Janesville 9U team opens regional with pair of wins

July 31--Janesville's 9U tournament baseball team could not have asked for a much better start at the Ohio Valley Regional on Thursday.

The team opened up pool play with a pair of victories, beating Huron Valley (Mich.) 22-1 in the opener and South Lexington (Kent.) 3-1 in the nightcap.

In the first game, Janesville piled up 22 hits, all singles, to cruise to the victory. Ian Perkins threw two innings of one-hit ball to earn the victory and also went 3-for-3 at the plate.

Jake Schaffner was named the player of the game with a 4-for-4 showing at the plate with four runs scored and three driven in.

"We got off to a good start," manager Matt Stried said. "Ian Perkins and Keagan Clark threw strikes, and our defense made all the plays in the field."

The second game featured far fewer fireworks, but Janesville used a pair of first-inning runs to jump on top and held on from there.

Connor Dillon and Perkins reached base with singles and scored on a South Lexington error.

South Lexington got a run back in the bottom of the first, but it mustered just two hits. Janesville's Schaffner and Jack Adams combined to give up just one unearned run. They walked three and struck out four. Adams was named Janesville's player of the game.

"Great defensive plays by Jake Schaffner at shortstop, Tyler Steuck in center field and Brayden Bastian in right field preserved the win," Matt Stried said.

Janesville added an insurance run in the sixth when Dylan Snyder had a one-out double and scored on Brent Klukas' single.

Janesville closes out pool play today against West Louisville (Kent.) at 5 p.m.

___

(c)2014 The Janesville Gazette (Janesville, Wis.)

Visit The Janesville Gazette (Janesville, Wis.) at www.gazetteextra.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services