Bradley Stewart made the boys 13-15 Babe Ruth tournament championship game his own personal showcase.
Stewart struck out 10 batters over seven innings and added four hits to power First National Bank to a tournament title with a 9-2 victory over Sun Drop.
Stewart earned the start in the championship game and showed why he was the right choice.
Using a side-arm delivery and an effective mix of pitches, Stewart silenced the Sun Drop bats from the outset.
Sun Drop didn’t score a run off Stewart until the sixth inning, when First National Bank had already taken a 7-0 lead.
Jake Driver got things started for First National Bank in the first inning. Driver led off the bottom of the first with a single, then came around to score on a double by Stewart to make it 1-0.
Stewart continued to help his cause when his bases-loaded single in the second brought around two more runs, giving First National Bank a 3-0 lead going into the third.
Neither team scored in the next two innings as A.D. Majors retired First National Bank in order. Stewart did the same to Sun Drop, which managed only two hits through five innings.
First National Bank put the game away in the fifth inning. Driver began a four-run rally by drawing a walk, then Stewart put runners on the corners with a single.
Glen Llewellyn, who was named the league’s 15-year-old Most Valuable Player prior to the game, drew a walk to load the bases.
Krojhn Calbert came through in the clutch, drilling a single to bring around Driver and Stewart. Austin Melton followed with a single of his own, which scored Llewellyn from third and Calbert from second.
With a seven-run cushion, Stewart took the mound in the sixth and started working on finishing off Sun Drop.
Stewart struck out the side in order, but one of his strikeouts ended with Jesse Jones standing on first base as strike three got away from Driver behind the plate.
The miscue led to two runs as Daniel McGee followed with a single and Majors cleared the bases with a two-run triple.
Stewart pitched around Matt Savage, the 14-year-old MVP, and forced Ethan Mikkola to ground out to shortstop for the final out of the inning.
Stewart and Llewellyn got the runs back in the bottom of the sixth. Stewart brought around Driver with a single, then Llewellyn scored Dustyn Kilgore with a triple as First National Bank built its lead back to seven going into the seventh inning.
Stewart ended the game emphatically. After Sun Drop got two players on base with one out, Stewart shut the door by striking out the final two batters to get his “K” total to double digits.
Stewart finished with 10 strikeouts as he pitched a complete-game, five-hitter.
Stewart led First National Bank at the plate with four hits and four RBIs. Llewellyn finished with two hits, while Driver, Calbert, Melton, Joey Hitchcock and Chandler Rockwell added one hit each. Logan Martin drew a walk and scored in the second.
After being named the 13-year-old MVP, Majors led Sun Drop with two hits and two RBIs. Majors took the loss, pitching six innings and striking out seven before being relieved by Jones in the sixth.
McGee, Mikkola and Thomas Cantrell had one hit each for Sun Drop.
First National Bank completed the sweep of the titles in the league, following up a 7-2 regular-season championship with an undefeated run through the tournament.