BG East 9-10s surge to championship
Published 10:45 am Tuesday, July 9, 2013
- Joshua Lindsey/Daily News Bowling Green East batter Carson Myers swings through the pitch during the Little League 9 & 10 year-olds Championship Game of the District Tournament, Monday, July 8, 2013 at Jim Roberts Community Park in Franklin, Ky.
FRANKLIN — Bowling Green East scored early, often and with authority Monday night.
The 9- and 10-year-old baseball team walked away with a 12-1 win in four innings over Owensboro Southern in the Little League District 1 championship game at Jim Roberts Community Park.
East tallied 10 hits, led 4-0 after one, 7-0 after two and 12-0 after three for the easy win.
“We had watched Owensboro Southern, and we thought we were pretty much going to see fastballs,” BGE coach Rick Kelley said. “We were able to key off of that and really hit the ball well up and down the lineup.
“That’s the good thing about this lineup is that all the way from one to 13, they can hit the ball. They showed that tonight.”
Braden Wilson started a first-inning surge by getting hit by a pitch, and East was off and running. Carson Kelley tripled into the right-field corner to make it 1-0, Jonah Thurman walked and Gage Turner singled to center to bring in Kelley and make it 2-0.
Carson Myers stepped in and laced a two-run single into right to make it 4-0.
In the second, Wilson walked to lead off the inning, and Thurman walked with one out. Turner then crushed a three-run home run out to center, forcing Southern to make a pitching change.
East put the game away with a five-run third, getting a two-run double by Kelley that scored Dez Wilson and Eli Burwash, as well as a two-run triple from Thurman that brought home Wilson and Kelley.
An RBI groundout from Turner finished BGE’s scoring.
Kelley pitched all four innings for East, allowing three hits. Luke Evans had an RBI single for Owensboro Southern in the bottom of the fourth.
Bowling Green East finished its district tournament run a perfect 6-0, allowing 22 runs in those six games.
“We’ve been hitting the ball well, and pitching has been good,” Kelley said. “We really played like we were capable of playing tonight.”
East will head to Prestonsburg for the Kentucky Little League State Tournament on July 20.
“This district is always very difficult to get out of,” Kelley said. “But that was the goal that we set to begin with, was to win the state championship. I like our chances as good as anybody’s.”
OS 0 0 0 1 – 1 3 0
BGE 4 3 5 x – 12 10 1
WP: Kelley LP: Scales
