Bridgeport 10-and-11-Year-Old Little League All Stars Capture State Title with 13-3 Win vs. Barboursville
By Connect-Bridgeport Staff on July 24, 2015 via Connect-Bridgeport.com
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In a rematch of the 2014 9-and-10-year-old Little League West Virginia State All Star championships, Thursday, July 23, Bridgeport faced Barboursville Thursday in Huntington in the state title game of the 10-and-11-year-old division this year.
The rematch, held at Ritter Park, turned out positive for the locals as Bridgeport won 13-3 to capture the state championship. Bridgeport will now represent West Virginia in the Tournament of State Champions in Greenville, NC on July 31-August 5.
Entering the championship game, Barboursville offense was averaging nearly 13 runs, while their defense was allowing less than two runs per game. Those numbers didn’t add up in favor of Barboursville Thursday.
Bridgeport got off to a hot start last night by scoring five runs in the first inning. That would be more than enough for left-handed hurler Mitchell Duez who continually kept the Barboursville players off balance.
Fortunately for the Harrison County squad, their bats stayed hot throughout the game and they added to the lead. In fact, in the bottom of the fifth, JT Muller doubled and two batters later Casey Tomasik hit a line drive to the fence to score Muller. This put Bridgeport up by what would prove to be the final score of 13-3.
Muller finished with three hits, two of which were home runs. Tanner Bastin had three hits and Christopher Harbert added two hits in the win. Duez pitched all five innings, striking out four, allowing three runs – one of which was earned.
For this group of boys, it marked back-to-back state championships. According to Paul Paulsen, President of Bridgeport Little League, this is Bridgeport’s third state championship in a row for the 10-11-year olds.
Bridgeport advanced to the title game Wednesday in a thriller against Jefferson County. Bridgeport took a 7-6 win in extra innings to earn the right to play for the state title.
Bridgeport led 4-2 after 3 innings and appeared to be in good shape heading into the third inning. However, Jefferson’s Kamien Gonzalez hit a grand slam in the top of that inning to put his squad up. Even with Tomasik solo home run in the bottom of the third inning left Bridgeport down 6-5 after three.
Fortunately, Cameron Cole scored the tying run in the bottom of the sixth inning to extend the game to extra innings. Neither team scored in the seventh and the score remained 6-6 heading into the eighth.
Bridgeport ended things in that inning. Catcher Randy Keener hit a single to left field and Jake Bush took over the running duties for Keener. Bridgeport then played some small ball as Aidan Paulsen bunted and reached on a fielder’s choice that advancing Bush to second base.
Cole followed with a beautiful bunt down first base, which proved beneficial for Bridgeport and costly for Jefferson. The Jefferson pitcher made an effort to throw Bush out at third, but overthrew on the play allowing Bush to slide in safely with the winning run.
Cole gave up six runs, but struck out nine batters in four innings. Duez went one and a third inning with a pair of strikeouts, while Tomasik went two and two third innings and struck out six.
The team will arrive in Greenville, North Carolina for picnic and opening ceremony on July 31. On August 1, the team will play Georgia at 3:30 p.m.; August 2 versus North Carolina at 3:30 p.m. and August 3 versus South Carolina at 3:30 p.m. The top four teams will play Tuesday, August 4 and championship game on the fifth at 11 a.m. For more information on the Tournament of State Champions, click HERE.
