Newsoms to take on Courtland for baseball championship
Published 11:26 am Thursday, June 10, 2010
FRANKLIN—Newsoms, which beat top-seeded Sedley in the semi-finals last week, will take on Courtland for the Pony Championships at 8 p.m. Saturday, June 12, at Franklin YMCA.
Newsoms is fourth-seeded with an overall 10-6 record. Courtland defeated Wakefield 2-1 in the semi-finals and is 13-3 overall.
Other championship games for Southampton/Sussex Baseball include Hunterdale against Wakefield for the Mustang Championship at 4 p.m. Saturday followed by Courtland against Wakefield for the Bronco Championship at 6, both at the YMCA.
Newsoms advanced to the semi-finals by defeating Waverly 4-2, and then took on Sedley at the Franklin YMCA. Seven timely hits, and good base running and defense resulted in Newsoms’ 8-5 win over Sedley on Sunday.
Individual leaders for Newsoms were Lewis Mayes, who was 3-for-3 at the plate with two RBIs and two runs. Jack Bunn was 2-for-2 at the plate with a homerun and scored 3 runs. Garrett Lassiter was 3-for-3 with and RBI and a run scored.
Newsoms struck early as Bunn singled to leftfield with two outs in the first inning. Mayes followed with a single up the middle to score Bunn and make the score 1-0.
Bunn’s next trip to the plate in the top of the third inning produced a spark that would ignite a five-run inning for Newsoms. Bunn hit a towering shot that cleared the fence and went through the trees behind leftfield.
Mayes, Lassiter and Davey Tyree each got consecutive hits. Tevin Mason drew a walk and Keonte Ricks’ two-out single to rightfield allowed Tyree and Mason to score for a Newsoms 6-0 lead.
Sedley answered back in the bottom half of the third inning. Tonee Hill singled to left and was followed by Dillon Hasty who blasted a 1-1 offering out of rightfield to make the score 6-2.
In the fourth, Bunn got onto first base when he was hit by a pitch. With a 2-2 count, Lewis Mayes executed a perfect hit-and-run play into the left center gap for a triple, scoring Bunn.
Mayes scored shortly afterward when an errant pickoff attempt got by the third baseman to make the score 8-2.
In the bottom of the fifth, Sedley’s Hasty drew a leadoff walk followed by Jake Pope’s single. Jamie Bulls got on by error to score Hasty. Pope and Bulls scored on an error, but it wasn’t enough as Newsoms held on to win 8-5.
“The key to this victory was the team effort leading up to the game,” said Newsoms Coach Ricky Wright. “Solid outfield play that had been previously shaky came up huge.”
“Several plays that took away potential hits frustrated Sedley hitters but it was Tevin Mason’s diving catch that robbed an extra bases hit late in the game that exemplified the effort of this team,” Wright said. “These boys gave all that they had in them to win this game”