Tourney run ends for Suffolk Nationals
Published 9:10 pm Thursday, July 14, 2011
CHESAPEAKE — After winning three straight must-win games to become district champions, the Suffolk Nationals Mustang (ages 9-10) all-star team couldn’t keep their run going in the first two games of the PONY Sectional Tournament this week.
Suffolk fell 13-12 to Little Creek National in the first round of sectionals on Tuesday. A 9-3 loss to Lynnhaven knocked Suffolk out of the sectionals Wednesday night at Western Branch.
Lynnhaven took the lead for good with a four-run rally in the second inning. The Nationals put threats together in five of their six innings at bat, but couldn’t cut into Lynnhaven’s lead late in the game.
Suffolk took the lead three hitters into the game. Tyler Spencer singled with a liner into right and the ball skipped by the outfielder allowing Spencer to take second.
Adam Briggs followed with a hard hit into leftfield. Spencer raced around third and scored for a 1-0 lead.
Lynnhaven answered with two runs in the bottom of the first. Suffolk came back with a run in its next frame.
Gavin Ginn singled to lead off the National second. Jay Norris walked and on Cody Anderson’s grounder to second, Lynnhaven got the out at second before a wild relay to first allowed Ginn to keep going and score.
Clean-up hitter Dionte Brown singled in Spencer for a run in the third, making it 6-3 Lynnhaven. Brown was left stranded in scoring position, though, and that became the story for Suffolk in the fifth and sixth innings, too.
Trailing 7-3 in the top of the fifth, Spencer was thrown out trying to stretch a single into a double. The Nationals followed with a single by Briggs and a double by Brown, yet couldn’t push anything across the plate.
The Nationals are Suffolk Youth Athletic Association’s first Mustang division district champs in five years thanks to their tournament title in Windsor last week. Suffolk beat Southampton-Sussex in back-to-back games in the final, winning 9-4 and 9-1 after previously dropping a 4-3 score to Southampton-Sussex in an earlier round.
The Nationals are coached by head coach Mike Barns and assistants Tom Ginn and Kyle Fessette.