Shelby kept its hopes of a share of the West Michigan Conference
Rivers title intact Tuesday by sweeping Mason County Central - but it
didn't come easy.
The Tigers (21-7, 8-2 WMC Rivers) rolled to a
15-4 win in game one, but MCC made life difficult in game two, a 6-5
Shelby win. MCC scored twice in the sixth inning and loaded the bases
with one out. Luckily, the Tigers had the option of going to DayDay
Garcia, who pitched the opener, and Garcia came up clutch, inducing two
pop-ups to escape the jam. Garcia then pitched a shutout seventh inning
to secure the save and keep title hopes alive.
With the sweep, Shelby now must sweep Hesperia to secure a share of the conference title.
Shelby
opened game two with a three-run first inning, highlighted by Trevor
Weiss' RBI double. MCC rallied to tie it in the third, but Shelby took
the lead for good with a two-run bottom half of the inning, taking
advantage of a MCC error and getting a RBI bloop single from Neil
Gowell.
Chase Simon and Weiss each had two hits in the win.
In
game one, the Tigers seized command of the game with a six-run second
inning. Eli Kelley had a triple to lead off the frame, and later in the
inning, Cam Smith had a RBI single followed by a two-run double from
Leighton Belasco.
Smith and Jaden Furman led the offense with
three hits and two RBI apiece, and Kelley had two hits and three runs.
Belasco and Weiss also got two hits each. Garcia allowed two earned runs
and struck out eight.
