Greenville American Legion Post 140 run rules Richmond Post 315 in five 11-1
GREENVILLE – Greenville American Legion Post 140 Thunder run ruled the visiting Richmond Post 315 Roadrunners 11-1 in five-innings at Sater Heights Park.
“We ran into a lot of really good teams to start the year off,” said Post 140 coach, Chad Henry. “To come out here and face some good velocity on the mound and to come out and be competitive with it – they shut us down in the first inning. We stayed persistent with it, found our pitches, got guys on base and got them around.”
The teams played to a scoreless first-inning with Post 140’s Hunter Gray setting the visitors down in order to open the game.
Greenville exploded for seven runs in the bottom of the second sending 12-batters to the plate. Post 140 took advantage of two Richmond errors and a walk.
Wyatt House led off with a single, stole second and third and raced home on a double to right off the bat of Rob Ellis to give the home team a 1-0 lead.
Back to back Richmond errors scored two Greenville runs, Ricky Heidrich drilled a two-run triple to deep right, Gray lined a RBI double to center and Colton Francis knocked to run scoring single to right to close out Post 140 scoring with Greenville leading 7-0 after two complete.
Post 315 plated its lone run of the night in the top of the third and Post 140 used a Logan Todd RBI single to left to score a single run sending the game to the fourth with Greenville holding an 8-1 advantage.
Gray struck out the side in the top of the fourth with Post 140 coming to the plate to score 3-runs in the bottom of the inning. Xavier Manning reached by way of a hit batsman and back-to-back errors loaded the bases. Heidrich scored on a steal of home and an Aiden Psczulkoski 2-run double to deep center gave Greenville an 11-1 lead that would hold up for the final score with Gray setting Richmond down in order in the top of the fifth.
Greenville accounted for seven steal and played error free ball while the visitors were tagged with 6-errors on the night.
“At this level 90-feet it’s a lot of real estate,” Henry said of team steals. “It’s something we work on, we work a lot on our base running, we picked up a tell on the pitcher early on. We had his timing down, he didn’t really vary it for us so we came out, we were trying to get it from the pitcher. There was nothing against the catcher or his arm but we saw that opportunity and we grabbed it.”
Gray went the distance on the mound to record the win for Post 140 surrendering one earned run on three hits while striking out eight.
“I saw him pitch over the spring,” Henry said of Gray. “He’s only a sophomore, he’s a young kid. I had him start with our 16U. When you have a sophomore you want to make sure they play a lot and at the time it didn’t look like I was going to have a lot of playing time but the way things played out he basically played himself on this team. For his first outing coming out for us … he’s been our everyday shortstop and for him to come out here and throw strikes and mix speeds, that is what you have to do at this level to be successful.”
Heidrich went 1-3 with a triple, 2-RBIs and 2-runs; Psczulkoski was 1-3 with a double and 2-RBIs; Gray went 1-3 with a double, a RBI and 2-runs; Ellis 1-2 with a double, 1-RBI and a run; Francis 1-3 with a walk, 1-RBI and 1-run; House 1-2 with 2-runs; Logan Todd 1-2 with a RBI and a run; Warren Hartzell 1-2 with a walk, Dawson Stephens a walk and a run and Hunter Reagan scored a run.
Greenville travels to Tiffin this weekend for the three day Tiffin Post 169 College Classic Tournament and open with Tiffin, a team sporting three DI college pitchers.
“It’s a really good pool,” said Coach Henry. “We were second up there last year. We’re hoping to go up there and do the same. We’re running into a buzz saw the first one playing against Napoleon but we’re going to go out there, we’re going to give them our best and hope for results like we’ve had the last two or three games.”
“They have three DI arms, we’re hoping maybe we miss them,” Henry said with a chuckle. “They got us good enough the last time that maybe they’ll throw off. When those kids are throwing it up there in the low 90’s, if their locating, it’s very difficult to catch up to.”
“If you get to them about the third or fourth-inning, you’re fighting for every single pitch and that is why 90-feet is so important,” added Henry. “If you get an opportunity you got to do it, you get guys on you have to put pressure on so that is what we build on, we can catch up to it, we can put it on there but they can to.”
001 00X X 1 3 6 Richmond Post 315
071 3XX X 11 8 0 Greenville Post 140
