Gallery by Tina Laney
Tuesday night at Sophia Little League Affinity Park, Shady Spring was in the ideal position to win the Little League District 4 Minor (8-10) All-Star championship.
Rolling through the double-elimination tournament unscathed, Shady Spring needed only one win over Beckley to take home the crown.
Beckley sat two wins away for the title, but was playing its fifth game in as many days following a magical run through the elimination bracket.
Even though the deck appeared stacked in Shady’s favor, the young and scrappy Beckley squad still had some fight left in them.
Beating the odds in game one, Beckley surprised Shady Spring with a 9-7 win before the big bats from Shady seized the moment in game two for as 23-13 win in five innings.
“We have all 10-year old players on the team, except one, and we have been on a run,” Shady Spring head coach John Winkler said. “We have been a good hitting team all the way through the playoffs here. Our bats have been strong, but we came in tonight a little flat.”
While Shady was getting off to a sluggish start, Beckley came out firing scoring six runs in the first two innings.
Shady moved within two runs after three innings of play before Beckley plated three runs in the fourth and held on for the win.
“The pitching speed got us a little bit and our bats weren’t there in the first game, Winkler said. “Beckley is a good team and well coached. They have good kids. We play inter-league with them at their facility. We play against them every night and we know how good they are.”
Coming off of an 18-3 win that sent Beckley to the elimination round, Winkler felt that possibly could have effected his team in game one.
“We beat them the first game (Friday) by a lopsided margin , but we knew they were better than that,” Winkler explained. “I’m not sure, coming off that win, if our boys thought it might be easier than it was, but we looked flat even in warm-ups.”
Jacoby Shea led Beckley with a double and three RBI, while Kasen Spangler and Tyler Shea each had one hit and an RBI. Grayson Avancini added two hits and Grayson Yoke scored three times.
Forced into a one game battle for the District 4 title, Winkler worked to get his players refocused.
“We told them that Beckley came to play tonight and we had to get back to the form like the first couple of games. We stayed back and waited on the pitches and the bats heated up,” Winkler said. “Sometimes a loss is a little good for you, especially going into the state playoffs. It lets them know that they have to come in here and earn it. They were not going to lay down because they were in the championship game for a reason.”
Falling behind 2-0 in the top of the first inning, Shady scored five runs in the bottom of the frame and never looked back.
After going 3-for-3 with three RBI in game one, Grayson Walls was again perfect in three trips in the nightcap, ripping two doubles and driving in five more runs.
Case Meador had two hits, including a double, and also drove in five runs, while Cash Boggs collected three hits and had three RBI.
Jax Turner drove in three runs for Beckley.
Competing with a mixture of nine and 10-year old players, Beckley head coach Josh Bennett had nothing but praise for the effort his team put forth the last five days.
“It blew my mind honestly,” Bennett said. “We had our starting catcher (Reece Bennett) break his hand the second game of the tournament. Then we played Shady Spring the next game and they mercy-ruled us. It would have been easy for them to walk out the next day, fold up and go home. They didn’t.”
“We beat (Bluefield) and a very strong Central Greenbrier team,” Bennett went on to say. “Then we beat the host team, Sophia. We used up all of our pitchers, but these kids were fighters. We win game one tonight, so it’s six games in five days. Even though Shady jumped out on us in game two, the kids never gave up. I wouldn’t be more proud of this team, even if we had won the game. The effort was unreal.”
Both teams now advance to the state tournament which will be played back in Sophia starting July 5.
