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Fort Scott 11's finish third at State
LIBERAL -- Fort Scott's 11-year-old Cal Ripken Baseball team finished in third place at the State Tournament held here over the weekend.
The 11-year-olds had to survive a three-way tie-breaker to advance out of pool play
Fort Scott also won the Sportsmanship Award. Jacob Bradbury, Dalton Barnes and Kaleb DeLaTorre were all named to the All-Tournament Team.
The games in the order they were played:
Friday: Buhler 6, Fort Scott 4.
Buhler scored first but Fort Scott tied it at 1-1 when Barnes tripled home Carter Young in the top of the second.
Buhler took the lead with four runs in the bottom of the third and added another one in the fourth to make it 6-1.
In the sixth and final inning, Fort Scott rallied. Barnes hit another triple with one out and Jeremy Smith singled him home. Josh Hudiburg followed by belting a two-run home run to cut the deficit to 6-4.
Barnes and Jacob Bradbury each had two hits for Fort Scott. DeLaTorre pitched the first four innings, allowing five hits while striking out four batters. Bradbury pitched one scoreless inning with one strikeout.
Saturday: Fort Scott 13, Andover 9.
Fort Scott took an early 3-1 lead. Barnes doubled in Bradbury and Chase Brown with the first two runs. Hudiburg brought Brown in with a single.
Andover scored four runs in the second and one in the third to take a 6-3 lead. Fort Scott came back with a huge third inning, scoring eight times to taken an 11-6 lead.
Barnes led off with a solo home run. Later in the inning, DeLaTorre tripled with the bases loaded and one out to break a 6-6 tie. That hit have Fort Scott the lead for good.
Barnes went 4 for 4 at the plate with two doubles in addition to his home run. Young also had a double
Bradbury scored three runs for Fort Scott while Brown scored twice.
Bradbury was the starting pitcher, going the first three innings. He gave up three hits and struck out three. Young relieved and allowed two hits while striking out five in three innings.
Fort Scott also turned a triple play in the first inning. Barnes caught a line drive off his shoetops, then threw to Young at first for the second out. Young then threw to Gavin Majors at third, who tagged a runner for the final out. For that play, each player shared the WOW Award, which goes to a player on each team in each game who makes an outstanding play.
Sunday: Fort Scott 10, Cimarron River 8.
Having lost to Buhler on opening night, Fort Scott needed a win to advance to pool play. Fort Scott scored six times in the fifth inning and then held off a Cimarron River rally in the sixth to win.
In the first inning, Bradbury drew a walk and scored on a DeLaTorre triple. Barnes followed with another triple to score DeLaTorre, then scored himself on a fielder's choice to give Fort Scott a 3-0 lead.
Cimarron River led 5-3 after 3 1/2 innings but Fort Scott added a run in the bottom of the fourth as Majors doubled then scored on a Bradbury single.
Majors, Brown, DeLaTorre and Barnes all had base hits in the bottom of the fifth to fuel Fort Scott's rally. Brown's two-out, two-RBI hit broke a 6-6 tie and gave Fort Scott the lead for good.
Cimarron River tried to rally in the sixth, bringing the tying run to the plate with two out. But Hudiburg tracked down a line drive in right field for the final out to preserve the victory.
DeLaTorre, Barnes and Majors had two hits each. DeLaTorre also went all six innings on the mound, allowing five hits while striking out six.
Fort Scott, Buhler and Cimarron River finished in a three-way tie in pool play at 2-1. The first tie-breaker step was head-to-head results, but each team had beaten one of the others. The next step was fewest runs allowed, which favored Buhler and made then the winner of the pool.
With that resolved, the tie-breaker went back to the top, head-to-head play. Fort Scott's win over Cimarron River -- the tournament host team -- gave it the tie-breaker and the No. 2 position out of the pool.
Monday: SPIAA 9, Fort Scott 8.
SPIAA -- which is made up of player from small towns near Dodge City -- rallied for the win with for runs in the bottom of the fifth inning.
Fort Scott held a 5-0 lead after one inning as they belted six hits and had one batter hit by a pitch.
SPIAA scored four in the second. Fort Scott got a run in the fourth as Young's double played DeLaTorre, who had tripled.
Fort Scott was up 6-5 going into the fifth and added two more runs. Majors and Jordan Phillips scored with the aid of hits from Bradbury and DeLaTorre to make it an 8-5 game.
Fort Scott tried to rally in the top of the sixth. Young drew a lead-off walk but SPIAA's left fielder made a diving catch on a line drive by the next batter for the first out and SPIAA was able to hold on for the win.
Bradley, DeLaTorre and Majors had two hits apiece. Bradbury pitched four innings, allowing only one walk while striking out seven batters. Young pitched one inning, allowing a walk and striking out three.
Monday: Fort Scott 6, Ottawa 5.
Fort Scott trailed Ottawa, 5-3, going into the bottom of the sixth inning. Bradbury led off the inning with a bunt single. Brown followed with a single, then DeLaTorre was hit by a pitch, loading the bases with no one out.
Barnes hit a grounder to the shortstop, who tried unsuccessfully to throw Bradbury out at the plate. That cut the deficit to 5-4.
Young followed with a walk-off double, plating Brown and DeLaTorre to give Fort Scott the third-place trophy.
Brown was 3 for 3 at the plate, scoring twice. Bradbury had two hits as did Young.
Brown also was the winning pitcher, pitching the last two innings. He gave up just one hit and struck out two. Young started and pitched the first three innings, striking out four, and Bradbury struck out two as he pitched the fourth inning.
Sports Editor's Note: The Tribune informed the coach who brought the information in that it would pick up the names of the players who won MVP and WOW Awards in each game from the Kansas Babe Ruth Web site. As it turned out, that site was offline Tuesday and the Tribune was unable to get those names.
The Babe Ruth web site should be here. You may click this link and see if the site has returned, then look for the 11-year-old state tournament.