Still perfect: League’s unbeatens win again
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Hoover and Sons Insurance improved to a perfect 8-0 on the season, and 3-0 in American League play, downing ADA Molding 13-3 in a five-inning contest that came to an early end via the league’s mercy rule.
Hoover’s victory capped a night of lopsided victories at the Hoover Milraney Field, however.
ABC Ice opened Friday’s play with a 8-1 win over Willmore Body Shop, improving to 7-0 (2-0 in division play) behind a stellar pitching performance from Brett Patterson, who fanned 16 of the 22 batters he faced in a complete-game two-hitter.
Patterson, who struck out eight Willmore batters in a row at one point during Friday’s game, helped his own cause with the bat early, slapping a two-out double to center field to plate Brian Rhoady for the game’s first run.
Willmore came back to tie the contest in the bottom of the first, when shortstop Matthew Tidenburg drove in Cody Fults with a double to knot the score at a run apiece. But Willmore struggled against Patterson for much of the rest of the night, with only one other batter reaching base before the sixth inning, when Lou Christian came through with his team’s only other base hit of the game, a two-out double.
ABC took the lead for good in the third, when Tyler Gilley tripled and scored on a wild pitch. Four more runs came in the fourth, on an RBI sacrifice from Rhoady, a two-run ground-rule double from Gilley and a single from Patterson, who tacked on another pair of runs with a shot to center field in the sixth.
Patterson and Gilley each finished with three hits, while Chris-tian – who fanned nine batters himself – took the loss for Willmore.
Friday’s nightcap saw plenty of “K’s” notched in the scorebook, as well.
Hoover and Sons’ Cody Tate struck out 11 ADA batters, including a stretch of seven in a row. But despite coming out on the short end of the decision, ADA’s Matt Wilson put on a strikeout display of his own, fanning a dozen batters.
Unfortunately for Wilson and his ADA teammates, when Hoover and Sons’ batters did make contact, they made the most of it.
Leadoff man Patrick Harvey reached base all four times he came to the plate, and scored four runs, giving his team an early led when he singled and came home on a wild pitch in the first. Joel Rowland led off the second with a walk, and gave Hoover and Sons a 2-0 lead when he came home on a throwing error.
The league leaders plated three runs in the third inning, which began with a Harvey single. Harvey came in on a squeeze bunt from Morgan Adcock, and catcher Lake Kirby scored on an attempt to throw Adcock out at second. Adcock put his team up 5-0 when he scored on a wild pitch to Rowland.
ADA got things going in the top of the fourth, when Wilson singled then scored on an RBI from Raney Webb. Dylan Hillis drove in Webb with an RBI grounder, cutting the H&S lead to 5-2.
But Hoover and Sons came right back with three runs in the bottom of the frame, when Kirby drove in Trevor Durham and Harvey with a shot down the right field line. Phillips plated Kirby with a single, putting Hoover back on top by an 8-2 margin.
After ADA’s Justin McGregor singled and scored on a wild throw in the top of the fifth, Hoover and Sons put the game away in the bottom of the frame. Durham tripled down the right field line, plating Rowland and Quinton McKinley, and then came in himself on Harvey’s single. Harvey scored on a wild pitch, and Kirby singled then scored the game winning run on a Phillips single to left.
Hoover and Sons was scheduled to take on ABC Ice in a battle of undefeated teams Saturday night.