Americans take first contest of MABA battle

By DONN ADAMSON
Daily Journal Sports Editor

FRANKCLAY — The 11 year old, 60’ bases district contest is between the two MABA divisions, American and National representative teams in a best of three tournament. The Americans stood behind a two-hit performance by Logan Winder to claim an 11-0, five-inning win.

Winder struck out 10 batters and allowed only singles by Jake Wilson and pinch-hitter Jordan Huerta, while not walking any.

Drew Harlow pasted the baseball in each of his at-bats with a double and two singles for three RBI. Harlow also had a sacrifice in the first inning.

Collin Huitt also drove in three runs with his 2-3 hitting, and Jake Bridges hit a two-RBI single in the second inning. Brandt Busenbark was also 2-3.

Huitt had the big hit to jump-start the Americans scoring, driving in both Winder and Bridges in the first inning.

Huitt added his third RBI in the second to drive in Winder again. Winder scored on all four of his plate appearances. 

In their five innings, the Americans sent 35 batters to the plate. The Nationals had only 18 at-bats.

Bridges two run single in the third and Harlow’s two-run double the same inning snowballed the score to 8-0 where it stayed until the top of the fifth as relief pitcher Dayton Shepard shut down the Americans in the fourth for their only dry inning.

Winder’s RBI triple in the fifth and Harlow’s single made it 10-0, and Brennan White tacked on one more with an RBI ground ball.

The two teams will play game two at 5 p.m. today with a third game scheduled for Sunday at 4 p.m. if needed.

Americans  314 03 - 11  11  0

Nationals  000 00 - 0  2  2

WP- Winder 5i 0r 2h 10k 0bb.

Hitting:

Americans - Harlow 3-3, Huitt 2-3, Busenbark 2-3, Bridges 2-4, Winder 1-2, Thomure 1-3.  3b- Winder, 2b- Harlow.

Nationals - Huerta 1-1, Wilson 1-1.