The Morgan Hill Pony Division
“A” team started off on a strong foot in the Sectional
Tournament at Britton School on Saturday.
The Morgan Hill Pony Division “A” team started off on a strong foot in the Sectional Tournament at Britton School on Saturday.
The team won its first two games and will face San Jose PAL on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.
Morgan Hill 20, SJ Pacific 1
In its first game, Morgan Hill scored 12 runs in the first inning, sending 16 batters to the plate.
It went on to score in every other inning except the fourth. Chris Barber, Cameron Willis, Eddie Gomez and Blaine Sutton combined for a two-hitter. The only San Jose run was unearned.
Chris Carin led the 23-hit parade with four hits. Barber, John Stemel, Joey Stryker and Willis each had three hits. Eric Martin and Anthony Guidry had two hits apiece.
Morgan Hill, Campbell
The “A” team had a little trouble getting started against Campbell “B,” falling behind 3-1 in the first inning. Barber was brought in to relieve and pitched four innings, striking out all 12 batters he faced. Barber had struck out the last 15 batters he faced in the tournament while allowing one walk in six innings.
Morgan Hill chipped away at the off speed pitchers of Campbell and had a 9-3 lead entering the bottom of the seventh. Campbell erupted for four runs in the frame.
Sutton came in in relief with one out and two runners on. He ended the threat by getting the final two outs with the potential tying run at the plate.
The four Morgan Hill pitchers struck out 18 batters. During the game, Stryker added three more hits and Stemel had two. Barber had one hit and two RBIs.
The “A” team also played in the July 4 Santa Clara tournament. The team went 3-1 and came in third place. Its victories were over Los Altos-Mountain View, Burlingame “B,” and Los Gatos.
The only loss was to tournament champion Santa Clara. In its game with Santa Clara, Morgan Hill took an 8-0 lead behind
Barber’s four innings of pitching, but was unable to hold the lead as Santa Clara scored its last three runs on errors.
During the tournament, the top Morgan Hill pitchers were Stemel, Barber, Sutton, Gomez and Kenny Howell.
Barber and Stemel combined for 13 innings, giving up only one earned run and striking out 19 in the team’s two toughest games.
Howell pitched four strong innings in relief to get the win against Burlingame. The team batting average was .344 led by Barber (.667), Stemel (.438), Guidry (.417), Willis (.400) and Martin (.333).
