Published: July 03, 2009 01:45 am      

DISTRICT V: 13-14 Highlanders stay unbeaten in pool play with 18-5 win

CLARKSVILLE — Highlander Youth Recreation’s 13-14 baseball team took advantage of Clarksville’s six errors, eight walks and four hit batters to improve to 2-0 in pool play with an 18-5 victory on Thursday.

“We feel real good about being 2-0,” HYR coach Bryan Smith said. “The kids are taking care of business.”

Clarksville led 3-1 following a Dylan May two-RBI double in the bottom of the second inning.

After that, however, it fell apart.

HYR scored three times in the third inning and left the bases loaded, then had a game-changing, eight-run fourth to take a 12-3 lead. In the fourth, HYR brought 13 batters to the plate thanks to two errors, two walks and three hit batters. Zach Nichols had two of HYR’s three hits in the inning and knocked home Ruben Fritzinger with his second double. Nichols went 2-for-3, reached base four times and scored three times. Fritzinger went 2-for-3 with an RBI in the victory.

“After seeing the pitcher the first time around, we started picking the baseball up better and hitting it where they weren’t,” Smith said.

About the error-filled inning, Clarksville coach Don Kidwell said, “It’s frustrating, especially because we practice those things. We need to think ahead and anticipate the plays better. We played tough ball for three innings, then we fell on our faces.”

Smith said the difference in the game was that while his squad took advantage of Clarksville’s mistakes, his team was able to keep its mistakes from turning into big innings.

“We made some mistakes ourselves,” he admitted. “We were able to recover and not let it turn into a freefall.”

HYR opened the scoring with two outs in the second inning. That’s when Mike Springer hit a line drive just out of the reach of Clarksville right fielder Christian Brown. The ball went to the fence and Brown wasn’t able to recover in time to keep Springer from rounding the bases for an inside-the-park home run.

“That was pretty impressive,” Smith said of Springer’s dash.

After Clarksville took the lead in the bottom of the second, Nichols, who had reached on a fielder’s choice, scored on an error to pull HYR within 3-2. Garrett Ruttle and Bryce Smith each followed with RBI singles and HYR took the lead for good, 4-3.

Ruttle finished 3-for-5, scored three times and had knocked home two runs.

“He’s really locked in right now,” Smith said of Ruttle. “We’re getting a lot of production from him, that’s for sure.”

After HYR’s eight-run fourth, Clarksville scored twice in its half of the inning, thanks to back-to-back singles for Brown and Scott Adams. Brown’s single scored May, who had walked and stolen second. May reached in all three of his trips to the plate and scored twice. Adams reached three times and stole three bases.

After both teams went scoreless in the fifth, HYR left no doubt and forced the 10-run rule with six more runs in the sixth. Singles by Lucas Corley, Fritzinger and Ruttle were followed by a two-RBI single by Kyle Neafus. He later scored on another Clarksville error.

Three HYR pitchers — Cody Huls, Ruttle and Aaron Acton — limited Clarksville to just four hits.

“Coming into the tournament, we thought pitching might be our weakness,” Smith said. “But we’ve gotten good performances the last two nights.”

Clarksville fell to 0-2, but Kidwell isn’t counting his team out of the tournament.

“We still have three games left,” Kidwell said. “We need to finish on a strong note.”



11-12 SOFTBALL

• Creek thumps Clarksville: Silver Creek jumped out to a 6-0 lead after the first inning and never looked back in a 20-0 win over Clarksville.

Allison Matty and Kelsey Roark each reached base five times and scored four times apiece. Matty had three hits, including a double. McKenzie Bush pitched a one-hitter — striking out five — and had also had a double for the victors.

Brooke Lucas had the lone hit for Clarksville. She has both of Clarksville’s hits in the tournament.



11-12 BASEBALL

• Creek holds off C-ville: Silver Creek jumped out to an 8-0 lead after two innings, then held on for an 11-6 victory over Clarksville.

Cameron Cook had a double in both the first and second innings, scoring both times and knocking in two runs. He also had a single in the fifth inning. Jacob Steele had a triple and a single, scored twice and knocked home two runs, and Tyler Simms went 3-for-4 with a double for Silver Creek. He also scored three times and had two RBIs.

Clarksville cut the lead to 9-5 in the fourth on back-to-back home runs by Cody Razer and Morgan Tackett. Tackett also had an RBI single in the sixth inning.



13-14 BASEBALL

HYR 013 806—18 11 0

CLARKSVILLE 030 200— 5 4 6

W — Huls. L — Hayes. 2B — Neafus (H), May (C). HR — Springer (H).

Records — HYR 2-0, Clarksville 0-2.



11-12 SOFTBALL

SILVER CREEK 634 7—20 13 0

CLARKSVILLE 000 0— 0 1 7

W — Bush. L — Morlen. 2B — Knight (S), Matty (S), Bush (S).

Records — Silver Creek 1-1, Clarksville 0-2.



11-12 BASEBALL

CLARKSVILLE 000 051— 6 5 2

SILVER CREEK 531 02x—11 8 1

W — Smith. L — Razer. 2B — Quinkert (S), Cook (S) 2, Simms (S), Smith (S). 3B — Steele (S). HR — Razer (C), Tackett (C).

Records — Clarksville 0-2, Silver Creek 1-1.



THURSDAY’S STARS

• Garrett Ruttle, HYR 13-14 baseball: Ruttle went 3-for-5, scored three times and had two RBIs in HYR’s 18-5 win over Clarksville. He also had two strikeouts in one inning on the mound.

• Dylan May, Clarksville 13-14 baseball: In Clarksville’s 18-5 loss to HYR, May had a two-run scoring double in the second inning to give Clarksville a 3-1 lead.

• Allison Matty, Silver Creek 11-12 softball: Matty reached base all five times she came to the plate, including a double and two singles. She also scored four times in Silver Creek’s 20-0 win over Clarksville.

• McKenzie Bush, Silver Creek 11-12 softball: In Silver Creek’s 20-0 win over Clarksville, Bush allowed just one hit and also hit a double.

• Brooke Lucas, Clarksville 11-12 softball: Lucas had her team’s only hit — a single — in Clarksville’s 20-0 loss to Silver Creek. It was her second hit of the tournament.

• Cameron Cook, Silver Creek 11-12 baseball: Cook went 3-for-4 with two doubles, two RBIs and two runs scored in Silver Creek’s 11-6 victory over Clarksville.

• Tyler Simms, Silver Creek 11-12 baseball: In Silver Creek’s 11-6 win over Clarksville, Simms went 3-for-4 with a double, three runs scored and two RBIs.