Shelby Easter Tournament

Please post schedules and results here...

 

from the shelby star

The Shelby Savings Bank Easter Tournament begins today at Veterans Field and Keeter Stadium with Burns (5-3) taking on East Lincoln (6-3) at 4 p.m. in the opening game.


Perennial powers, 2A East Rutherford (7-2) and 4A South Caldwell (8-1) - both defending State champions - will follow in the 7 p.m. contest. The Cavaliers defeated the Spartans, 2-1, in the championship game of the Easter tourney last season.


On Tuesday, Kings Mountain (4-4) takes on Charlotte Christian (12-3) at 4 and Shelby (1-6) will battle rival Crest (6-3) at 7 to conclude first-round action.


The tournament marks the first game action on the field at Shelby High, which is currently undergoing renovations.
Here's what Cleveland County's high school baseball coaches had to say about the upcoming tourney.


Shelby head coach Tommy Wease: "We're excited to get to play at home. We've had to travel everywhere so far. We would have liked to play there a little sooner, but this will be a good experience. Playing Crest the first round ... our kids are excited about that."
"Our main thing is executing. Once we do that, I think good things will happen for us."


Burns head coach Chris Emery: "It's good for us, because we're still trying to feel our way around. We need to work on our depth, especially on the mound. We need to get some pitchers some work ... fine tune things and get ready for the stretch run in the conference."
"Everybody in our league has good pitching, so we need to find ways to get runs any way we can. We can work on that now. Every night you go out there, you're going to face a good arm."


Crest head coach Steven Hodge: "We've never taken a good approach at the Easter Tournament, and I'm not sure why our kids haven't really been focused. There are good teams in it, and you can't go in not focused and expect to win.
"After the Easter break, we've got two big conference games coming up and we need to get some good work in this week."


Kings Mountain head coach Eric King: "We're playing well as a group right now. Our defense and pitching have been doing a good job for us. Our hitting is up and down like most people, but we're coming through with hits when we need them .. that's been the story of us so far."
"In our case, we just want to keep the momentum going. I've got some other guys that I'd like to get in some games. We'll still go out and play to win."

Shelby Savings Bank Easter Tournament
At Shelby High School's Veterans Field and Keeter Stadium
Monday's games
Game 1 - Burns vs. East Lincoln, 4 p.m.
Game 2 - E. Rutherford vs S. Caldwell, 7
Tuesday's games
Game 3 - Kings Mountain vs. Charlotte Christian, 4 p.m.
Game 4 - Crest vs. Shelby, 7
Wednesday's games
Game 5 - Game 1 loser vs. Game 2 loser, 10 a.m.
Game 6 - Game 3 loser vs. Game 4 loser, 1 p.m.
Game 7 - Game 1 winner vs. Game 2 winner, 4
Game 8 - Game 3 winner vs. Game 4 winner, 7
Thursday's games
Game 9 - Game 5 loser vs. Game 6 loser, 10 a.m.
Game 10 - Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 11 - Game 7 loser vs. Game 8 loser, 4
Game 12 - Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 7

 

Coverage

Any radio or internet coverage available?

 

SC 4
ER 0

 

Messer throws a 3 hitter with 10 k and 3 bb
Cody Prestwood 2 run HR
South plays Burns 4pm WED.

 

shelby star

On a chilly afternoon for baseball, it only seemed like the pitchers were doing all the work.
As Burns righthander Adam Izokovic and East Lincoln lefty Derrick Spears mowed down the opposition in the opening game of the Shelby Savings Bank Easter Tournament, the question became: Which side would finally get the big hit to settle this thing?"

In the top of the ninth inning with a 1-1 tie, Burns senior Luke Martin stepped to the fore. With runners on second and third and a 1-2 count at the plate, the lefthanded-swinging Bulldog lined a single up the middle to send Izokovic and Zach Cole speeding across the plate for what proved to be the winning runs.
Izokovic got out of a mild jam in the bottom of the inning on a grounder that the infield combination of Jacob Hamrick and Eric Shuford turned into a game-ending double play.
Records: Burns 6-3; East Lincoln 6-4
Next: Burns faces South Caldwell at 4 p.m. Wednesday. East Lincoln takes on East Rutherford in a consolation-round contest at 10 a.m. Wednesday.

In the clutch: "I was hoping he'd throw me a fastball," said Martin, who along with Shuford had two hits to pace the Burns attack. "He left it up a little and I was just trying to get it in play."
Martin says the Bulldogs are looking at this tournament as an important step in the season.
"We want to win some games and get off to a fast start in the second half of the season," he said. "In a couple of our losses we've had a chance (to win). We feel like we can make a run in the conference."

Mound duel: Izokovic worked the entire nine innings with 103 pitches. He gave up six hits, fanned seven and didn't walk a batter. After giving up a single run on Bradley Morrison's RBI double in the second, he escaped sixth-inning trouble with runners on second and third and no outs.
Spears pitched seven innings, giving up a single earned run. He struck out two, walked two and allowed Burns only two hits.
The Bulldogs broke through in the ninth against East reliever Andrew Smith.

From the coach: "It was atypical Izo(kovic) game," Burns coach Chris Emery said. "He attacked the strike zone. He can pitch to the defense. We know when he's on, he's going to get a lot of balls hit to the right side because they're just trying to fight it off."
Tying it up: Burns was down 1-0 going to the sixth when Shuford led off with a single off Spears. Aaron Crowe was able to move the runner along with a sacrifice bunt then a wild pitch put the runner at third. James Gold's groundout to deep short let Shuford dash home to tie it.

Game two
UNC-signee Jimmy Messer pitched South Caldwell to a 4-0 win against East Rutherford in Monday's second game.
Messer fired a three-hitter with 10 strikeouts. He walked three.
East's Cullen Park allowed only two hits in five innings of work but one of those was a two-run blast by South's Cody Prestwood in the third inning.

 

Why in the world would the organizers of this tournament put E. Rutherford and S. Caldwell in the same bracket in the first game? Did they not have 6000 people there for the championship game last year? Interesting.

 

shelby star

Shelby Savings Bank Easter Tournament
At Shelby High's Veterans Field and Keeter Stadium
Monday, March 24
Game 1 - Burns 2, East Lincoln 1
Game 2 - South Caldwell 4, East Rutherford 0

Tuesday, March 25
Game 3 - Kings Mountain 3, Charlotte Catholic 0
Game 4 - Crest 5, Shelby 0

Wednesday, March 26
Game 5 - East Lincoln vs. East Rutherford, 10 a.m.
Game 6 - Charlotte Catholic vs. Shelby, 1 p.m.
Game 7 - Burns vs. South Caldwell, 4 p.m.
Game 8 - Kings Mountain vs. Crest, 7 p.m.

Thursday, March 27
Game 9 - Game 5 loser vs. Game 6 loser, 10 a.m.
Game 10 - Game 5 winner vs. Game 6 winner, 1 p.m.
Game 11 - Game 7 loser vs. Game 8 loser, 4 p.m.
Game 12 - Game 7 winner vs. Game 8 winner, 7 p.m.

 

Summary

Any game summaries from the KM game or the Shelby/Crest matchup? And what has gotten into KM? Loses a close one to East Rutherford and follows with solid victories over RS-Central and Charlotte Christian.

 

shelby star

Crest's Cole blanks Lions
High School baseball
Tuesday, Mar 25 2008, 11:43 pm
A hot start at the plate and the pitching of sophomore Sterling Cole boosted Crest past archrival Shelby, 5-0, in Tuesday's nightcap at the Shelby Savings Bank Easter Tournament at Veterans Field and Keeter Stadium.

Records: Crest 7-3; Shelby 1-8

Today: The Chargers will battle Kings Mountain at 7 p.m.. The Golden Lions take on Charlotte Christian at 1 p.m.

Early scoring: Kyle Kendrick, who finished 3-for-4, and Corey Cline started the game off with singles for Crest against Shelby's Andrew White. Jacob Tisdale then reached on a fielder's choice, scoring Kendrick, before Adam McFarland and Jordan Harris posted infield singles.

Tisdale and McFarland scored on an infield error, while Harris crossed home on a double steal to make it 4-0.
Patrick Allen added a base hit, but was left stranded. Five of Crest's eight hits came in the first inning.

From the coach: "We did some good things early, and I thought we executed well at the plate and on the bases," Crest head coach Steven Hodge said. "I thought we were
very focused to start the game out."

Battle of lefties: From there, Cole and White settled in to a pitcher's duel. Cole, who gave up just two hits in a complete game, finished with eight strikeouts and just one walk.

The sophomore didn't give up a hit in the last four innings as Austin Trice's base hit to center in the third proved to be Shelby's final hit.

The rightfielder McFarland cut down Shelby's Ryan Duncan at the plate as Duncan tried to score from second on a single to right by Julian Bridges. Duncan was the only Lion to reach third in the game.

White, a Wingate signee, only gave up one run and three hits after the first. White fanned four and walked one as he also went the distance. Two of White's five runs allowed were unearned.

Final tally: Crest's Jonathan Cooper singled, then scored on a fielder's choice in the fourth to make it 5-0.