Brian Hagberg
WARREN, Pa. – A 4-run first inning helped propel the Warren Boys’ Minors All-Stars to an 8-3 win over St. Marys in a District 10 pool-play game at Betts-Jackson Field Monday.
The win gave Warren the No. 2 seed in the District 10 Tournament with a 1-1 record in pool play. DuBois (2-0) is the No. 1 seed, while St. Marys (0-2) is the 3-seed. Warren and St. Marys will face each other again Friday at Betts-Jackson with the winner of that game to meet DuBois for the D10 title on July 11 in DuBois.
Re-listen to the game here:
Tanner Stuart got things started for Warren in the first when he hit a bloop single on a 3-0 pitch. Ty Bryan followed with a walk. A passed ball on the first pitch to Wyatt Neal allowed Stuart to scoot home and Bryan to move to third. One out later, Liam Hanson singled in Bryan to make it 2-0.
Wyatt Wilson followed with a walk. Hanson came home on a wild pitch during Logan Ristau’s at-bat and Wilson came in on a wild pitch during Wesley Wilcox’s at-bat. Wilcox reached on an error with two outs and Keegan Weissinger and Eddie Abplanalp drew consecutive walks to load the bases. St. Marys pitcher Benny Mecca was able to get Stuart, batting for the second time in the inning, to strikeout to end the first.
Bryan led off the second with a walk and Neal followed with an infield single to put runners on first and second. Hanson singled to shallow right, Neal had to hold between first and second to see if the ball would be caught and got into second just before shortstop Liam Beck could touch second.
While the players waited for the call at second, Bryan took advantage of the distraction to race home for a 5-0 Warren lead. Wilcox hit a grounder to second that allowed Neal to score while Ristau was forced out at second.
Jaret Lang led off the Warren third with a walk and Stuart hit a swinging bunt single that bounced off home plate and dribbled back to Jaxson Seeders on the mound. Bryan followed with a walk to load the bases. Lang scored on a wild pitch to give Warren a 7-0 advantage.
St. Marys picked up a run in the fourth. Eli Meyer walked with two outs, stole second and went to third when the throw to second couldn’t be fielded cleanly. Jackson Meyer followed with a walk and stole second. Eli Meyer came home on the throw down to second to cut the deficit to 7-1.
Warren got the run right back in the bottom of the inning. Ristau drew a leadoff walk and scored on Wilcox’s RBI double to right-center.
Ethan Cheatle hit a 2-out single for St. Marys in the fifth, then scored when Seeders singled to shallow right.
Eli Meyer and Jackson Meyer drew consecutive 1-out walks in the sixth. Eli Meyer scored from second on Vollmer’s groundout to cut the lead to 8-3, but Stuart got Beck to ground out to second to end the game.
Stuart and Hanson led the offense with a pair of hits each.
Bryan scored twice offensively and picked up the win on the mound. He gave up just two hits with a hit batter and three strikeouts in three shutout innings.
Wilcox gave up two runs on a hit and a pair of walks in 1 2/3 innings with two strikeouts, while Stuart allowed one run on no hits with two strikeouts in 1 1/3 innings.
