Dominant opener

Charleston first baseman Jesse Schott stretches for a throw during the Squirrels' opening game of the Senior Babe Ruth State Tournament against the Kirksville Tigers on Thursday. Kirksville's Cody Snelling (13) was out on the play as Charleston won the game, 14-2.
(Photo by Brent Shipman, Staff)

sd_sports@yahoo.com

CHARLESTON -- Opening the Senior Babe Ruth State Tournament in dominant style, the Charleston Fighting Squirrels put up 10 runs in the final two innings in route to a 14-2 win over the Kirksville Tigers.

"At the beginning of the game coach Minner preached a lot about going out and being aggressive early in the count," Charleston's James Naile said. "Luckily their pitcher threw a lot of fast balls and we put the bat on the ball tonight. I'm pretty proud of the way we swung it."

Until the sixth inning, things played out as a much tighter ball game with the Squirrels holding a 4-1 lead after the bottom of the fifth.

Taking the early lead, Charleston would score two runs in the second as a Brandon Peters triple scored James Naile from first, followed by a sacrifice fly to center field by Ethan Browning scoring Peters from third.

After the Squirrels added another run on both the top of the third and fifth to make it 4-0, Kirksville would finally get on the board in the bottom of the fifth with Tyler Clay scoring from second off a throwing error by the third baseman to come back within three.

Unfortunately for the Tigers, going into the sixth, starting pitcher Matt Thomas had already thrown around 100 pitches and the wear and tear was finally getting to him.

Charleston would combine for three hits and two walks while capitalizing on three Kirksville errors to put up seven runs in their biggest frame of the night.

Though the Tigers would add another run in the bottom of the inning to avoid the ten-run mercy rule, the Squirrels would put up three runs more in the seventh to make up the 14-2 final.

"Their kid on the mound (Thomas), he's going to pitch in college next year, he did a tremendous job," Charleston coach Michael Minner said. "He's a nice left handed arm and I told him after the game he can pitch for me any day of the week.

"He's a quality kid and we're fortunate enough to get out of here with a 'W' tonight."

Earning the win for the Squirrels is Sam Johnson, who replaced starter Brandon Peters after Peters threw two hitless innings, but was dealing with shoulder discomfort.

Johnson allowed two runs in five innings of work, allowing five hits and one walk while striking out three.

"I was ready to go," Johnson said. "I felt good and we made the plays defensively. My curve ball was working and so was my off speed."

"I thought Sam did a tremendous job keeping them off-balance," Minner said. "He mixed it up nice, threw curve balls and kept the ball down in the zone all night."

Charleston hitters combined for 11 hits on the contest. Cody Rice, Zach Rowland and Jeff Long led the team collecting two hits each.

With the win Charleston stays in the winner's bracket of the double-elimination tournament, where they will face Booneville today at 7 p.m.

Charleston 021 017 3 - 14

Kirksville 000 011 0 - 2

WP -- Sam Johnson. LP -- Matt Thomas. Multiple hitters -- (C) Cody Rice 2-5, Zach Rowland 2-5, Jeff Long 2-5; (K) Matt Thomas 2-2. 2B -- (C) Rowland, James Naile; (K) Thomas. 3B -- (C) Brandon Peters.