CC Minors come in fourth
Published 1:05 pm Wednesday, July 20, 2016
- The Charlotte County All-Stars went 2-2 in the Dixie Youth District 5 Minor League All-Star Tournament in Victoria. Team members include, from left, front row, Brayson Arrington, Kaheim Dailey, Jackson Walker, Jacob Case, Pic Fields, Camden Tucker, Noah Mayhew; middle row, Dru Lee, Luke Jennings, Jaylin Gordon, Kanye Dailey, K.J. Eames; back row, Coach Leroy Malsbury, Coach Tyler Griles, Manager Chris Tucker, Coach Jeremy Dunaway, Coach Todd Arrington and Coach Gordon Lee. (Photo by Titus Mohler)
The Charlotte County All-Stars were locked in a scoreless game through four innings on July 12 before the Lunenburg County All- Stars were able to score two runs in the fifth, handing Charlotte a 2-0 elimination game loss in the Dixie Youth District 5 Minor League All-Star Tournament in Victoria.
“This was a tough game right here,” Charlotte Manager Chris Tucker said. “This was probably the closest, even-matched game that I’ve seen since we’ve been here.”
Charlotte’s Kanye Dailey pitched a complete game with 11 strikeouts, helping limit Lunenburg.
“He came, and he showed up tonight,” Tucker said. “He was ready to go. He was ready to play ball.”
Lunenburg also benefited from a strong game by its own pitcher, Ryan Allard, who threw 14 strikeouts, leaving his defense with only four outs that it needed to generate for the game.
“It just came down to the sixth inning, and we couldn’t produce the runs,” Tucker said. “We had runners on the bag but just couldn’t produce the runs.”
With two outs on the board in the bottom of the sixth, Kaheim Dailey reached first as Lunenburg struggled with fielding his hit. Then Brayson Arrington reached first and moved Dailey to second when Allard could not quickly field his short hit. But Allard ended the game with a strikeout shortly thereafter.
Tucker pointed to his team’s offensive woes as a deciding factor in the game.
“Our bats struggled tonight,” he said. “If we could have put the bat on the ball better than what we did, I think it would have been a big turnaround.”
Charlotte ended up with a 2-2 record in the tournament.
“The kids fought hard,” Tucker said. “We got to the final four. Can’t ask for much better than that.”
He said all of his players had been impressive for the whole tournament.
“They’ve done things we didn’t know that they could do,” Tucker said. “They’ve made plays that we would have never thought they would have made. I had an excellent bunch of kids this year, super group of kids. I hope one day in the near future that I get to coach them again. I really do.”
He said all but five of them will be moving up to Majors next year.
