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July 30, 2012

LITTLE LEAGUE: NA 9-10s need win to stay alive

By GREG MENGELT greg.mengelt@newstribune.com

DYER — Following Sunday’s 4-3 loss to Evansville Golfmoor, New Albany manager Josh Biven had a message for his 9-10-year-old All-Stars: The tournament has begun.

New Albany needs a win today against Cleveland at Dyer Little League to stay alive and advance to Tuesday’s quarterfinals.

“We gotta win tomorrow,” Biven said. “[Monday] is a must-win. It’s fine with me. I hate those games that don’t mean anything.”

New Albany fell to 1-1 in Pool B following Saturday’s 5-4 win over Zionsville and Sunday’s loss. It would likely take the second seed in the pool with a win Monday.

“If we show up, we should win,” Biven said of Monday’s match with the all-stars from Hancock County. “I think we’ll be fine and get in [to the elimination round].”

After RBIs by Aidan Ricketts and Cooper Biven, New Albany led Golfmoor 3-1 after two innings.

Golfmoor got two runners on in the bottom of the third and Josh Biven decided to bring in his ace — Cooper Biven — to face Golfmoor star Adam Euler.

Euler blasted a three-run home run to give Golfmoor a 4-3 lead. Neither team scored the rest of the way.

“We could tell from scouting them the day before that [Euler] is a very good hitter, but I wasn’t not going to pitch to him.”

After dominating District 5 with 98 runs in six games, New Albany has just eight runs on 10 hits through two state tournament games. Four different batters had a hit apiece on Sunday, including a double by Andrew Ricketts.

“I think it’s been a combination of a little bit of nerves and some kids that are throwing different pitches [at state],” Coach Biven explained. “Euler threw the hardest I’ve ever seen a 10-year-old throw.”

New Albany opened the tournament with a 5-4 victory over Zionsville.

New Albany used six different pitchers, had five different players score and four drive-in runs during the victory.

“It was a good team effort with pitching and a couple of timely hits,” Coach Josh Biven said.

The six pitchers allowed nine hits but held Zionsville to just four runs. Hayden Krebs picked up the win and Ricketts got the save by throwing one pitch in the final inning.

Ricketts fielded a comebacker with runners on second and third and two outs to preserve the win.

“All of our pitchers did well,” Coach Biven said.

Cooper Biven was the only New Albany player with multiple hits, going 2-for-3 with an RBI.

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