Published: July 23, 2008 01:23 am            

‘Cardiac Kids’

Fairmont all-stars erase seven run deficit to advance

CLARKSBURG — Manager Steve Mohr has seen enough of his team’s late-inning heroics that he’s come up with a fitting nickname for the Fairmont 11-12 all-stars.

“The Cardiac Kids.”

The Fairmont team earned the nickname again in the quarterfinals of the West Virginia State Little League tournament Tuesday.

Fairmont was trailing Logan 7-0 after the top of the second inning before rallying to stave off elimination with an 11-7 victory.

“I told them we just need to chip away at the lead,” Mohr said. “I know we had the power, and they were going to have to change pitchers because of pitch count. So we just kept chipping away.”

Fairmont got into trouble early on when Logan pitcher Zee Minick blasted a three-run home run off Fairmont starter Austin Norman.

The Logan All-Stars added four more runs in the second as Norman gave way to Johnny Ray Kesling on the mound.

Mohr was hoping to save Kesling for the semifinals, but facing a 7-0 deficit, he knew there might not be any semifinals if Logan continued to score runs in bunches like it had.

“It’s single elimination now,” Mohr said. “I was trying to save Johnny, but we’ve got four good pitchers left for whoever we face tomorrow.”

Kesling did his job, pitching four shut out innings and giving Fairmont a chance to win the ball game.

Fairmont finally got on the board against Logan thanks to walks, the same thing that had put them in the hole when they were in the field.

Ronnie Mills led off with a walk, and Colton Toothman was hit by a pitch. Norman followed with a walk to load the bases for Brandon Plivelich, who got Fairmont back into the game with one mighty swing.

Plivelich crushed a pitch from Minick over the fence in dead-center for a grand slam and brought Fairmont back within three.

“Brandon really brought some life to the team with that home run,” Mohr said.

Fairmont got two more in the bottom of the fourth when Norman led off with a double. After two quick outs, Kesling and Gage Hannah drew back-to-back walks before Bailey Mohr roped a double down the right field line to score Norman and Kesling.

The comeback was complete in the bottom of the fifth when Luke Hrapchak smashed a home run that bounced off the yellow tubing on top of the outfield wall and nearly into the up-to-then-vocal Logan cheering section. The two-run shot gave Fairmont an 8-7 lead, its first of the contest.

Toothman followed that emotional home run with a single, and Norman added some insurance with his own two-run blast that cleared the right field fence by plenty.

Kesling finished off Logan in the top of the sixth with just a few pitches remaining before he, too, would have had to been pulled.

The key play in the inning was Bailey Mohr’s back-hand stop of a single and with a quick relay to Kesling was able to nail a Logan runner trying to score from second on the hit.

Fairmont will move on to play the winner of Hurricane-South Berkeley today at 5:30 p.m. at the Bridgeport Little League Complex.

“I think we’re ready,” Mohr said. “Its not going to get any easier from here on out, but we’ve got four good pitchers left who I know can give us good things.”

E-mail Mike Bowen at mbowen@timeswv.com.

        

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