4 in a row!! Royals win again 4-0

Well it's actually technically early evening before I got this blog post started but at least I did get to it today. What a finish to the year for the 3rd & 4th grade baseball team. Starting the year 1 and 5 surely would have left most teams just going through the motions for the rest of the year but to this group of kids credit, they never gave up. They finished with a flurry, winning their last 4 games in a row and winning 5 of the last 7. Thursday's game showed just how good of baseball they are playing as the Royals took control early and never let Colo have any sustained rallies. The Royals got on the board in the top of the 1st with Dylan Gill hitting a one-out double to left, Alex Good followed with a RBI double of his own scoring Dylan from second and getting the Royals on the board. Peyton Larsen was then hit by a pitch and Grant Tiarks grounded a sharp single to short that forced Alex at third. Garret Tiarks then was hit by a pitch loading the bases for Ben Pepper. Ben hit the second pitch offered by the Colo pitcher for a sharp, 2-RBI single to left center scoring Peyton and Grant and giving the Royals a 3 run lead to start the game. That was all Alex Good needed as he pitched 3 masterful innings, striking out 7 of the 11 batters and only allowing 2 hits. Dylan Gill again provided the spark for the Royals as he led off the 3rd inning with a single and advanced on an Alex Good sacrifice. That set the table for Grant Tiarks' RBI double that scored Dylan. Parker Eley continued his new-found confidence at the plate hitting several foul balls to stay alive in the count and getting a solid single past the first baseman. The player of the game though had to be Jeff Haskin who missed 3 early games due to illness and injury. Jeff has been able to foul off several balls in the games he has played but just couldn't catch the break to get one to fall in. Thursday night things went right for Jeff as he got his first hit of the year, a solid single to Right-center and had a great at-bat against Colo's ace, Wes Greeder, where after 2 initial strikes he fouled off 4 consecutive pitches, battling the whole time. Jeff also made his pitching debut in the 4th inning, talking his coach into the chance and proving that he could do it. Jeff faced 4 batters and struck out 2. Jeff also had an unassisted putout and an assist in the field for the night. The Royals won't be participating in the tourney this year as only 7 players could be there. 4 talented 4th graders move on to the next level next year: Alex Good, Peyton Larsen, Dylan Gill, and Jeff Haskin. The entire team should be proud of the way they stuck together and turned things around. This group along with Colo's players should make for some very good baseball teams for Colo/Nesco High.