WESTFIELD – Colton Baker and Tanner Koziol tossed a combined shutout, and Sons of Erin cruised into the Dan Welch (City) Cup championship with a 10-0 shutout of McDonalds East Main Street Thursday.
Sons of Erin moves on to face Advance Manufacturing in the finals Friday night at Bullens Field at 6:30. Sons, fighting out of the loser’s bracket will need to win twice to come away with the crown.
Baker opened with three scoreless innings for Sons of Erin. Tanner Kozial followed with four innings of shutout ball.
ITI beats the throw to the third base bag Thursday against Camfour as part of the Babe Ruth Cup series at Bullens Field. (Photo by Chris Putz)
Sons of Erin’s Darrin Roberts delivered a key three-run double in the first inning. Logan Symmon was a sparkplug offensively, providing two hits and a sac-bunt, and defensively, making some nice plays at second base.
Logan Krol also made some key defensive stops for Sons.
ITI CHAMPIONSHIP BOUND
AMANTI CUP
ITI 9, Camfour 2
Another strong pitching performance, and a big first inning sent ITI soaring into the Amanti Cup championship game.
ITI stormed out to a 4-0 lead in the first inning. Troy Hevey had an RBI hit, Joey Dekarski had a sac-fly RBI, and Owen Jurczyk stole home. A run-scoring error accounted for the team’s other run.
Hevey (2Ks) kept Camfour at bay, scattering five hits over five innings on the mound for ITI. Dekarski closed it out, striking out four batters.
Camfour cut its deficit in half before Jurczyk scored again in the fourth inning to give ITI a 5-2 lead. He also made a huge lunging catch in center field to rob Raphael Morganelli of extra bases with a runner in scoring position for the third out of the fifth inning.
ITI blew the game open with four more runs in the fifth. The key hits included a two-run hit from Hevey, and RBIs from Alex LaCourse and Connor Medeiros.
Camfour’s Luis Enchautegui made some nice defensive plays, and Fred Murray was solid on the mound for a good part of five innings.
ITI moves on to Sunday’s final, which will be held at Bullens Field at 4 p.m.
BATTER’S BOX STAYS ALIVE
Batter’s Box 7, Cortina Tile 1
Batter’s Box’s pitchers delivered solid work from the mound (and at the plate), and the rest of the offense provided timely hits.
Brody Zabielski started for Batter’s Box, and had a perfect game going into the fourth inning. Zabielski also went 1-for-2 hitting with a walk.
Batter’s Box’s Dan Provost pitched one shutout inning to close it out. Provost also had a successful day from the other side, going 2-for-3 with a single and double.
Batter’s Box opened with a 2-0, first-inning lead, tacked on two runs in the third, and added insurance runs in each of the fourth and fifth innings.
Cortina Tile scored its lone run in the sixth.
Ethan Mulville (single, walk) and Shea Byrnes (double, run scored) each went 1-for-2 for Cortina Tile.
Batter’s Box advances to take on Berkshire Insurance Group Friday night at Jachym Field at 5:30.
LITTLE LEAGUE SENIORS
DISTRICT 2 TOURNAMENT
Southampton 11, Westfield 2
Tanner Beebe recorded seven strikeouts in four innings, allowing just one unearned run. Beebe also went 1-for-2 at the plate with a walk.
