- and 10-year-old division at the Southern Maryland Youth Organization complex in Pomfret on Wednesday night, Hughesville No. 1 produced that particular stat line in the bottom half of the second inning alone.

Hughesville, the West bracket winner, went on to a 22-8 victory in four innings over the East bracket winners from St. Mary’s National Little League to take a 1-0 series lead.

After losing the first game of the tournament, Hughesville came out of the loser’s bracket to advance to the championship series and has been on an offensive tear as of late, winning games by scores of 21-0, 19-0 and 14-0, to go along with Wednesday’s 22-run performance.

‘‘It has been like that throughout the tournament,” Hughesville head coach Bryan Towers said. ‘‘That is how it has been for all of our other games as well. ... Their confidence is very high [heading into the title-clinching game]. That is where I have to knock them down a peg and let them know the other team is going to come ready to play, just like we were when we got beat.”

Game 2 of the championship series took place Thursday night, too late for inclusion into this edition.

Leading the way for Hughesville was left fielder Josh Rackey.

Rackey went 3 for 4 at the plate with four RBIs and a double, two of which coming in the second-inning outburst, and his first two in the opening inning of the game.

Three additional RBIs were taken away from Rackey after an inside-the-park home run was nullified after an appeal was upheld after he missed touching first base.

‘‘I just kept my eye on the ball,” Rackey said of his strong hitting performance. ‘‘Coach teaches us to keep our eye on the ball and keep our head on it. ... It would feel awesome [to win a championship].”

Hughesville first baseman Rudy Carrico had three RBIs, two coming in the second.

‘‘I think we did well,” Carrico said. ‘‘I hope we win [the second game of the series].”

On his successful hitting, Carrico added: ‘‘I just did what the coaches teach me. They teach me how to hold the bat and new ways to hit the ball.”

Bryan Towers and Mason Robecht added two RBIs each in the second inning, as Chris Lawrence, Justin Snell, Tyler Murphy and Trey Linassi added a RBI each as Hughesville scored 17 runs in the inning.

Robecht picked up the win for Hughesville from the mound with two innings pitched and allowing two hits and striking out two batters.

After scoring three runs in the top half of the third, and holding Hughesville scoreless in the bottom half, St. Mary’s rallied in the fourth in efforts to avoid the run-rule loss.

Jarrod Rieger and Allan Li drew back-to-back walks to open the inning, and Kyle Mattingly singled in Rieger. A Bryan Allen single loaded the bases with no outs, and back-to-back errors scored two more runs. Andrew Dameron then singled in two runs to make the score 22-8.

‘‘I don’t know how to describe it,” St. Mary’s head coach Thad Hand said. ‘‘The kids have played so well for so long and they just happened to run into a bad day; this was their bad day. ... Late in the game though once they started getting comfortable. What we have to do is carry that over to the next game. They got the win, but we have the momentum. That is what we are hoping for.”

Dameron took the loss for St. Mary’s, pitching 1 1⁄3 innings in the contest.