‘AA’ Stars fall to Pendelton
Thursday, June 19, 2008 12:36 PM PDT
Ontario—In nine games, the Treasure Valley ‘AA’ Stars have been coasting right along with win after win.
Wednesday night, the Stars had the tables turned in a big way.
Pendleton High School freshman Ike Van Pelt did all the damage on his own, going 4-for-4 with a home run and eight RBIs, and tossed a complete game six-hitter to lead Pendleton to an 18-4 win over the Stars in American Legion baseball action at Elks Memorial Field in Ontario.
“It’s always hard to take losses like that. We just didn’t show up. We were flat, and it showed,” Stars head coach Aaron Sutton said. “In a way, it was a reality check for these guys. We can’t show up and expect to win.”
In all, Pendleton slapped around 10 hits, received eight free passes and took advantage of three Treasure Valley errors.
Pendleton jumped out of the gates with 11 runs in the first inning and chased starter Tyler Pirrie, who struck out one and walked four in his 1⁄3 of an inning.
Treasure Valley answered in the bottom of the first with three runs and added a single run in the third to draw to within an 11-4 deficit.
Pendleton lowered the boom with seven unanswered runs down the stretch to provide the final margin.
Josh Mejia, Ryan Laubacher, Garrett Brown, Kyle Blackwell, Jake Davidson, Victor Machuca and Brad Pollock all notched one hit on the night.
After the game, Sutton expressed his concerns with the squad.
“I wasn’t very happy with them. I was disappointed, but they were disappointed in themselves,” Sutton said. “I told them we have three league games coming up, so we need to move on and get back to it.”
Treasure Valley (8-2 overall) travels to Columbia at 5 p.m. tonight.
