Bottoms Heating & Air hasn’t been beaten all season in boys 9-10 baseball at Milner Recreation Center.
The tournament championship game was no different Thursday night.
Bottoms Heating brought hot bats to the plate, and its pitching kept the Citizen’s Tri-County Bank offense cold during a 12-5 win on Sam Martin Field. The victory caps an undefeated season and tournament for the team.
Citizen’s Tri-County Bank tried to rally late, but the boys appeared a bit tired after having to win a game earlier in the night to reach the championship. Playing back-to-back games was tough on the players and also diminished available pitchers.
The championship was one-sided early as Bottoms jumped out to a 9-0 lead after the first inning. Braylon Burch batted twice during the first inning and he put the finishing touches on the scoring when he crushed a bases-loaded double that drove in Jaxton Smith, Braven Bottoms and Jacob Graves.
Graves was actually tagged out at the plate by Citizen’s Tri-County bank catcher Halen Myers, but the umpire ruled Graves had his path to home plate obstructed by the third baseman and allowed the run to score.
The 9-0 lead was more than enough for Bottoms pitcher Grayson Todd, who was overpowering on the mound. Todd is considered by many coaches as the best pitcher in the league and he wasn’t about to let off the gas with a tournament championship in sight.
The Bottoms offense was led by leadoff hitter Jacob Graves, who scored 3 runs. Cohen Cantrell scored twice. Braylon Burch reached base in all 3 of his at-bats and scored once.
Scoring one run each for Bottoms were Grayson Todd, Mikhail Wilcher, Nicholas Casteneda, Jaxton Smith and Braven Bottoms.
Citizen’s Tri-County Bank had one run scored by Ethan Miller, Wyatt Elkins, Jackson Johnson, Isaac Boyd and Hutsen Morris.
Citizen’s Tri-County 18
Brent’s Computer 10
Citizen’s Tri-County Bank had to win an early game Thursday night just to reach the tournament championship. Citizen’s used a balanced attack in which nearly every player scored to knock Brent’s Computer out of the tournament.
Citizen’s scored multiple runs in every inning, while Brent’s was held to just one big inning, the third, where it scored seven runs.
Players scoring for Citizen’s Tri-County Bank were Wyatt Elkins 3 runs, Jackson Johnson 3 runs, Gauge Shepard 3 runs, Hutsen Morris 3 runs, Ethan Miller 2 runs, Isaac Boyd 1 run, Halen Myers 1 run, Turner Griffith 1 run, Zeke Laxson 1 run.
Scoring for Brent’s Computer with 2 runs were Walter Boone and Angel Davila. Scoring 1 run each were Parker Jones, Boone Gannon, Caysen Starkey, Kredence Miller, Adair Holquin and Baylor Beard.
