Babe Ruth enters postseason

By Ivan Sanders
STAR CORRESPONDENT
isanders@starhq.com

   With the regular season complete, the Carter County/Elizabethton Babe Ruth League has turned its attention to postseason tournament play, which kicked off on Friday night at Elizabethton High School.
   In opening-round action, the second-place Tetrick's Yankees came out sluggish before responding late to put away from the Lewis Racing Dodgers by the score of 13-4 in game one of the double-elimination tournament.
   The game was a 6-4 stalemate until the bottom of the fifth, when the Yankees responded with five runs to seal the win over a much-improved Dodger squad.
   Dusty Morton pitched five innings for the victory while Bud Hicks and Tony Sullivan had a strong outing for the Dodgers, with Hicks absorbing the loss.
   Cane Cannon, Justin Conner, Morton and Lynn Potter contributed with two hits offensively for the Yankees. Michael Shields and Jake Berkley chipped in with one hit each to the winning effort.
   Myles Young, Brett Honeycutt and Hicks picked up one hit for the Dodgers, who scored all their runs in a first inning uprising. The Dodgers committed three errors for the game to two errors for the Yankees.
   Citizens Bank Cardinals 5
   Elks Braves 1
   In Friday's second game, the Cardinals of Citizens Bank plated five runs in the second inning and allowed the Braves only one run in the fourth to advance in the winners bracket.
   Cody Eggers notched the win off the mound for the Cardinals, with Andrew Kennedy of the Braves being tagged with the loss.
   Getting only four hits, the Cardinals used them to the max along with solid base running to take the victory. Kevin Covarrubias, Matt Rasnick, Kurt Kemp and Jared Oliver picked up the four base knocks for the Cardinals.
   The Braves sputtered at the plate as well, collecting only three hits. Ryan Kennedy, Derek Slagle and Austin Guinn garnered the hits on the night for the Elks. Citizens Bank advanced to Saturday's action against the Yankees while the Braves take on the Dodgers in an elimination game.
   Moose Orioles 1
   PIC Indians 5
   In Saturday's opening game, the Moose Orioles ran into a buzzsaw in the form of Shannon Buchannon, whose blazing fastball kept the Orioles off-stride the whole contest, allowing four hits and striking out nine to help his team advance to meet the No. 1 seed Papa Johns D-Backs.
   Buchannon received plenty of offensive output from his team as Randy Swearingen and Jerry Little banged out two hits on the day in three appearances while Scott Burleson, Robert Davenport and Jordan Honeycutt contributed one hit each.
   Errors proved costly to the Moose as the Orioles made five miscues on the day in opening the door for the Indians. The Orioles also struggled with the bats picking up only four hits.
   Tim Franklin, Nathan Lescarbeau, John Morrow and Josh Cole claimed the only Moose hits for the contest. Eric Cole absorbed the pitching loss. The Orioles stay alive as they now drop to the losers bracket.
   Lewis Racing Dodgers 9
   Elks Braves 16
   The Dodgers became the first casualty of the tournament as they were eliminated at the hands of the Elks Braves, but not before the Dodgers made one last valiant rally to close the gap in their final at-bat.
   Trailing 16-5 entering the final stanza, the Dodgers managed to push one run across before putting two more runners on when Tony Sullivan delivered a crushing inside the park home run to cut the gap to the final total with three RBIs.
   Michael Mann picked up the win for the Braves, going the complete distance on the mound while Myles Young suffered the loss.
   Ryan Kennedy had a perfect plate performance, going 2-for-2 on the afternoon while Coty Mann, Andrew Kennedy, Mann and Derrick Taylor added one base knock apiece for the Braves.
   Sullivan had a 2-for-3 day, including the dinger, and Justin Covington notched the only other Dodger hit. The Dodgers didn't help themselves committing six errors in the field.
   Lewis Racing will now bag up their equipment for another season while the Braves stay alive for another day carrying one loss already.
   Citizens Bank Cardinals 4
   Tetrick's Yankees 5
   In the most entertaining game of the tournament thus far, the Yankees managed to score two late runs to break a 3-3 tie and hold off a last-inning run by the Cardinals to stay alive in the winner's bracket by the score of 5-4.
   Jordy Harrison came in to relieve Jake Berkley in the third inning and hurled the last five innings for the victory. Cody Eggers was pinned with the loss in a relief performance for the Cardinals.
   The Yankees received a fraction more offense than the Cardinals as Tetrick's banged out six hits and the Cardinals collected four. Setting the pace for the Yankees were Michael Shields and Berkley with perfect 2-for-2 performances at the dish.
   Adam Townsend and Cane Cannon pitched in with one hit apiece. For the Cardinals, Kevin Covarrubias, Eggers, Jared Oliver and Matt Rasnick all picked up one hit each.
   The Yankees committed three errors on the day as they played just well enough to win while the Cardinals played flawless in the field in the losing effort.
   PIC Indians 2
   Papa Johns D-Backs 4
   Many of the old-time wrestling fans remember the "Nature Boy" Rick Flair, who had a popular saying that "To be the man, you have to beat the man," and on Saturday night the D-Backs became the men as they beat the man, Randy Swearingen, the Indians' flame thrower who pitched a no-hitter in high school district action this season.
   The game was as thrilling as the preceding game between the Cardinals and Yankees. PIC actually had a chance to break the game open, but a careless baserunning mistake proved costly with the bases loaded and left the Indians sending smoke signals for help.
   Jonathan Crowley threw four strong innings, collecting 8 Ks to record the win. Nick McNeal came in with some nasty stuff in recording a save to close out the contest for the D-Backs.
   Swearingen collected 13 Ks on the night, but the D-Backs made ample use of their five hits and capitalized on four Indian miscues to take the win.
   Offensively, Ricky Garrison went 2-for-3 with an inside-the-park homer for the game. Corey Nave, McNeal and Crowley all contributed one hit to the D-Back charge.
   The Indians were led by Shannon Buchannon and Swearingen with 2-for-3 plate performances while Scott Burleson and Jordan Honeycutt collected one hit each for PIC.
   Papa John's will now face the Yankees in the winners bracket final while the Indians will have to fight out of the losers bracket if they are to collect the champion's hardware.
   Action resumes Monday night at 6 p.m. at Elizabethton High School with games slated for 6 and 8:15 p.m.