Express, S-T ride offensive prowess
By Ivan Sanders
STAR CORRESPONDENT
isanders@starhq.com
The Expert Express of the American Little League
feasted on the pitching of the KFC team like a preacher on
a bucket of the Colonel's finest finger-licking good chicken.
Riding the heels of a 14-hit performance, the
Express rolled to a 19-8 victory in action at Jim Ensor Field
in AL action on Tuesday night.
Nick 'this home run is for you' Papantoniou smacked
two homers to push his season total to eight in leading the
Express at the plate. Papantoniou finished the night with
a perfect 4-for-4 performance and five RBIs.
Aaron Bradford, Hunter Taylor, Brent Thomas and
Brit Yelton collected two hits each for the winners. Shane
Heaton and Blake Russell contributed with one hit apiece.
KFC finally got things going in the third after
trailing 9-0 entering its portion of the inning. Recording
five runs without the benefit of a hit, KFC found itself trailing
only by four after three complete.
The Express wasted little time in letting its
opponents know that it meant business, coming back with six
more runs in the fourth on three hits to basically put KFC
in the bucket.
Papantoniou, Franky Birchfield and Bradford combined
to limit KFC to only four hits in the contest, with Papantoniou
recording the win off the hill.
Jacques Romain, Chris Triplett, Hedron Hey and
Chase Dye nailed the only base knocks of the contest for KFC.
Alec Whitehead took a tough loss on the mound for the boys
from KFC.
A-1 Auto.....................11
Summers-Taylor..........13
In the nightcap, Summers-Taylor stormed
out to a commanding 12-2 lead before A-1 Auto began revving
their engines to come roaring back in a fiery close to the
night's action.
Lucas Teague tagged an inside-the-park homer
and Dustin Arnett had a perfect 2-for-2 night while Josh Taylor
added a 2-for-3 performance for S-T.
Amanda Wilson provided the highlight of the evening
as the hard-hitting young lady stroked an inside-the-park
home run for three runs batted in for Summers-Taylor. Justin
Hatley provided the other hit for the winners.
Logan Carden paced A-1 Auto with a 2-for-3 outing
with 2 RBIs. Jordan Taylor, Aaron Taylor, Alex Chambers and
Zack Naylor contributed a solo shot for A-1.
Derrick Holder threw two good innings for Summers-Taylor
to pick up the win, with Dakota Waters and Daniel Jenkins
coming in with solid relief work in the latter innings to
hold A-1 in check.
Carden took the loss for A-1, but the young hurler
showed a lot of spunk on the mound and will be a tough pitcher
down the road for Auto.
Summers-Taylor had eight hits on the evening
while A-1 banged out six. A factor in the game could have
been the four errors committed by A-1 while S-T played solid
defense with only one error on the night.
