Published: July 19, 2008 11:39 pm         

Huntington rides homers to win

Huntington Southeastern’s bats were more than just powerful against Elkins Saturday.

They were efficient.

Huntington ripped four home runs and plated every base runner but one to stop their Randolph County foes 10-0 in the semifinals of the West Virginia Babe Ruth 14-year-old state tournament at Harry Lewin Field.

“We always come to hit,” manager Mark Bell said. “That’s probably our strong suit.”

Matt Napier, Trent Porter and Cole Shull parked Elkins pitches over the tall, right-field fence for solo home runs in each of the first three innings.

Lucas Doss then smashed a two-run shot over the scoreboard in left-center during the fifth frame to put the game out of reach.

The five-run fifth ended the game by the 10-run mercy rule.

Huntington finished with eight hits off two Elkins hurlers. Cody Brown, the fifth batter in the order, didn’t hit one out of the park, but had a 3-for-3 day at the plate.

No. 8 batter Elias Haikel added a double for the winners.

Doss’ home run was his third of the tournament. He smacked two roundtrippers in Elkins’ 12-10 victory over Harrison County Friday.

“They hit for average, they hit for power,” Bell said of his squad. “They’re just a good hitting group.

“They all have high batting averages and we hit one through nine.”

Huntington pitchers Steve Mason and Brown, who relieved Mason to start the fourth inning, checked Elkins at five hits.

Mason fanned three batters while Brown recorded four K’s along with two bases on balls.

Both had taken the mound the previous night in the slugfest with Harrison County.

“Our pitching has done good. We just don’t have a whole lot of depth,” Bell said.

Elkins started the game on a high note, a double to left field by Scott Fox on the second pitch of the contest.

But Fox was stranded at second, the first of six Elkins runners left on base.

Tyler Shifflett and Tyler Bedford opened the second inning with back-to-back hits. Mason then struck out Tyler Foster and induced Houston Schuler to hit a line drive to Brown at first base for a double play.

In the third inning, J.D. Brown singled to right and Ryan Bunnell hit a fly ball to right-center that was misplayed.

Mason came through again, getting Cory Howell to strike out on a foul tip and Caten Murphy to fly out to right.

“Huntington’s got a good team and we let the game get away from us early on,” Elkins manager Chris Broughton said. “We got runners on base and we couldn’t get that key base hit.”

Huntington advances to today’s 1:30 p.m. championship round against Elkins. Should Huntington lose, a second game will be played at 4 p.m. for all the marbles.

— E-mail:

dstillwell@register-herald.com



Huntington 10, Elkins 0

E: 000 00 — 0 5 2

H: 111 25 — 10 8 1

E: Corey Howell, Ryan Bunnell (5) and J.D. Brown, Tyler Shifflett (5), H: Steve Mason, Cody Brown (4) and Lucas Doss. WP — Mason. LP — Howell. Hitting — E: Tyler Bedford 2-2, Scott Fox 1-2, Shifflett 1-2, Brown 1-2. H: Brown 3-3 (2 runs, rbi), Cole Shull 1-3 (hr, rbi), Matt Napier 1-3 (hr, rbi, 2 runs), Doss 1-3 (hr, 2 rbi, 2 runs), Trent Porter 1-2 (hr, rbi, 2 runs), Elias Haikel 1-2 (2b), Josh Pierson (rbi), Ben Haer (rbi).