It was a true championship game between the Wheelersburg and Fairland Senior League teams.

Saturday, July 15, 2000

It was a true championship game between the Wheelersburg and Fairland Senior League teams.

Fairland won the winners’ bracket and Wheelersburg suffered its only loss of the tournament at the hands of Fairland 1-0 a week ago and beat Fairland 11-4 Thursday night to advance to the championship game.

Fairland broke the game open on a grand slam from winning pitcher Matt Roy in the fifth inning and held on to win 10-4.

The victory puts Fairland into the state championship round and they will play July 26 at 2 p.m. in Ashtabula.

"The kids all played real well, throughout the tournament," coach Alan Clark said. "We had some surprises tonight. We got some hits from guys who have been struggling. We had different people chip in."

Chris Hardy got Fairland off and running with a solo homer in the bottom of the first but Wheelersburg fought back to tie things up 3-3 in the third. It was Hardy’s third homer of the tournament.

It was 5-3 Fairland when Roy hit his grand slam in the bottom of the fifth making the lead 9-3 and putting the game out of reach.

"Matt pitched well and we hit enough to win," Clark said. "We had some big hits but it was our defense that led us. We made very few errors. I think we only made four in five games. That’s the kind of effort you need to advance this time of year."

Drew Clark had three hits, and Toby Rice had a pair.

Roy was the winning pitcher and was the winning pitcher in the 1-0 shutout of Wheelersburg earlier in the tournament.

"Our pitching was good throughout the tourney," Clark said. "We got better as a team as the tournament went on. Our kids were really excited to win and now we are looking forward to the state."

Ironton opens with win

McDERMOTT – The Ironton 10-year old All-Stars won the opening game of the district Saturday afternoon 30-1 over Northwest.

Drew Kouns was the winning pitcher and Nick Lewis threw an inning in relief.

Nick Lewis went 4 for 4 at the plate, Drew Kouns was 3-3, Seth Kouns went 2-4, Jeremy Taylor was 3-3, Mark Carter was 3-4, Stephen Delong 2-3, Bub Johnson 1-1, Ryan Allen 1-1, Trey Stambaugh 1-2 and Michael Preston had a pair of walks. Chad Harbey and Cory McKnight also played.

"It was a good game for us to start, our first five guys each scored four times," coach Steve Lewis said. "We played good defense but it was a hard game to judge by. We just don’t want to get over confident."

Drew Kouns limited Northwest to a hit in three innings and Lewis gave up a hit in his inning of work.

Ironton (1-0) will play Green at 5:30 p.m. July 18 behind Northwest High School.