MIDDLEPORT - Nolan Hoffman tossed a shutout in the morning.
Dylan Brown came back with another complete game in the evening.
Only one team is perfect after the first day of the two-day Area 2 15-16-Year-Old All-Star Tournament: Schuylkill West.
Brown pitched a five-hitter, while Hoffman delivered an early key hit to lift Schuylkill West to a 3-2 victory over Schuylkill Central on Saturday at Schuylkill Valley Stadium.
In the morning game, Hoffman allowed four hits as the West blanked Schuylkill North 5-0. The North then beat Central 10-1 in the middle game in the afternoon.
With its two wins, Schuylkill West is 2-0, followed by Schuylkill North (1-1), and Schuylkill Central (0-2). The three teams are back at it again today with a trio of games at Middleport, starting with the North against the West at 10 a.m.
There is still plenty of baseball left, but the West put itself into position to win the title, if not at the very least earn a berth in the VFW State Tournament on Aug. 1-4 at Lebanon Valley.
The Area 2 champion and runner-up will qualify for the state tournament.
"Pitching and defense," West manager Jim Kramer said of the 2-0 start Saturday. "We got tough when there were people on base. We just played basic baseball."
Kramer, the manager of Schuylkill County Teener League runner-up Branch Maroon, is very familiar with Brown, who plays for Pine Grove. Brown was the winning pitcher in Pine Grove's 4-1 victory over Branch Maroon on June 26, its only loss during the regular season.
Saturday, Brown ended up striking out six, walking four and hitting two batters. His defense, and himself for that matter, made key plays, too:
- With a runner on first base after a walk in the top of the first inning, Riley White lined out to Brown, who then threw to first to complete the double play.
- Central had two runners on in the third inning when Aaron DeAngelo singled to right. But Central was denied a run when Cole Handling was thrown out at home by right fielder Tyler Hendricks on a one-bounce throw to the plate;
- Tanner Levan, the West's catcher, threw a runner out trying to steal in the fifth, while Brown started what turned out to be a rundown and out when he tried to pick off a runner at first in sixth.
Central scored both of its runs in the fourth on a wild pitch and error and was threatening in the seventh after Vinny Bobbins was hit on the helmet by a pitch. He reached third on a sacrifice and groundout, but Brown got Handling to fly out to left to end the game.
"I knew he could throw, but I didn't expect to get seven innings out of him," Kramer said of Brown. "He just seems when he got guys on base he holds them on well, and we had good defense.
"When he was up (with his pitches), he came back with a little curveball, an off-speed pitch, to cut the plate and hit the outside corner. He threw that when he needed a strike if he was struggling with his fastball."
The West only collected five hits off White, who went the distance for Central, as he struck out five and walked three. But a three-run bottom of the first was enough for the West.
Brown singled to start the inning, and Colton Love walked. With one out and on an 0-2 pitch, Hoffman hit an opposite-field double down the left-field line, driving in Smith and Love. Hoffman later scored on an error to make it 3-0.
"It is something we've been working on," Kramer said of Hoffman's ability to go to the opposite field. "He is basically a pull hitter, but we've tried to get him to shorten his stroke up and hit the ball back up the middle. That's a result of it."
Schuylkill West 5 Schuylkill North 0
MIDDLEPORT - Nolan Hoffman pitched a four-hitter as the West opened the tournament with a shutout of the North.
Hoffman struck out three in the game. The North's best scoring opportunity came in the bottom of the fifth when it had runners on first and third with one out. But Hoffman struck out the batter, while catcher Tanner Levan fired to shortstop Dylan Smith covering second catch the stealing runner and get the inning-ending double play.
Levan had three hits for the West, while Mark Weinus added a solo home run in the fifth inning. The West got all of the runs it needed in the second when it scored both of its runs on errors, two of the five the North committed in the game.
Schuylkill North 10 Schuylkill Central 1
MIDDLEPORT - Josh Jacavage tossed a four-hitter while Ian McCole had three hits to lead the North to a rout of Central.
Jacavage struck out one. The only run he allowed came in the second inning.
Major Jordan and Lenny Bolinsky added two hits apiece for the North, which scored two runs apiece in the first, third and sixth innings and put the game away with a four-run seventh. Jacavage and Jordan also drove in two runs apiece.
Donte Yeastadt had two hits for Central.