Published: August 18, 2008 02:26 pm      

Dale tops Latta in tourney finals

Dale — The Dale Pirates jumped out to a 6-0 lead and, despite several errors and a late surge by Latta, held on for a 6-4 victory over the Panthers in the championship game of the Dale Invitational Baseball Tournament Saturday night.

In the third place game, Oktaha defeated Byng. No report from that game was available at press time.

Dale (3-0) committed six errors in the last three innings to help the Panthers score four runs, but Latta couldn’t come up with the timely hit needed to get back in the ball game. The Panthers stranded 13 runners in the game, including the bases loaded in the sixth and seventh innings.

“They kicked it around and gave us a chance to get back in the ballgame,” Latta head coach Eddie Collins said. “Hopefully we won’t leave that many runners on. We had people that didn’t swing the bat real well tonight that had been, but the guy on the mound has a lot to do with that. We made a couple of defensive mistakes that led to a couple of runs (early in the game) that probably seemed insignificant at the time. But, I liked the way we battled back and did some things positive. I don’t know if they hadn’t kicked the ball around if we would have been able to get back in it, but they did and that’s why you play the game. We’ve got to make better decisions at the plate, especially with runners in scoring position. There’s a lot of ways we can get better and improve. We’ve got to go back to work and get better and if we do that we’ll be fine.”

Tyler Holton had an RBI double and scored a run in the second inning to put Dale in front 2-0. The Pirates added two more runs in the third on a two-run homer by Trace Dilliner. Ty Flewallen hit an RBI double and Mike Harris a sacrifice fly in the fifth to push the Pirates in front 6-0. Dilliner (1-0), meanwhile, pitched five strong innings for the Pirates striking out nine and allowing only two hits.

The Panthers (2-1) got on the board in the sixth, scoring twice on three errors. In the seventh, Tyler Reeves singled and Ryan Stoup was hit by a pitch. Mike Hood then singled to load the bases. After a strikeout, Thad Gillum reached on an error to score one run and Dillon Anderson reached on a fielder’s choice to score another run. But a flyout to center ended the game for the Panthers.

Reed Johnson (0-1) took the loss for Latta, throwing four innings, giving up only three hits while striking out five. Hood finished 3-for-4 to pace the Panthers while Flewallen was 2-for-3 for the Pirates.