Astoria 13\'s Split Saturday At Rhoads Tourney, 6/28
Matt Richert Reporting
The Astoria 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Stars began summer tournament play with a win and a loss in pool play at the Don Rhoads Memorial Tournament in Longview.
After a poor opening outing in a 12-2 loss to the host team, Astoria overcame some defensive mistakes to earn a come-from-behind 6-5 victory over Kelso to earn a 10:00 a.m. slot in single elimination play Sunday morning.
"We played about as poorly as can be but went 1-1," said head coach Melton LuCore. "We couldn’t pitch or play defense. In the second game, we dropped five straight fly balls in the infield. Routine catches. We couldn’t field them!"
Astoria took the early lead against Kelso, as Kyle Kelly scored on Austin Wirkkala\'s sacrifice fly in the first inning.
Andrew Bergeson started on mound, allowing two hits and no earned runs in three innings.
In the second inning, Bergeson walked and scored on a Brendan Greenfield RBI double to give Astoria a 2-0 lead.
Kelso scored two unearned runs in the top of the third inning, then plated two more runs against Wirkkala in the fourth to go up 4-2
Astoria tied the score in the bottom of the fourth when Bergeson singled and scored on Kelly\'s RBI double. Kelly crossed the plate on a passed ball to even things up at four apiece.
A leadoff double, followed by an error put runners at second and third for Kelso in the top of the fifth, but Wirkkala allowed only one run to score on a ground ball out and Astoria went into the bottom of the fifth inning needing to score to avoid a loss, due to preset time limits at the tournament.
Nathan Spurbeck popped out to lead off, but Wirkkala, Tony Rudolfi and Jeremy Poyer followed with consecutive singles, Wirkkala scoring to even the game at 5-5. Kyle Kelly lifted a fly ball deep enough to score Rudolfi with the game-winning run.
