Shelby Easter Tournament

Charlotte Christian 8
vs.
Shelby HS 2

WP: Patrick McNair (5-0)

after going up 4-0, shelby clawed their way back into the game to make the score 4-2, then in the bottom half of the 6th the knights broke open with 4 runs lead by a solo BLAST by Bryant Gaines and a 2 rbi double by Kurt Fulginiti. The knights went on to win 8-2 and secure themselves a spot in the championship. the knights have won 13 straight games and 19 out of their last 21, keep it up knights

hitting CCS:
G. Fronk 2-3
M. Fulginiti 1-2, 2BB
B. Gaines 2-4, HR 2 rbi
T. Kirkpatrick 1-3, 2B
C. Martin 1-4, 2B

Christian: 20-5

 

East Rutheford vs. South Caldwell

i heard it was 2-2 going into the bottom of the 6th, east jumped out to a 2-0 lead on bumgarner, it seemed they were just sitting fastball and hit the ball hard a few times, south came back to tie it at 2 after a HR. Bumgarner was 90-93 in the first inning, but the report was he switched gears and turned it up a notch towards the 4th inning or so and was keeping the ball down and bustin' guys inside and looked really good

 

East Rutheford vs. South Caldwell

WHO WON?????? someone please give us some info on the game, a score, summary, etc.

 

I believe south won in the 11th inning 3-2..but i dont have any other details yet.

 

WOW

 

Just got back from the South Caldwell - East Rutherford game billed as the #1 and #2 ranked teams in the Charlotte Observer Sweet 16 poll which South won 3-2 in the bottom of the 11th inning. Very even game throughout with Madison Bumgarner going 9 innings giving up 4 hits I believe. He started off a little slow giving up 2 runs in the first 2 innings and then settled down to give up only 1 hit the final 7 innings he pitched. He also struck out 10 batters after the 2nd inning. Madison basically threw heat from the 3rd inning on and it seemed to work great. He had not pitched in quite a while so he was a little rusty to start off although I want to take nothing away from East Rutherford. They could have easily won this game. Both teams played great defense with East Rutherford commiting 1 error and South was flawless.

After the 9th inning Madison was relieved by Justin Poovey who pitched great giving up 1 hit I believe over the 10th and 11th innings. Also Josh Severt in left field for South made an unbelievable catch stretching his body out to make a catch which was the play of the game. Daniel Coffey for South had a 2 run homer to tie the game at 2 - 2 in the bottom of the 2nd. He also had his 3rd RBI of the night in the bottom of the 11th when he flied out to right field and the runner at 3rd tagged up to score the game winner. Kudos to Madison for also starting off the final inning with a stand up double down the left field line. Madison then reached 3rd on a sacrifice bunt with 1 out. Bobby Dale Reynolds decided to walk the DH Brad Chavis to put runners at 1st and 3rd with 1 out to set up a potential double play. I also want to recognize Brad Hardee who continues to have a hot bat going 3-5 on the evening. Brad is also a great football standout who was recently selected to attend the East - West Football Allstar game this summer.

There was a scout at the game with a gun who clocked Madison pitching in the range of 94 - 95 mph in the late innings of the game. Madison always gets stronger as the game goes on so you had better jump on him early.

This sets up the Championship game Friday night at 7:00 between South and Charlotte Christian. East Rutherford and Shelby play at 4:00 for 3rd place and Burns and Crest play at 1:00 for 5th place.

 

South Caldwell 3 East Rutherford 2

Unofficial, but I believe this is right.

ER 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 .... 2 5 1
SC 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1......3 7 0

Leading Hitters :
ER - Michael Milam 1-3, 3B, R, RBI
Zeke Blanton 1-4, 2B
Blake Wood 1-3, 2B, R

SC - Brad Hardee 3-5, 2B
M. Bumgardner 1-5, 2B, R
Daniel Coffey 1-3, HR, 2 RBI, R

PITCHERS :
ER - Tyler Smith 4.1 IP, 4 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 6 K, 3 BB
Blake Bostic 4.2 IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 5 K, 0 BB
Michael Melton 1.2 IP, 1 H, 1 R, 1 ER, 1 K, 1 BB LOSS (5-1)

SC - Madison Bumgardner 9 IP, 5 H, 2 R, 2 ER, 11 K, 1 BB
Justin Poovey 2 IP, 0 H, 0 R, 3 K, 1 BB WIN

I had the following MPH - ER - Smith 85, Bostic 86, Melton 83
SC - Bumgardner 94, Poovey 94
I did not see SC pitchers throw a fastball below 90 the entire game.

RECORDS - SC 19-0, ER 15-3

 

correction..

Bumgarner went 9 innings, and Poovey went 2, walking one...GREAT GAME!!!

 

Christian to face Spartans in the finals tonight
Randy Capps
Assistant Sports Editor

Randy Capps

[email protected]

Spend enough time around a high school baseball diamond and you’ll hear dozens of cliches. One of the ones that pops up the most is “you can’t give a good team extra outs.”

Shelby violated that truism Thursday afternoon against Charlotte Catholic in the Shelby Savings Bank Easter Tournament with five errors, paying dearly for them in an 8-2 loss.

What it means: The Knights (20-5) advance to tonight’s championship game at 7 against South Caldwell while Shelby (7-11) will play East Rutherford for third place at 4 p.m.

Stat of the game: The five Shelby errors led to six unearned runs for the Knights.

Mini rally: Trailing 4-0, Shelby mounted a short-lived comeback in the top of the fifth. Tucker Craig chased home Ben Huff with a double down the leftfield line. Craig scored from second after the Knights were caught arguing a bang-bang play at first on a Brett Wease infield single.

Slamming the door: Charlotte Christian responded with a four-run bottom of the inning, highlighted by a towering homer from Gaines and Kurt Fulginiti’s two-run double.

Mound report: Patrick McNair got the win, allowing two runs on four hits while striking out five in five innings. Michael Caldwell pitched two scoreless innings in relief.

Canipe was the loser, allowing three unearned runs on four hits in 1.2 innings. Andrew White, Dustin Reeves and Taylor Jaynes worked in relief.

Coach’s comments: “You can’t do that (commit five errors) against mediocre teams, let alone a top-notch team like that. I don’t think we came out like we were ready to play.” — Shelby head coach Tommy Wease.

Capps’ commentary: Charlotte Christian is fundamentally sound with speed and power all through the lineup. Shelby needed a near-perfect game to pull the upset but didn’t get it.

South Caldwell 3, East Rutherford 2, 11

Brad Coffey hit a sacrifice fly to shallow rightfield and pinch runner Josh Shehan beat the throw to the plate as the Spartans edged East Rutherford, 3-2, in 11 innings Thursday.

Madison Bumgarner started for South Caldwell allowing five hits and two runs while striking out 11 in nine innings. Justin Poovey got the win with two innings of scoreless relief for South Caldwell (19-0).

 

wow, i don't know which is more striking: the ER-SC game itself or the Star's under-reporting it musta got late on em. 2 sentences wow...

but from the TBR reports above, that game was just unbelievable. ER don't get the credit i thank. one pitch, just one pitching mistake resulted in a HR by SC or that game goes down 2-0 favor of ER. hats off to 'em.

but SC showed again their grit... and pitching and stamina. if the weather holds off, the SC-CCS game should be a good un, but I just don't know if u can top last night's game.

i think the grit from SC overwhelms the madras shorts crowd from the big city. but then again, da bard kid is pitching and i've heard he has a bunch of grit himself. but in th end, the big city team is gonna have to play perfect to pull it out...