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YOUTH SPORTS
C-K routs Wayne in District 1 consolation
Ceredo-Kenova's Michael Meadows slides under the tag from Wayne catcher Cody Noe during the Little League Baseball District 1 11-12 year-old runner-up game Sunday, July 10, 2011, in Huntington. Ceredo-Kenova won 10-2.
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ONA -- After Saturday's heartbreaking loss to Barboursville in the 11-12 District 1 Baseball Championship, the coaches of Ceredo-Kenova's baseball team elected to hold a practice last night.
It turned out to be the best thing to happen to the C-K Little Leaguers.
Just 24 hours after being shut out, Ceredo-Kenova pounded out 11 hits to earn a 10-2 win over Wayne in the 11-12 District 1 consolation matchup.
"We went from doing nothing right yesterday -- poor performance -- to coming out today in an elimination game," Ceredo-Kenova coach Chad Baumgardner said. "Today, we threw strikes, we played defense and hit the ball hard. We did what we needed to do to advance and I'm proud of them."
Saturday's matchup with Barboursville ended around 1:45 p.m. with C-K amassing just four hits.
Baumgardner and the coaching staff called for a 5:30 p.m. practice after the dismal performance at the plate.
The team responded with several hard-hit baseballs throughout the contest.
"That's exactly right. We practiced from 5:30 to 7:30 last night," Baumgardner said.
"It wasn't a session to beat them in the ground; it was a session to pick them back up and get their heads squared away for Wayne."
Ceredo-Kenova jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first after three singles and a Wayne error, and the lead grew to 5-0 in the third after Daniel Brandon tripled and scored on a groundout to precede Caiden Conley's solo home run.
To that point, Conley had also dominated on the mound, allowing just one hit through three innings.
Conley started to run into trouble in the fourth with the first two runners reaching base, but a potential momentum swing occurred at first base to provide the inning's first out.
Wayne's Isaiah Thompson was leading off first, which drew a throw-down from C-K's Jonah Wellman. The call at first base was that Thompson was out because he stepped on the foot of Brandon, which was on the base.
Wayne coach Bill Thompson protested the call, citing obstruction as his reason and the teams went to the dugout for a 13-minute delay as District 1 officials called for a ruling from Little League officials.
In the end, it was deemed that the right call had been made, resulting in the first out of the inning.
The call proved pivotal because Conley walked the next batter. Instead of bases loaded with no outs, it was second and third with one out. Wayne proceeded to score a pair of runs, but reliever Austin Stambaugh came in and quieted the damage to leave Ceredo-Kenova's lead at 5-2.
"It's definitely another run because the guys behind him score. I still think it's obstruction, but they are the umpires...," Bill Thompson said. "In games like this, you have to have some breaks and it didn't seem like we had any. Credit to them, they made their own breaks."
Ceredo-Kenova immediately answered with two runs scoring on the same pass ball in the bottom of the fourth inning.
The game was then put away in the bottom of the fifth with three consecutive hits to start the frame that led to the final three runs.
Conley, Brandon, Mason Brubeck and Jeremiah Milum each had two hits for Ceredo-Kenova, who advances to the state tournament in Beckley in two weeks. They will be in the same pool as Barboursville for that tournament.
WAYNE 000 200 -- 2 5 3
CEREDO-KENOVA 302 23x -- 10 11 2
McCloud and Noe. Conley and Wellman.
Hitting: (W) J. Cassidy 2-3. (C-K) Brubeck 2-3, RBI; Brandon 2-3, 3B, RBI; Conley 2-3, 2B, HR, RBI; Milum 2-2, RBI.
