Published: September 03, 2008 05:27 pm      

Roff wins own tournament

Roff — For most of Blake Logan’s high school career, the book on the big Roff right-hander has been: “get him early or not at all”.

In Saturday’s championship game of the 29th Roff Fall Invitational Baseball Tournament, Class A No. 1 Silo scored an ugly first-inning run, then Logan, true to form, shut down the Rebels (10-1) the rest of the way in leading Roff — No. 1 in Class B — to a crisp 4-1 victory and just the school’s third title ever in its own fall tournament.

The pitching duel between Logan (3-0) and Silo ace Logan Oller was a sharp contrast to offensive outbursts in the first two games on the final day of the tournament. In the third-place game, Latta snapped out of its offensive funk with a season-high 16 hits and whipped Soper, 14-5; in Saturday’s opener Tupelo went Latta one better, banging out 17 hits in a 15-6 romp past Byng for the consolation title.

CHAMPIONSHIP

Roff 4, Silo 1

A junior righthander who is the ace on Oklahoma’s deepest small-school pitching staff, Logan shook off an early bout of wildness and was a virtual machine over the final five innings. He walked the first two batters he faced (one of whom scored on the first of two Roff errors in the game) and three of the first seven, then threw 51 strikes from his final 65 pitches.

Logan surrendered just three hits — a two-out double by Shawn Hendricks in the fourth, a leadoff single by Trevor Bowen in the sixth and a two-out single by pinch hitter Jared Sterling in the seventh — and struck out 10 in a 106-pitch, complete-game effort. He didn’t go past a two-ball count on a single batter over the final three innings, and seven of his final eight strikeouts came on a breaking pitch that was his staple all afternoon.

“I didn’t feel like I had real good velocity on my fastball,” said Logan, whose fastball was clocked as high as 89 miles per hour early in the game. “But I was getting my curve ball over all day.”

Roff coach Ead Simon blamed some of Logan’s first-inning problems Saturday on himself.

“I was calling the pitches the first inning, and my catcher (senior Taylor Whitis) and I weren’t on the same page,” he said. “I just got out of the way and let Taylor call pitches the rest of the way, and things worked out.”

“I like calling pitches, but it’s up to Coach Simon,” said Whitis, whose RBI double in the fourth was one of the big hits in a three-run rally that snapped a 1-1 tie. “Blake was really sharp today.”

By the time fellow junior Dayne Parker lined a 2-0 pitch from Oller over the left field fence for a game-tying home run in the third, Logan had already found his rhythm. He was helped by a couple of sensational defensive plays — the first on Kenton Stanley’s slow roller up the middle that Parker fielded on the run and fired to first for the final out in the first inning and the second a bare-handed grab-and-throw by junior third baseman Brendan McCurry on a bunt by B. W. Savage for the final out in the second — early in the game but allowed just two runners into scoring position the rest of the way.

Roff’s fourth heralded junior, leadoff hitter Aaron Cornell, started the Tigers’ game-winning rally in the fourth w ith a single to left, he moved to second on a wild pitch, and he scored what proved to be the winning run on the double by Whitis — a shot that glanced off Jacob Carter’s glove at third and caromed into foul territory up the left field line.

Whitis scored on Parker’s third hit of the game, a ground ball single to left, and — after going from first to third on a single to center by McCurry — Parker scored the game’s final run on a Kord Kile’s ground ball to second.

Logan took over from there, shaking off Hendricks’ double off the center field wall in the bottom of the fourth and striking out Cale Palmer on three pitches — the last a nasty breaking pitch — to end the inning. Silo’s only other threat came in the sixth, when Bowen led off with a single to left, moved to second on Logan’s errant pickoff attempt and advanced to third on a one-out ground ball to first base by clean-up hitter Keach Ballard. That threat died, however, when Whitis picked Bowen off third base with a 1-2 count on Stanley.

Parker was the hitting star for Roff (12-1), going 3-for-4 with two runs scored and two RBIs, and Cornell also had three hits and scored once in the victory. McCurry finished 2-for-3 and Whitis was 1-for-5 as the top four hitters in the Tiger batting order accounted for all nine of the hits off Oller.

Roff returns to action Monday with a game at Wanette, and the Tigers will travel to Red Oak later in the way for a two-game series with the Eagles (No. 2 in Class B and 15-5 winners over Roff in the Class B championship game this spring) Friday and Saturday.

THIRD PLACE

Latta 14, Soper 5

Held to a single run in a 15-1 run-rule loss to Silo in Friday’s semifinals, the Panthers (5-4) bounced back in a big way, roughing up Soper ace Cody Linn and reliever Chance Raybon in support of a solid mound effort by righthander Mike Hood.

Making a comeback from a shoulder injury that forced him to miss the spring season, Hood allowed just one earned run and scattered eight hits while going the distance in his third start of the fall.

“That’s what I’ve been looking for from Mike,” said Latta coach Eddie Collins, who will rely on Hood to fill in the No. 2 spot in his rotation behind ace Tyler Reeves until junior Wacey Henderson returns from a freak rib injury he suffered during the first week of the season.

Hood (2-1) struck out only three, but he was especially sharp over the final three innings, recording all three strikeouts and allowing just two infield singles. Latta led just 6-4 heading to the sixth but scored eight times in the top of that inning to end the game on the run rule when Hood worked around a two-out infield hit by Zane Gentry to keep Soper (9-4) off the board in the bottom of the sixth.

Freshman pinch hitter Taylor Dunigan was hit by Linn’s second pitch in the sixth to start the Latta explosion, and was also hit by the first pitch he saw from Raybon (who came on in relief after Linn hit Dunigan) and also scored the game’s final run on a double by Seyth Roebuck.

In addition to his RBI double, Roebuck also singled home a run in the sixth, second baseman Thad Gillum also had a two-run double and Dylan Tinkler and Hood added RBI singles in the inning.

Roebuck struck out in his first two plate appearances but had two doubles and a single in his last three at-bats, and Tinkler, Reeves, Hood, Reed Johnson, Thad Gillum and freshman Boady Snider all had two hits apiece in the victory.

Tinkler was 2-for-3 and scored three runs — the first ahead of Ryan Stoup’s two-out, two-run homer after he walked with one out in the first and the second on a game-tying two-run shot by Reeves after Soper had scored four runs (three unearned) in the bottom of the second with the help of two Latta errors.

The Panthers took the lead for good with two more runs in the fourth on one-out doubles by Reed Johnson and Gillum (who had a career-high three RBIs) and a two-out single by Snider.

CONSOLATION

Tupelo 15, Byng 6

After being shut out by Reeves, 8-0, Thursday, the young Tigers finished the tournament on an offensive roll, following their 16-3 win over Turner Friday with 15 more runs against the Pirates.

Jeremy Stein (the team’s only senior starter) and junior shortstop Nathan Hogue had three hits (including a home run) apiece and combined for seven runs scored (four by Stein) and six RBIs (five by Hogue for his career high). Tyler Griffin was also 3-for-5 with a double, a run scored and two RBIs.

The Tigers (4-7) scored four runs in the first on the two-run single by freshman Brandon Maggia and Hogue’s two-run homer and built the lead to 8-1 with four more runs in the fifth. Byng (5-7) cut the lead to 8-4 in the bottom of the inning, but Stein’s leadoff home run ignited a two-run rally in the top of the sixth that offset two Byng runs in the bottom of that inning.

Tupelo finally put the game away with five runs in the top of the seventh, with Trevor Walkup’s three-run homer the big hit.

Sophomore Jake Sanders surrendered 10 hits but scrambled in and out of trouble to go the distance for his second win of the season.

Maggia finished 1-2 with two runs scored and two RBIs, and Walkup was 2-for-4 with two runs scored and three RBIs for the Tigers.

Rryan Williams was 2-for-3 with a solo home run in the sixth, Jake Wellington was 2-for-5 with a double and a run scored, and A. C. Wilson was 1-for-3 with a solo homer in the second inning to pace Byng.