Pulaski All-Stars advance to District Tourney

By TIM HYDEN, CJ Sports Writer
Commonwealth Journal

Science Hill July 01, 2009 06:33 pm

— What a difference a couple of days can make.
On Tuesday, the 9 & 10-year old Little League All-Stars from Pulaski and McCreary Counties had a real barn-burner. Pulaski scored 9 times in the top of the first but had to hold off a late McCreary charge to escape with a 16-13 win. After a Pulaski loss to Wayne County, and a McCreary win over Burnside on Monday, the teams met again in the finals of the loser's bracket of the Area Tournament with a trip to the District Tournament on the line.
You would think the teams would be ready for Round 2 of Ali-Frazier. But this was an early knockout. Pulaski County steam -rolled McCreary County from the get-go, jumping out to a 16-0 lead, and holding on to stop McCreary 18-4.
The dominance started immediately. Pulaski County batted around in the first inning, scoring three times on four hits. But that didn't give any indication of how the game would go. In the first match-up, Pulaski led 6-0 before they made an out, but still had to cling to a slim margin in the end.
But Donald Hoskins wasn't about to let that happen. He controlled the mound and held McCreary scoreless in three out of four innings. McCreary struck for four runs on three hits in the third, but Hoskins shut them out on two hits for the rest of the game, striking out four and only walking one.
Toby Wilson led off the second inning with a stand-up triple for Pulaski, and the merry-go-round swung into action again. This time they only sent eight batters to the plate, but scored five more times thanks to additional hits by Hunter Rogers, Jonathan Gallagher, Jacob Clark, and Derek Burgett.
Things really fell apart for McCreary County in the third. Playing their fourth game in four days and falling behind early may have contributed to their hitting the wall in the third. But no matter how you slice it, Pulaski was giving the stars from down south a good thrashing on this go-around. They scored eight more times in the third, on six hits, and six McCreary errors, four on bad throws.
After McCreary touched Hoskins for four in the third it looked like they might come back alive and make their presence felt like before. But when they came to the plate in the fourth, Hoskins set them down without scoring again, finishing with a complete game victory.
Nine different Pulaski stars connected for base hits in the game, including a three-hit, two-triple game for Toby Wilson. Jonathan Gallagher also had another big game, driving in three runs and connecting on a pair of hits.
With the victory, Pulaski County will now advance to the District Tournament in Evarts beginning on Monday.

PC 358 2 — 18 15 2
MC 004 0 — 4 5 8
Pulaski County- SB-Rogers, Wesley, Gallagher. 2B-Clark. 3B-Wilson 2. RBI-Gallagher 3, Clark 2, Burgett 2, Taylor 2, Wilson, Rogers, Wesley, Hoskins.
McCreary County- RBI-Troxell, Goins, Meadows.

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