Published: June 01, 2009 03:06 pm      

Travelers sweep Braves

For the most part, the Ada Legion Post 72 Braves looked like a team that had played just one game prior to Friday night’s home doubleheader with the Elk City-based Oklahoma Travelers. Blake Logan, on the other hand, was in midseason form.

Logan, who started and won the last four Class B state tournament openers for Roff, allowed just one hit and two baserunners over five innings in a dominant performance on the mound, and his Traveler teammates banged out 11 hits and took advantage of key mistakes by the Braves in a 10-0 run-rule victory in Friday’s nightcap. In the opener, Logan’s Roff teammate Brendan McCurry drove drove in three runs to lead the Travelers to a 7-3 win.

“You could tell we need some work,” said Ada coach Travis Graham, whose club fell to 0-3 heading into Saturday afternoon’s twinbill with the Travelers, who improved to 10-1 with Friday’s two victories. “These guys know how to win as individuals. Now they need to learn how to win as a team.”



GAME TWO

Travelers 10, Braves 0

Logan, the 2009 Ada Evening News Player of the Year after going 7-2 on the mound and hitting 20 home runs for the state champion Tigers this spring, was a virtual machine against the Braves. He threw first-pitch strikes to 15 of the 17 batters he faced, and 47 of his 61 pitches were strikes.

The big righthander struck out nine — including six in a row in the second and third innings — and didn’t allow a hit until the fourth inning, when former Ada High star Riley Keith (who had reached on an error in the first) singled to right with one out.

While Logan (2-0) was frustrating the Post 72 hitters, the Traveler bats touched up Ada starter Chad Woods — 9-2 in his first season with the team last summer after an outstanding high school career at Tupelo — for nine runs (seven earned) over four innings.

Jace James, batting in the nine-hole in the visitors’ lineup after sitting out the opener, hit two of the Travelers’ three home runs in the game, both to the opposite field. His line-drive three-run shot capped a four-run second inning, and he homered to almost the same spot off reliever Tyler Porter with one out in the fifth for the game’s final run. James walked in his only other plate appearance and scored the second run in a five-run Traveler fourth-inning outburst on a three-run homer to left by leadoff hitter Charlie Curl.

Jake Barrios, who was 5-for-8 in the two games, was 2-for-4 in the nightcap, Clayton Green (who, like James, sat out Game 1), had wo hits and scored twice, and McCurry finished 1-for-3 with an RBI single to cap the scoring in the fourth.

Although Logan quieted the Post 72 bats in Game 2, the Braves — who also committed three key errors — turned in a couple of sparkling defensive plays, both in the second inning. Cale Elam lined a leadoff double to left-center off Woods, and Duke von Schamann followed with a ground-ball single to right. Elam was waved home on the hit, but he was gunned down at the plate on a beautiful throw by Ada right fielder J. P. Maples.

Later in the inning, the Braves’ new double play combination of second baseman Hunter Marcum from Purcell and Asher shortstop Matt Johnson turned its second highlight-reel twin killing of the evening when Johnson fielded a ground ball up the middle by Barrios and flipped to Marcum, who made a perfect relay to first to end the inning.



GAME ONE

Travelers 7, Braves 3

Ada ace Jonathan Gray of Chandler (10-0 for the Braves last summer) came within a couple of big pitches of shutting down the Travelers in his four innings of work, but three of the four hits he surrendered came when he was ahead in the count 1-2, and all three were critical.

Barrios singled with one out in the first, then Gray walked Trevor Bowen on four pitches. McCurry followed with a soft fly ball to shallow right field that was on its way to being a bloop single when Marcum raced over to make a sensational catch for the second out. But Jase Morgan lined Gray’s next pitch to right-center for a two-run double to give the Travelers the lead for good.

After a 1-2-3 second inning (the only one of the night for the Ada pitching staff), Gray got the first two outs in the third and jumped ahead of Bowen 0-2.

But he followed with four straight balls to the Silo star and, after getting ahead of McCurry 1-2, surrendered an RBI single to center to make it 3-0.

The Travelers’ lead grew to 4-0 when Elam homered to left (again on a 1-2 pitch) leading off the fourth, then the Ada bats finally came alive in the fifth and sixth innings to make things interesting.

Traveler starter Jake Tuck surrendered only two singles over the first four innings, but Maples doubled into the left field corner with one out in the fifth and scored on Keith’s clutch two-out single to left.

Preston Dye replaced Keith on the bases as a courtesy runner and moved to second on a wild pitch, and he scored on a line-hugging double to left by Ada High teammate Brendon Barr to pull the Braves to within 4-2.

Ada cut the lead to one in the sixth, when Johnson lined a leadoff homer over the fence in left off reliever Daniel Edwards, and the Braves had the tying run in scoring position after Maples lined a two-out double to right-center. But Edwards retired Robert Thomas on a fly ball to right to end the sixth and pitched around an error to strike out the side and work a scoreless seventh for his second save of the season.

The Travelers gave Edwards some breathing room in the top of the seventh, scoring three times off Ada High lefty Tyler Carter, who had relieved Gray to start the fifth and surrendered just two singles in his first trip through the Traveler lineup.

But Barrios led off the seventh with a double to left, and everybody was safe when Carter bobbled Bowen’s sacrifice bunt one pitch later. McCurry followed with a line-drive, two-run double to right-center to chase Carter and scored the game’s final run on a two-out bloop single to right by Elam off another former Ada pitcher, Dillon Phillips.

Barrios was 3-for-4 and McCurry finished 2-for-4 to pace an eight-hit attack for the Travelers, while Maples, Keith and Johnson each accounted for two of Ada’s seven hits.

The Braves return to action Monday, facing the Oklahoma Ambassadors at 6 p.m. in a nine-inning contest to start a busy week.

Ada will travel to Edmond Santa Fe to meet the Edmond Stars on Tuesday in another nine-inning contest starting at 6 p.m., then the Braves will face the Lawton Colonels in a doubleheader at Lawton Thursday starting at 6 p.m. before returning home to host a three-way with Legion teams from Woodward and Okmulgee beginning at 4 p.m. Saturday.

On Sunday, the Braves will travel to Rose State College in Midwest City to face the Oklahoma Outlaws in a doubleheader beginning at 1 p.m.