DISTRICT V: Fulton, HYR 11 baseball win District V with dominating win over Jeff/GRC

By MATT CRESS
Matthew.Cress@newsandtribune.com

July 17, 2008 02:15 am

— CHARLESTOWN — Offensively, Trey Fulton has had one of the best performances of the District V tournament so far, crushing six home runs.
But the sweetest thing about Wednesday night was that his big bat wasn’t really necessary.
Fulton’s Highlander Youth Recreation teammates scored early and often, wrapping up an undefeated run through the district with an 11-0 victory over Jeff/GRC in four innings at Charlestown Little League Park.
As District V champions, HYR will have no rest before beginning section tournament play at Jeff/GRC tonight, where they will meet Center Grove at 7.
“We’ve just got a lot of players who are confident and like playing together,” said HYR coach Charles Fulton. “These kids like each other and believe in each other and that means a lot.”
Of course, Trey Fulton was still an important part of the victory. He pitched three dynamite innings, allowing no hits and only one baserunner (a walk to J.C. Kinnaird). Fulton struck out seven, including all three hitters who followed Kinnaird, the lead-off batter in the bottom of the third.
Meanwhile, HYR piled it on at the plate from the very start, when singles from Fulton and Joey Collins set up catcher Brandon Hanna’s two-RBI single. Hanna later scored on a single from Austin Newell for a 3-0 HYR edge after one complete.
The news only got worse for Jeff/GRC, which saw starter Ryan Mueller need 30 pitches just to escape the first inning. He recovered enough to escape the second inning unscathed, but the real damage was yet to come.
“It’s the first year that a lot of these fellas have played in All-Stars,” said Jeff/GRC coach Scott Fertig. “They’re in the postseason for the first time and they are learning from it. This is a very talented bunch. There is just an experience factor that came into play, and now they’ve gained that experience.”
It was a tough lesson, as the first three HYR hitters reached base to kick off the third. Mueller then struck out Gary Posey, but gave up a single to Carson Jenkins, a deep single to Fulton and a three-RBI triple to Spencer Dauphinee that made it 9-0 and put Jeff/GRC in a hole from which few teams could recover.
“We’re going to try and learn from this,” Fertig said. “We’re going to take it and try and come back stronger and make that next step up.”
With the title just three outs away, Joey Collins came on to pitch the fourth inning for HYR. Nolan Fertig finally connected on Jeff/GRC’s only hit — a single to right field — and moved into scoring position on a grounder by Dalton Brown. But Collins forced groundouts from Drew Reich and Casey Gibson to stop Jeff/GRC from scoring and end the game via the 10-run rule.
With a hot-hitting team and a dominant pitcher, the only question now seems to be how far this HYR team can go. Coach Fulton said that there is work to be done, but he feels that his team is in position to advance out of its section and into the state title hunt.
“If we play good baseball, the kind of baseball we can play, I think this team can win state,” Fulton said. “We need to get some hitters going in the middle of our lineup, but we’ve played well here.
“We didn’t necessarily expect this, but we didn’t expect Trey to hit six homers in district, either. It just came together the right way.”

DISTRICT V NOTEBOOK
HYR 13-14 Take tourney title
CHARLESTOWN — On the heels of the championship victory by Highlander Youth Recreation’s 11-year-old baseball squad, the HYR 13-14 boys decided they needed to join in on the fun.
Mission accomplished.
HYR fell into a 4-0 hole after the first inning, but rallied back — thanks to a five-run third — en route to an 8-5 win over Jeff/GRC in the age group’s championship game on Wednesday.
HYR advanced to the state tournament at Southport, where it will be a part of Pool B. The tourney begins on Monday, where HYR will play its first game at 12:30 p.m.
Jeff/GRC, which had already beaten HYR once during pool play, broke out of the gates with a single from Dalton Conway. Tyler White followed by reaching on an error and Conway came home on a single by Michael Romans.
The big knock came off the bat of Ty Arthur, who belted a two-RBI single, and Jeff/GRC finished the flurry on an RBI single from Aaron Wenger.
“We just told them that we’ve scored more runs than that in every game we’ve played,” said HYR coach Tony Missi. “We just fought all the way through.”
The comeback began when Shane Missi’s single plated two runs and put HYR on the board in the second. Jeff/GRC added a run in the bottom of the frame and led 5-2 heading into the third.
That’s when HYR finally got to Jeff/GRC starter Wenger. Kyle Bramble opened the inning by drawing a walk, Evan Manias singled and a balk by Wenger loaded the bases. Two more runs were walked in before Conner Schellenberg’s two-run double pushed HYR in front.
The contest was similar to Monday’s meeting between the teams, when Jeff jumped out to margins of 8-0 and 11-6 before having to turn back HYR rallies in an 11-9 win.
This time it was HYR that had to fend off the rally, and that’s exactly what closer Garrett Shanks did.
Shanks struck out the last two batters he faced, including White, one of Jeff/GRC’s stars. The final out set off a HYR celebration under the lights of Charlestown’s Pat Hoessle Field.

9-10 softball
• Starting pitcher Dayt’n Minton led the way for Jeff/GRC in a 5-2 victory over Charlestown. The win evened Jeff’s record at 1-1 and dropped Charlestown to 1-1 in pool play.
Minton went the distance, surrendering the two runs in the first inning, but shutting Charlestown down the rest of the way. Jeff/GRC managed only two hits, but both belonged to Minton, who doubled and singled while driving in two runs. The other three Jeff/GRC runs were walked in.
• Silver Creek stayed perfect in pool play, moving to 2-0 with a 12-2 victory over Clarksville.
Clarksville dropped to 0-3.
Allison Matty was the offensive star, delivering three runs and two RBIs on a single and a double. Mackenzie Bush, one day removed from pitching a no-hitter and striking out 12 in Silver Creek’s 11-0 win over Jeff/GRC on Tuesday, went 3-for-3 with three RBIs.
Both of Clarksville’s runs were scored on walks.

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