Semoball

DOMINATION: Strong performance in all areas leads to dominating win for Charleston Fighting Squirrels on Thursday

Charleston Fighting Squirrel's Tanner King throws a pitch to an East Twins (Minnesota) batter, on Thursday, July 18, 2019, in the Senior Babe Ruth Midwest Plains Regional, at Hillhouse Park, in Charleston, Mo.
Liza King/Standard Democrat

CHARLESTON, Mo. — Needing a big night in all areas of the game, the Charleston Fighting Squirrels did just that in its 9-0 rout of East Twins (Minnesota) on Thursday evening, at Hillhouse Park.

Opening night of the Senior Babe Ruth Midwest Plains Regional was a good one for the defending World Series champions. Charleston got timely hits, made solid defensive plays and added a gem from hurler Tanner King on the mound to improve to 1-0 in pool play of the American Division.

From the first pitch to the last, King was lights out for the Fighting Squirrels, in what was a much-needed outing.

King threw six shutout innings before leaving due to the pitch limit set forth by the Senior Babe Ruth rules. During those six innings, he fanned nine batters, along with one walk and five hits.

Additionally, King also worked out of some tight spots, most notably in the fourth inning.

King gave up a leadoff double to Ryan Prisch, to start the frame, before retiring the next three batters in order, with a ball never leaving the infield.

“Coming into this game, I just wanted to give the team a chance to win,” King said. “Go out there and keep the score low for them. Early, I felt real good. The pitch count got high, though, pretty early, a lot of 3-2 counts and I just couldn’t give in.

“Walks are about the worst thing you can give up, and I just kept battling every pitch. We didn’t want to have to burn too much pitching tonight, and I’m just glad I could do well enough for my team to have a chance to win.”

Carson Aycock finished off the game for Charleston (20-13) as he walked the leadoff man, before striking out the next three batters — two looking — to end the game dominantly.

The Fighting Squirrels started the night off by retiring the side in order, before taking an early 1-0 lead after one inning.

Ajay Sager got the ball rolling, after reaching on an error by the third baseman. Sager then put himself into scoring position after stealing second base, which allowed Landon Tenkhoff to deliver a two-out base hit to score Sager from second.

It then took the Fighting Squirrels three innings to score another run, as East Twins pitcher Dante Mayetta was equaling King by tossing a gem himself.

Not getting a lot of help from his defense, Mayetta watched his fielders make three errors over his 4 1/3 innings of work.

The fifth inning proved to be a nightmare for East Twins, as Charleston put a crooked number on the board — with five runs crossing the plate.

Luke Nichols led off the inning with a single. He then advanced to second on a wild pitch and then moved to third on a sacrifice bunt by King.

Joe Panagos drew a walk to put runners on the corners with one out before Sager laid down a perfectly placed squeeze bunt to score Nichols from third.

Jacob Watkins then hit a sharp ground ball to the shortstop, but the ball went underneath the shortstop’s glove and into the outfield, scoring Panagos from second and advancing Sager to third. Watkins then pushed himself into scoring position as well, after stealing second.

A sacrifice fly from Tenkhoff scored another run, as Sager tagged up, to make it 4-0 Charleston with two outs in the frame.

Ray Juvland then balked to move Watkins to third base, and Breven Yarbro drew a walk to put the Fighting Squirrels in another runners-on-the-corners situation.

Charleston Fighting Squirrel's Drew Korando hits the ball, against East Twins (Minnesota), on Thursday, July 18, 2019, in the Senior Babe Ruth Midwest Plains Regional, at Hillhouse Park, in Charleston, Mo.
Liza King/Standard Democrat

Drew Korando then came through in that very situation, as he hit a base hit to score both Watkins and Yarbro and increase the Fighting Squirrels lead to 6-0.

Charleston added three more runs in the home-half of the sixth to equal the final.

Timely hitting was an area that this team excelled at last season, and to see the 2019 Fighting Squirrels come through in clutch situations was one thing that head coach Michael Minner pointed at after the game.

“Late in the ballgame, we put together some good at-bats and kind of blew things open,” Minner said. “Tanner King was phenomenal tonight. He gave us a quality start. Guy goes six innings and really put us in a good position to win. We’re at the point now where it’s just about winning — solely about winning. We want to continue to play good baseball. I thought we did some things fundamentally right. We had some really good at-bats, pitching was good, so that’s what you hope for in the postseason.

“It’s postseason time, and it was kind of a different feeling. We took a really good round of infield, which was good to see. Coach Johnson said we had a really good round of BP down in the cage. It’s serious-time now, and guys know if we have a bad day, it could cost us our season, so hopefully, we’ll continue to play good baseball.”

Charleston takes on the Perfectos tonight at 7:15 p.m., in the second day of pool action.

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