Valley beats DeKalb, falls to Jimtown at Wawasee tourney

BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS

Sports Editor, RTC

Baseball

The Tippecanoe Valley baseball team went 1-1 and finished second out of four teams at the Wawasee tournament Saturday.

Valley beat DeKalb 12-11 in the first round before falling 24-2 in five innings to Jimtown in the final.

Annikan Pettit had two singles and a double and an RBI for Valley in the win over DeKalb. Hunter Craft, Markus Bernicky and Noah Prater had two hits each. Cody Smith singled and drove in two runs.

Prater, Issiac Ramsey, Evan Myers and Cameron Manuel each had an RBI. Ramsey and Manuel had one hit each.

Craft had four of Valley’s nine stolen bases.

Freshman Dallas Martin got the win in relief. He pitched 1 ⅔ innings and allowed one hit and no runs. He walked one and struck out two.

The teams combined for 18 walks and four hit batters.

Valley trailed 10-4 after four innings but scored three in the fifth, two in the sixth and three in the seventh to earn the comeback win.

DeKalb committed seven errors as compared to Valley’s one.

In the Jimtown game, Bernicky had a triple and an RBI. Prater doubled and scored a run. Smith and Myers also had hits.

Jimtown had 22 hits, seven of which went for extra bases. Brandon Smith had a double, a homer and five RBIs.

Already leading 8-2, Jimtown scored 12 runs in the bottom of the third.

Craft, Smith, Luke Tucker and Martin all pitched for Valley.

Jimtown reached the final with an 18-4 win in five innings over Wawasee. In the third-place game, DeKalb blanked Wawasee 15-0 in five innings.

First round: Valley 12, DeKalb 11

Valley 120 132 3 – 12 10 1

DeKalb 222 410 0 – 11 13 7

WP – Dallas Martin (1 ⅔ IP, 1 H, 0 R, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K)

LP – Smith (⅔ IP, 1 H, 3 R, 2 ER, 2 BB, 1 HBP, 1 K)

2B – Annikan Pettit (TV), Lytle (DEK)

Final: Jimtown 24, Valley 2 (5 innings)

Valley 10 1 00 – 2 4 4

Jimtown 44(12) 4X – 24 19 3

WP – Garner (5 IP, 5 H, 3 R, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K)

LP – Smith (⅔ IP, 3 H, 4 R, 3 ER, 1 BB, 0 K)

2B – Noah Prater (TV), Garner 2 (JIM), Dutton (JIM), Kaler (JIM), Smith (JIM)

3B – Markus Bernicky (TV), Kaler (JIM)

HR – Smith (JIM)