Staying alive

By Mike Bowen
Times West Virginian

PLEASANT VALLEY May 08, 2008 12:56 am

— Three pitches in the dirt helped keep Preston’s season alive during the Class AAA, Region I, Section 4 best-of-three series against East Fairmont.
With the score tied 5-all in the bottom of the seventh Wednesday, the Knights’ Brandon Booker drew a leadoff walk and moved to third on two wild pitches. A third throw in the dirt let Booker race home ahead of the tag to give Preston a 6-5 win and life for another day.
“We finally played a complete game,” Preston head coach Jody Luzier said. “I’m extremely proud of the way we played today. I told the kids all along if we play well enough we could play with anyone.”
East Fairmont’s Cody Cutlip took the loss.
He went seven innings, giving up six runs on eight hits. He walked five and struck out eight.
Preston’s Sean Ball was the winner. He gave up five runs on nine hits. He walked seven and struck out two.
“I was really disappointed with the way we played tonight,” East Fairmont head coach Vic Seccuro said. “I knew Preston would come to play. If we let them stay in the game, they’re going to play the whole way.”
The Bees took the early lead with a pair of runs in the top of first.
Seth Quirk and Nick Bonnett both walked and Quirk came around to score on an RBI single by James Mascaro. Matt Perrella followed with a two-out single to drive in Bonnett.
Preston answered in the second inning when Booker and Matt Lewis hit back-to-back home runs to tie the game at two.
The Knights then went ahead 5-2 with three runs in the third inning.
The Bees, who had several baserunning miscues in the contest, got a run back in the fifth when Devin Bowles singled and scored on Cutlip’s RBI hit.
East tied the game at 5-all in the sixth when Ball walked the first four batters he faced in the inning. Bowles followed with an RBI single to knot the game. But with the bases loaded and no outs Ball induced three weak grounders to escape the jam.
“That was the worst exhibition of base-running I’ve ever seen,” Seccuro said. “We had several fundamental errors, just mental things.”
Bowles, Perrella and Cutlip had two hits each for the Bees. Quirk, Mascaro and Tyler Jordahl singled for East.
“Our backs are against the wall now,” Seccuro said. “We need to play a lot better than we did today.”
The series is scheduled to continue at 6 p.m. today at East Fairmont High School.
E-mail Mike Bowen at mbowen@timeswv.com.

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