Charleston hangs tough to down Portageville 7-3, stays in winner's bracket

Saturday, July 12, 2014
Charleston's Austin Aldridge slides safely into third base Friday during the second round of the Senior Babe Ruth Missouri State Tournament at Hillhouse Park in Charleston. (Chris Pobst photo)

sports@standard-democrat.com

CHARLESTON -- Despite staying on Charleston's heels all night long, the Portageville Bulldogs never quite got the big hit needed to up-end the defending state champion Fighting Squirrels.

Working out of jam after jam, Charleston held off the Bulldogs for a 7-3 win the keeps them in the winner's bracket of the Senior Babe Ruth Missouri State Tournament at Hillhouse Park in Charleston.

"We snagged some insurance runs late," Charleston head coach Michael Minner said. "It was a quality win. I thought we pulled the right strings today and things worked out about as good as they could for us.

"We were probably one trick out of the book from losing it. We live to stay in the winner's bracket and that's important."

Portageville's Hunter Cook watches the flight of his ball Friday during the second round of the Senior Babe Ruth Missouri State Tournament at Hillhouse Park in Charleston. (Chris Pobst photo)

The Squirrels entered the bottom of the fifth with a 4-1 lead only to see Derrick Priggel and Jon Kellams rattle off back-to-back hits before scoring to close the Bulldogs back within a run.

After stranding a pair of runners in the sixth, the Squirrels got some much needed relief when a costly Portageville error led to three insurance runs in the seventh.

With two outs, Austin Aldridge extended the inning when a dropped third strike allowed him to sprint safely to first base.

Aldridge eventually came around to score on a double steal and a rundown. Tim Fox and Luke Haines strung together RBI hits to give Charleston a 7-3 advantage.

"It was huge," said Fox of the three-run outburst. "As you can see, anything can happen in the last inning. You get the bases loaded and one hit either way (could change the game)."

Charleston's Blake Wolferding (19) gets a fist bump from Ty Householder (10) after scoring a run Friday during the second round of the Senior Babe Ruth Missouri State Tournament at Hillhouse Park in Charleston. (Chris Pobst photo)

With the help of an error and a couple free passes, the Bulldogs made one last stand in the bottom of the seventh by loading the bases with no outs.

As the tying run stood at the plate, however, relief pitcher Jarrett Sandlin coaxed a strikeout followed by a fly out to center field. Portageville's runner on third base tagged on the fly out, coaxing a throw home.

The throw to catcher Cody Payne was just in time as he applied the tag for a game-ending double play.

"Charleston's tough and has a lot of talent," Portageville head coach Johnny Jackson. "I was proud of my guys. They played well with them."

When the Bulldogs look back at Friday's matchup they'll likely reflect on the number of missed opportunities. Counting their seventh inning attempt to rally, they loaded the bases in three separate innings and only came away with one run.

In all, they stranded nine runners to the Squirrels 13.

Two straight bases-loaded jams in the third and fourth frames was a big part of the reason Charleston starting pitcher Matt Ulrich was pulled after five innings despite only giving up three runs.

Charleston's Jason Mattison dives safely back into third base as Portageville's Hunter Jackson applies a late tag Friday during the second round of the Senior Babe Ruth Missouri State Tournament at Hillhouse Park in Charleston. (Chris Pobst photo)

Sandlin picked up the save by coming into a one run game and hold the Bulldogs scoreless the final two innings.

"Matt was pretty good on the mound," Minner said. "He was running out of gas and had thrown about 88 pitches. He wanted to go out again in the sixth, but I had to make an executive decision."

A big part of the Squirrels early success in taking a 4-1 lead after three innings was playing small ball. They bunted for three base hits in that span, including back-to-back squeezes that plated a run.

"To play on our team you have to bunt," Minner said. "It was the difference in the game today. We had a couple sacrifice bunts that got guys over and in. We had two RBI squeeze bunts on back-to-back pitches and almost had a third one."

Charleston outhit the Bulldogs 15-8 in the contest with Fox and Haines leading the way. Both players had three hits with Haines doubling and driving in a run. Fox drove in and scored a run.

"I felt pretty good," Haines said. "I've been seeing pitches a lot better lately."

Jason Mattison, Payne and Ty Householder had two hits each.

For Portageville, Priggel and Chance Howard contributed two hits each, including a double and run scored by Howard. Jon Kellams had the team's only other extra-base hit, a triple.

With the win Charleston advances to play the winner of Potosi/Boonville on Saturday at 8 p.m. Results of that contest were not available at press time. The Bulldogs fall to the loser's bracket where they'll play the Riverbend Ducks Saturday at 10 a.m.

Charleston 112 000 3 - 7

Portageville 001 020 0 - 3

WP -- Matt Ulrich. LP -- Gavin Williams. SV -- Jarrett Sandlin. Multiple hitters: (C) Tim Fox 3-5, Luke Haines 3-5, Jason Mattison 2-4, Cody Payne 2-3; (P) Derrick Priggel 2-4, Chance Howard 2-3. 2B -- (C) Haines; (P) Howard. 3B -- (P) Jon Kellams.

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