After catching a flight to Pittsburgh, driving to Beaver Falls, and then sitting through a day and a half at the Holiday Inn due to inclement weather, we finally took the field today for our first two games in the National Christian High School Athletic Association finals and came away with two dominating victories over teams from Maryland and Virginia.
The first game of the tournament matched us up with Maryland high school power Riverdale Baptist. Coming in to the game Riverdale had won eighteen straight games and saw their record sitting at a sterling 27-10. The Crusaders sent their ace, Matt Selmer, to the mound against us for the opening round game. In 74.2 innings before today, Selmer had posted a 1.03 ERA and notched 78 strikeouts on his way to a 9-2 record. Knowing this, our feisty young Bulldogs girded up their loins for battle and stepped up to the plate with a plan to hit the baseball and hit it hard. Selmer only lasted three innings, as the boys from Baytown knocked the ball all over the yard for 12 hits, including five doubles. When the dust settled, we came out on top with a 16-3 victory over Riverdale in the minimum five innings, due to the mercy rule.
Eight of the nine hitters in our lineup registered at least one hit, while Austin Wilson, Ryan Bertram, and Boogie Russell each had multiple hits. Bertram was the big bat in the game, going three for four with two doubles and three runs scored. Brandon Horne had a perfect game at the plate, driving in three runs with an opposite field smash and walking his other two trips to the batter's box. On the mound, junior Clay Wiseman started and earned the win with three solid innings while allowing two earned runs. Bradley Armstrong slammed the door shut with two dominant innings of shutout relief pitching.
After an extended break between games we returned to the field to take on the Virginia representatives, Shenandoah Valley Christian Academy. The Patriots battled us tough early in the game, but our offensive onslaught continued as we flooded the valley with eighteen hits in the four frames we batted, while also playing the minimum four and a half innings and winning via mercy rule 18-5. As a team, our boys batted 18-29 on the day, with our 3-7 hitters in the lineup combining to finish 12-14 with 2 HR, 4 2B, 15 RBI, and 13 runs scored. Ryan Bertram was once again the big bopper, crushing two long homeruns high over the left field fence as he finished a perfect four for four at the plate with seven runs batted in and three runs scored. Senior Austin Wilson and freshman Tyler Beasley were each three for four, while Brandon Horne collected two hits on the day. Junior Tyler Wilson enjoyed a perfect day at the plate, driving in the first two runs of the game with a double deep down the left field line and walking each of his next three at-bats in route to scoring four runs in the game. Once again, eight of the nine hitters in the lineup tallied at least one hit.
Wesley Winn started on the mound and was relieved by Austin Wilson, who shut down the Patriot rally in route to collecting his team leading seventh victory of the season. Sophomore Grant Harber pitched the fifth and final inning, a perfect effort that required only seven pitches to get the three outs and end the game.
Tomorrow we face Mountain State, a tough team that is ranked #7 among all schools - public and private- in the state of West Virginia. If we win, we play for the national title at 3:30 PM. Two games left to achieve the ultimate goal of being national champions...
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