Towanda baseball rolls in D4 playoff opener.
By: The Review | Towanda Daily Review | May 20, 2014 | Photo courtesy The Review
2014 NTL and District 4 News
BLOOMSBURG - The Towanda Black Knights scored runs in each of the first five innings on their way to a 10-4 win over Central Columbia in the District 4, Class AA playoffs on Monday.
The ninth-seeded Black Knights scored a run in each of the three innings and then erupted for six runs in the fourth against the eighth-seeded Blue Jays.
In the first inning with one out Jared Lines walked and scored from first on a double off the center field fence by Nick Place.
With one out in the second Richard Benjamin walked and took second on a single by Ethan Barto. Benjamin stole third and scored on a ground ball off the bat of Landon Brown.
Sawyer Strope got a hit to lead off the third, stole second and took third on a wild pitch before scoring on an infield error off the bat of Dylan Bates.
Central got a run of their own in the bottom of the third, before Towanda had their big inning in the fourth.
Benjamin led off the inning with a hit and Barto followed with a hit before Brown got a bunt single to load the bases. Noah Huff drew a bases-loaded walk to score Benjamin and Lines flew out to center field leaving the bases loaded.
Barto scored on a wild pitch and Strope singled home Brown.
A single by Place scored Huff and a double by Bates brought in Strope. Benjamin had his second hit of the inning to drive in Place.
Errors led to a three-run inning for Central in the bottom of the fourth before Towanda added to their lead in the fifth when Brown reached on an error and scored on a Lines RBI.
"I was happy all the way around today," Towanda coach Bill Sexton said. "I thought it was really crucial we came out and scored right off the bat in the first inning then the fact that we kept scoring runs. We scored a run in each of the first five innings and the big one was the six we got in the fourth. We had seven different places in our lineup tonight get hits and five kids that were multiple hitters tonight."
Tristan James went five innings to get the win and improve to 4-3 on the year. He struck out four, walked none and allowed six hits and four runs, just one earned. Bates went two innings, striking out three and allowing two hits and no walks or runs.
"We got another strong outing tonight out of Tristan," Sexton said. "To be honest he should have given up one run tonight. He gave up one run in the third and we gave up three runs in the fourth when he should have been out of it 1-2-3 after giving up a leadoff single. Bates came in and did a solid job pitching the last two innings. Even with the extended fourth inning James only threw 62 pitches, so it was a really strong outing. Another big thing was neither pitcher walked anyone."
Huff scored a run in the game and Lines had a hit, run and RBI.
Strope had three hits and an RBI and Place had two hits, a double, two runs and two RBI.
Bates had a double and two RBI and Benjamin had two hits, 2 runs and a steal.
Barto had two hits in the game and Brown had two hits, two runs and an RBI.
Towanda will be at top-seeded Hughesville at 4:30 p.m. on Friday.
