Staying alive! Big Valley 9-10s move on

By rscaife
- Tweet
- Pin It
Updated: July 6, 2017

REEDSVILLE – Alive and kicking!
The Big Valley 9-10-year old all-stars remained in the hunt for a District 5 crown Wednesday as they defeated a spunky Bald Eagle Area team, 7-0.
Offensively, the kids from the Big Valley opened things up in the first inning, posting a 5-run top of the first and then let its pitching and defense take over as they allowed only two hits in the contest.
Logan Alexander went for 59 pitches and completed five innings on the mound for Big Valley while teammate Jacob Bauman finished off things in the sixth.
With the exception of the first inning, Bald Eagle played well as starting pitcher Zach Hugar went five and two-thirds of an inning striking out five and surrendering seven hits. Five of those hits came in Big Valley’s 5-run inning.
Brayden Dubbs finished out the game for Bald Eagle, striking out all four batters he faced.
Offensively, Big Valley lead-off hitter Evan Strohecker led the way posting a 3-for-4 performance with a run scored and an RBI.
Highlighting the afternoon affair was Zach Diehl’s inside-the-park 3-run home run in the first.
“They cane out swinging the bats and that is what we’ve been wanting them to do the past couple games. When they start hitting the ball we got the whole way through the line up in the first inning,” Big Valley manager Shawn Wagner said. “When you get nine guys up in the first inning your going to score some runs. Five runs line that was great. You could see it, it took the momentum right out of them (BEA).”
In the first, Strohecker led the game off with a single up the middle on the first pitch of the game.
Alexander followed with a shot up the middle of his own, putting runners on first and second.
Brayden Sunderland hit an RBI single to right as Strohecker gunned it from second to score uncontested.
With one out, Bauman picked up an RBI of his own, also smacking the ball into the right field grass.
With Sunderland and second and Bauman at first, Diehl hit a blast to the right field corner and rolled to the fence. All scored on the hit as Big Valley opened things with a 5-0 advantage.
In the bottom of the inning, lead off hitter Kyler Cleaver singled up the middle to try to rally his team but was picked off trying to steal second.
From there, Alexander struck out two of the three batters he faced, keeping the Eagles without a run.
Both defenses were tough in the second and third innings as they kept each other off the board.
Big Valley added a run in the top of the fourth, as Carter Smith singled and later scored on an RBI single by Strohecker, making it 6-0.
Alexander continued to cruise along into the fifth without any runs.
In the fifth, Truitt Davis scored to add some insurance for the defense and pitching staff.
That would be all Big Valley would need as it kept the shut out intact and moved on to face, State College Martin or Philipsburg-Osceola next on Friday evening on the road.
With the win, Big Valley improved to 3-1 while BEA ends their tournament with a 2-2 record.