By Rich Kincaide

Sunday, June 29, 2008 (Ypsilanti, MI) – It would be hard to imagine a better baseball game at any level than today’s title game at the 2008 12U Michigan Major Elite NIT, won by Beaver Valley Red, 4-3, in 8 innings over Pony Express.

Red, ranked #22 by Travel Ball Select, trailed 3-2 in the bottom of the 8th inning with two men out and nobody on but refused to lose as the next four hitters singled in a two-run, game-winning rally. The biggest hit came off the bat of Cody Bain, whose knock to right drove in both the tying and winning runs and ended the game.

Pony Express had earlier rallied from what appeared to be likely defeat, tying the game 2-2 in the top of the 6th on an RBI single by Evan Giles with one out. They took a 3-2 lead in the top of the 8th when TBS Player to Watch Carrington Bell, who struck out 8 in 5 impressive innings of hard-throwing relief, uncorked a wild pitch with a Brenden Smith on third and Smith was safe at home with a slide. In the bottom of the inning, Jordan Young came on in relief and promptly struck out Bell and induced a weak grounder to first, putting Pony Express on the cusp of victory before Red rallied with those four straight singles to win the game.

Pony Express took a 1-0 lead off Beaver Valley starter D. J. Gati in the top of the first and that lead held up until Bell put Beaver Valley ahead with a two-RBI single in the third.

Halfway through the tournament Sunday, there was little reason to think Beaver Valley was going to do anything but march right through to an easy victory. Red began the tournament round by dispatching #16 seed Summit City and the #9 seed NOW Indians in short order, 9-0 and 8-0. At that point, including pool games, Red was 6-0 (the only unbeaten team in the field) and had outscored its opponents 58-7.

It was a surprise, then that Beaver Valley found itself trailing the Ohio Storm 1-0 when they came to bat in the bottom of the 4th in the semifinal. Bell took care of that, though, doubling in a pair of runs before scoring himself on a single by Gati. Brendan McKay did the rest. The Beaver Valley starter went the distance, striking out the first five hitters he faced and fanning 14 overall in Beaver Valley’s 3-1 victory.

Things were not as clear-cut for Pony. After knocking off Macomb 9-4 in the opening round, PE next met an Adrian team which had already pulled off the upset of the tournament. In their first game of the day, the Lookouts, the #15 seed, stunned #2 seed Lemont, 3-2, on a two-hitter by Andrew Wood. It looked like the Lookouts were going to claim a second straight upset win when, in the quarterfinal, they led Pony Express 5-3 when Pony came to bat in the bottom of the 6th. An RBI single by Young got them to within one run, a bases-loaded walk tied the score and an RBI bunt single by Caleb Smith won it for PE, 6-5.

That set up a semi-final match-up between Pony and #3 seed Generals Baseball which PE won with surprising ease, 5-1, on a suburb complete game pitching effort by Derrick Barger. A three-run second told the story with Smith doubling in two and Giles driving home the other with a single.

Generals Baseball made it to the semifinal by first defeating #14 Fort Wayne, 9-3, and then getting a run in the bottom of the 6th to take out #6 Strongsville 4-3. The Stallions had erased a 3-0 Generals lead, built in part on Nick Moschetti’s second-inning homer, with a run in the top of the 6th to make it a 3-3 game. Jake Reid drove in the game-winning run in the bottom of the inning for Generals.

On the other side of the bracket, the Ohio Storm made the semifinal against Beaver Valley with wins over the Michigan Bulls, 3-2, in the first round and over MSA Black, 5-2, in the second. In the win over MSA, Ohio did all their scoring in the second inning on RBI hits by Zach Leitzke (who tossed a complete-game 5-hitter), Corey Whaley, Brandon Papp, Clay Romanoski and Jay Ventura.

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