Published: July 02, 2008 04:05 pm            

Braves rally past Duncan

Ada — The Ada Legion Post 72 Braves’ six-run eighth inning Tuesday night against Duncan Legion Post 55 wasn’t a thing of beauty. In fact, the Braves’ winning rally had a face only a coach could love.

Ada (18-3) parlayed two errors, three walks, a hit batter, a wild pitch, a passed ball and a pair of clutch hits into its only runs of the night and, after being dominated for seven innings by Duncan starter Mark Kendall, the Braves escaped with an unlikely 6-2 victory over a Post 55 squad they had clobbered, 16-3, in Duncan on June 19.

“One thing about this team — they seem to score when they want to,” first-year Ada coach Travis Graham said after seeing his club win for the 18th time in its last 19 games. “But they have to understand than they can’t KEEP doing that.”

The Braves, who managed just two hits but still managed to waste numerous scoring opportunities against Kendall through the first seven innings, kept alive their streak of never trailing for more than an inning over their last 19 games when they answered a two-run Duncan rally in the seventh with their outburst in the eighth against relievers Randall Snider and Jacob Russell.

Tyler Porter — who had entered the game in the sixth inning as Graham emptied his bench — reached on the first Duncan error of in the eighth on his fly ball to left field, then Snider walked Garan Qualls and Brett Walls to load the bases and bring Russell to the mound.

Porter scored Ada’s first run on a passed ball on Russell’s second pitch to Asher’s Matt Johnson, then Johnson — one of only three Ada starters to finish the game — was hit with a 3-2 pitch later in the at-bat to load the bases. Latta’s Robert Simpson, another sixth-inning substitution, fell behind 0-2 but grounded the next pitch to left field for an RBI single to plate Qualls and tie the game.

Walls, who had gone into left field to start the sixth, scored the go-ahead run on a wild pitch, then another sixth-inning sub, Ada High’s Spencer Penrod, drew the third walk of the inning with one out to again load the bases. Russell struck out Tanner Robinson for the second out, but clean-up Dustin Ervin — who was 0-for-4 against Kendall and hadn’t gotten a ball out of the infield — lined a double to the wall in right-center to clear the bases.

Porter, the fifth Ada pitcher of the night, came on to work around a hit batter and a walk and, with the help of a beautiful play by shortstop J. P. Maples on a ground ball up the middle by Colby Snider for the second out, tossed a scoreless ninth to seal the win for Ervin.

Ada wasted huge scoring chances in the first three innings, and the Braves also had their leadoff hitter on base in the fourth, fifth and sixth against Kendall, who always seemed to make a big pitch when he needed it. He retired Ada’s 3-4-5 hitters (Riley Keith, Ervin and Jacob Douglas) in the first after the Braves put runners at second and third with nobody out, he got Jeremy Stein to fly out to right with two outs and the bases loaded in the second, and he worked around a leadoff double and error that put Keith at third with nobody out in the third.

Duncan, which managed only a one-out single in the third off starter Chad Woods and a two-out hit in the sixth off Tyler Carter through the first six innings, finally broke through against Qualls with three hits and two runs in the seventh.

Kendall started the rally with a bloop single to right-center and scored on a one-out double to the wall in right-center by Snider, the Duncan nine-hole hitter. Chance Bridges fouled out to first base for the second out, but Bennett plated Snider with the second run in the inning on another bloop hit to almost the same spot as Snider’s.

Before the seventh, Duncan (16-7) had gotten only one baserunner as far as third against Graham’s pitching staff. Woods continued his strong work this summer with three shutout innings, then Ada High lefty Tyler Carter walked two but didn’t allow a hit in his first two innings on the mound for the Braves this season. Ervin, who started at third base Tuesday and had been used only sparingly on the mound before Tuesday, came on to work a perfect eighth to earn his first victory.

“All of our pitchers did a good job,” Graham said.

Penrod, Keith, Ervin, Johnson and Simpson had a hit apiece to account for Ada’s lowest hit total since the Braves managed just three total hits in a doubleheader loss to Durant to open the season. In addition to the three hits in the seventh, Duncan managed only Bridges’ single in the third and Tyler Wilkins’ single in the sixth, and Ada pitchers also walked four.

The Braves return to action Thursday, facing Okmulgee and Woodward — teams they beat a total of five times last month — in the opening round of the Brad Holt Memorial Tournament in Stillwater. Ada will open the pool play event at noon against Okmulgee, then will face Woodward at 2:30 p.m.

        

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