Hancock's offense does job

July 09, 2010|By JACK HILL III/Staff Correspondent

Hancock's offense did plenty of damage on Thursday night in a 16-4 victory over National in a Maryland District 1 11-12 Little League Tournament losers' bracket game.

Hancock will travel to Clear Spring tonight at 6.

After a scoreless first inning, Hancock busted loose for five runs in the top of the second. Trent Rider and Jesse Wolford each singled, both runners moved up on a wild pitch and Taylor Kerns hit a one-out, two-run single to center. Tyler Clingerman reached on a fielder's choice and Carl Potter singled to left before Brad Younker slugged a three-run homer to left.

"I thought it was going to go over," Younker said. "I hit a fastball. I felt that we were going to win the game once we got the lead to 5-0. I thought it was a good win."

Younker pitched the first 4 1/3 innings to get the win.

"I was throwing different pitches to keep them off-balance," Younker said. "I felt like I was in control."

Three of the four runs Younker gave up came on a three-run homer by Colton Repp in the bottom of the second as National sliced the lead to 5-3.

Hancock scored two runs in the fourth to increase its advantage to 7-3. Zach Clark came home on a wild pitch and Darren Lashley hit a sacrifice fly. Hancock added two more runs in the fifth on a pair of bases-loaded walks to make it 9-3.

National got a run in the bottom of the fifth when Austin Socks singled home Jordan Luna to reduce the deficit to 9-4.

Hancock closed out the scoring with a seven-run rally in the sixth. The seven runs came on a throwing error, two bases-loaded walks and a grand slam to left by Lashley.

"Everybody came alive tonight," Hancock manager Brian Rider said. "Everything that we hit was hit pretty hard. We had a productive offense, good pitching and good defense. When you can do all of those things, it makes the game pretty enjoyable."

"I was proud of our guys for the way that they battled after losing that first game," National manager Ed Penn said. "Our players hustled and gave the effort. I give Hancock a lot of credit. They have a nice team."

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