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August 3, 2012

New Albany 9-10s cruise to state title

All-Stars down Golfmoor in tourney final, 11-2

BY ANTHONY NASELLA sports@newsandtribune.com

DYER —  Though his New Albany team was trailing by just one run to Evansville Golfmoor in the second inning of Thursday night’s 9-10-year-old Indiana State Little League Championship, Coach Josh Biven decided to relieve starting pitcher Andrew Ricketts for Cooper Biven with a runner on second base with just one out.

The move turned out to be a vital one, as Cooper Biven struck out the next two batters to close out the inning. Cooper Biven then added a go-ahead two-run home run in the following inning before New Albany’s batters finally started to get the best of Golfmoor hurler Adam Euler in the fourth inning, and New Albany ultimately captured the championship 11-2 at Vanderhayden Field.

“It was my decision to start Andrew Ricketts, our No. 4 or 5 [pitcher] in the district and state tournament, to get a couple of innings out of him,” Josh Biven said. “Andrew did a good job, and I brought Cooper in to finish the ballgame. We knew they were going to start their big dog (Euler). We thought if we could take some pitches that they wouldn’t get through the game with him.”

Cooper Biven, meanwhile, cruised in relief with a staggering 12 strikeouts over four and 2/3 innings. His game-ending strikeout came on his 75th pitch — his maximum pitch count allowed. But the big stop in the second inning set the pace for New Albany the rest of the way.

“That was an eight-pitch inning for Cooper (in the second inning), and it was huge for us,” Josh Biven said. “Then the big home run by Cooper put us ahead, and we have him on the mound. He took his pitching to a different level at district and state. He was fine with us handing Andrew the ball because he knew he would get his time.

“And he came in and did the job.”

Golfmoor gained the advantage at the game’s beginning when Kody Putnam led off the game with a home run to center field off of Ricketts. Golfmoor added its second run in the bottom of the second compliments of an RBI double by Nolan Hobgood, which scored Nolan Mason.

In the big fourth inning, New Albany scored in a variety of ways. First, Cody Medley scored on a wild pitch. Then Austin Oppel came home on an Aidan Clemons single, and Carson Gentry also scored on a wild pitch. Finally, David Newbanks touched home after a steal of second base failed.

In the sixth inning, Levi Baxter and Ricketts both scored on errors, and Cooper Biven scored on a wild pitch. Oppel drove in Kevin Smith on a single to close out the scoring.

And despite losing to Golfmoor 4-3 earlier in the tournament, Josh Biven brought his kids back to the basics.

“I told the kids to just play ball,” the New Albany manager said. “We knew we could beat them. We were the two best teams out here, but we knew we had them if we just showed up a played ball. Hats off to these kids because they wanted it.”

 

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