Published: August 15, 2008 01:32 pm      

Byng, Latta roll to wins at Dale Tournament

Dale — The Byng Pirates and Latta Panthers came away from the Dale Invitational Baseball Tournament with surprise run-rule victories Thursday afternoon against teams that wouldn’t normally succumb so easily.

Byng scored early and often en route to a 10-2 five-inning victory over Rock Creek and Latta knocked off error-prone Rattan 18-2 in four innings.

Byng faces Dale 7:30 p.m. today while Latta is scheduled to play the Fort Towson-Oktaha winner at 5:15 p.m.

Byng 10, Rock Creek 2

The Pirates (2-0) had 13 hits and were led by Mason Groves at the plate with a run scored and four RBIs. “We hit the ball well and put it around the field a little bit,” Byng head coach Charles Copeland said. “The main thing we’ve been talking about early in season is to put pressure on the defense, putting balls in play and making them work to get outs. I think we did a good job of that today. I thought we did a good job of scoring some runs early and playing pretty good defense behind it.”

Groves had an RBI sacrifice fly and Ryan Williams a two-run double in the first inning to help Byng out to a 3-0 lead. The Pirates scored four more times in the second inning, all with two outs. Dylan Hendricks had an RBI single and Groves followed with an RBI double for a 5-0 Pirate lead. Dakota Abbott added an RBI single and after a walk to Chaise Haley, Ryan Williams added an RBI double for a 7-0 lead after two innings.

The Pirates added two more runs in the top of the third before Rock Creek finally got on the scoreboard on a two-run double by Lane Davis. Groves added another sacrifice fly RBI in the fifth for the final scoring.

Hendricks finished 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI, Abbott was 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI and Williams was 2-for-3 with three RBIs for Byng.

Latta 18, Rattan 2

Not that Latta needed them in their season opener, with nine hits and plenty of earned runs, but the Rattan Rams just couldn’t seem to hold onto the ball and finished with 10 errors.

The Panthers (1-0) scored four runs in the first inning on RBI singles by Tyler Reeves, Mike Hood and Reed Johnson. The other run scored on an error.

After the Rams scored once in the bottom of the inning to cut the deficit to 4-1, Latta scored two more in the top of the second. Wacey Henderson had an RBI single and the other run scored on an error. Dylan Tinkler had a two-run double in the third inning and Johnson added a solo home run to extend the Panther lead to 9-1. Johnson and Tyler Pogue had bases-loaded walks and Thad Gillum added an RBI single in the fourth as Latta plated nine runs for an 18-2 lead.

“We were a bit anxious at the plate and extended the zone some, but did hit the ball hard today,” Latta head coach Eddie Collins said. “It would have been a lot better ball game if they had caught it (10 errors by Rattan), but that’s part of baseball. We’ve had days like that when we couldn’t catch it and from there it just snowballed on them. It’s the first game of the year and we’ll take it.”

Henderson, who threw three innings and picked up the victory on the mound, finished 2-3 with two runs and an RBI and Johnson was 2-3 with two runs and three RBIs for the Panthers.