Mount Pleasant Eagles finish second at state tournament
From Staff Reports
Thursday, August 7, 2008 10:28 AM CDT
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| Pictured are the 12-under Mount Pleasant Eagles .Left to right, bottom Row: Tyler Levesque, Hunter May, Luke Hill, Michael Fomby, and Jordan Raney. Middle Row : Cameron Precise, Baron Rogers, Andrew Flanagan, Ryan Kelly, Dylan Moore, and Cullen Grubbs. Back Row : Coaches David May, Steve Hill, Darrell Grubbs, and Marvin Fomby. Courtesy photo |
The 12-Under Mount Pleasant Eagles recently finished as runners-up at the Super Series State Tourney in DeSoto, TX. The Eagles went 5-1 over the two day event, beating the Weatherford Thunder 10-0, the Texas Tar Heels 7-1, the Texas Sting 8-6, and the Arlington Stixx 7-5, before falling to the Texas Tar Heels in a rematch 8-5 in the Title Game.
The Eagles opened the tournament by run ruling the Weatherford Thunder 10-0. Michael Fomby and Cullen Grubbs combined to pitch the shutout, with each allowing only one hit in two innings of work. Fomby and Grubbs also led the Eagles at the plate with Fomby having two doubles and Grubbs adding a double and a single. Andrew Flanagan mashed a deep home run over the 270’ fence and Cameron Precise and Dylan Moore added doubles and Hunter May, Ryan Kelly, Luke Hill and Jordan Raney added singles.
The Eagles then faced off against the eventual State Champion Texas Tar Heels and handed the Tar Heels their only loss of the tourney, beating them 7-1. Precise and Moore combined to toss a one hitter. Kelly led the Eagles at the plate with a single and a double, Precise added two singles, Baron Rogers ripped a triple off of the wall, Moore stroked a double and Hill, Raney, and Grubbs added singles.
The next round had the Eagles in a battle with the Texas Sting. Entering the bottom of the fifth trailing 6-5, Grubbs ripped a two out three run double that plated May, Hill, and Rogers. Hill led the Eagles at the plate with three singles, Grubbs followed with a double and a single, Rogers had two singles, and May and Fomby added singles. Fomby, Hill and Grubbs pitched in the win over the Sting.
The semi-final game was another close one against the Arlington Stixx. Again the Eagles found themselves down entering the bottom of the fifth, this time by a score of 5-3. Hill led the inning off with a single, following a flyout to center, Kelly stroked a double to plate Hill and cut the score to 5-4. Precise then singled to score Kelly and tie the game at five. Raney then came to the plate and singled to plate Precise with what turned out to be the winning run. Kelly had two doubles in the contest, Precise and Raney added two singles, Moore picked up a double, and Hill and Fomby added singles. Precise started the game on the hill and Moore pitched the final four to pick up the win, striking out seven over four innings.
In the Championship Game the Tar Heels jumped out to a 7-0 lead after three innings and the Eagles were unable to recover, falling 8-5. In the fourth the Eagles finally got things going when Rogers plated Flanagan and Hill with a single to cut it to 7-2. In the fifth, Hill singled to plate Raney and May to trim the deficit to 7-4. The Eagles gave up a homerun in the top of the sixth to make it 8-5. Precise doubled to get things going in the bottom of the sixth, but then the Tar Heels recorded the first two outs of inning getting groundouts to second on back to back batters. With two outs and still trailing 8-4, Fomby singled to plate Precise and Moore followed that with a single, but a strikeout would end the game and the Eagles hopes of a State Title. Hill would lead the Eagles at the plate with a double and a single, May and Precise ripped doubles in the contest, and Rogers, Kelly, Raney, Fomby and Flanagan would all add singles. Moore would pitch the first two innings and Raney pitched the final four.
The Eagles finished the season 23-6 and ended their season a little earlier than expected due to a couple of injuries that kept them from attending the World Series. The Eagles have been together for four years and have combined to go 114-21 over those four seasons.
The Eagles would like to thank their sponsors for making this season possible: Cameron Construction, Capps Insurance, Elliott Motors, LMP Concrete, McDonalds, Mount Pleasant Toyota, Pilgrim Bank, Posey Construction, Sisk Motors, South End Grocery, Stanger Surveying, Sydney Harper and Thomas Ratliff.
