{"id":8289,"date":"2013-08-13T22:14:24","date_gmt":"2013-08-14T02:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=8289"},"modified":"2013-08-15T19:19:28","modified_gmt":"2013-08-15T23:19:28","slug":"kennett-kings-3-0-after-notching-9-4-win","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/?p=8289","title":{"rendered":"Kennett Kings 3-0 after notching 9-4 win"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wednesday\u2019s matchup will pit them against Latin American champs from Panama<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n
\"Shortstop<\/a>

Shortstop Eric Takoushian went 2-for-4 with 2 RBI in the Eastern Regional Champion Kennett Kings\u2019 9-4 win over Central Champion Clear Ridge Little League of Chicago.<\/p><\/div>\n

The Eastern Regional Champion Kennett Kings never gave up the lead in their Little League Senior Division World Series game Tuesday night against Central Champion Clear Ridge Little League of Chicago, but they took their time to erase any doubt about the outcome.<\/p>\n

The Kennett 16-year-olds scored four runs in the first inning and five in the seventh to defeat the Illinois squad, 9-4, in pool play of the Little League Senior Division World Series in Bangor, Maine.\u00a0 Atop their pool with a 3-0 record, the Eastern champs from Kennett will face off against Latin American Champion Chitre Little League of Panama Wednesday at 8 p.m.\u00a0 The Panamanian team is 2-0. The outcome of the game could determine whether Kennett will advance to the tournament semifinals on Friday.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody knows what the game against Panama means,\u201d said Manager Todd Duerr. \u201cWe met with the team in the hotel courtyard to talk about the game plan and the significance. Panama is stellar defensively and backs it up with deep pitching. So it\u2019s probably going to be bats against bats and see what happens.\u00a0 We certainly respect them, but we\u2019re not afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before the 5 p. m. game, Duerr reminded the team that at this point in the World Series, \u201ceverything is earned. We had to keep in mind that Chicago had two tough losses, and they wanted to go home and say they won a World Series game. We were standing in their way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Continuing to hit the cover off the baseball, every starter in the Eastern champions\u2019 lineup had at least one hit. Leading the way was shortstop Eric Takoushian, who had two hits in four at-bats and was the only player to knock in more than one run with two RBI. \u00a0Catcher Eric Duerr and designated hitter Dan Garver each had three hits. \u201cI was seeing the ball really well tonight,\u201d Garver said, \u201cand every pitch was in my wheelhouse.\u201d<\/p>\n

In what has become expected for the Kings, Drew Jarmuz led off the game with a hard single through third base. Alex Pechin laid down a bunt single, followed by Eric Duerr\u2019s hitting a single through shortstop to load the bases.\u00a0 Joe Zirolli knocked in the first run with a single to left field, Tucker Reese accounted for the next run on a fielder\u2019s choice, Andrew Jones singled to score Zirolli, and Eric Takoushian plated the fourth run of the inning on a ground out to second base.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe started off well hitting,\u201d said Coach Mike Pechin, \u201cbut I think there was a bit of overconfidence. We thought we were going to roll over this team because they were 0-2. We had to regain our composure.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Kennett squad uncharacteristically committed two errors in the second inning with one out, which led to two runs for the Chicago squad. With Illinois players at second and third bases, pitcher Joe Zirolli ended the inning with two strikeouts. In the third inning, a single before and a single after Zirolli hit a batter accounted for the Chicagoan\u2019 third run.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe played a poor defensive inning, and when you play poor defensively, it does carry over to the offense,\u201d said Mike Pechin. Contributing to the East team\u2019s difficulties at the plate was a change by Illinois starting pitcher Quinn Snarskis, who switched from throwing overhand to sidearm. \u201cOur guys weren\u2019t being selective; they didn\u2019t work the count, swinging at first pitches. They needed to make adjustments at the plate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Depending on one\u2019s point of view, the fourth through sixth innings were either nail-biting or unexciting as only three batters reached base. Mike Pechin said the team \u201cwas well aware that the game isn\u2019t over until the last out. We\u2019ve pulled out games at our last at-bat against other teams, so we know it can be done.\u201d<\/p>\n

When Chicago removed starting pitcher Snarskis, \u00a0the East squad seemed to reawaken, putting on a hitting spectacle similar to the one in the first inning.\u00a0 With one out, Zirolli started the final onslaught with a line drive single to left field followed by Tucker Reese\u2019s line drive single to left field. A passed ball and an error on the Clear Ridge second baseman led to Kennett\u2019s first run. Takoushian singled through shortstop to score courtesy runner Chris Tucker before Dan Garver, Jake Freeman and Drew Jarmuz hit back-to-back-to back singles to end the Kennett Square 16-year-olds\u2019 scoring.<\/p>\n

Middle reliever Ryan Barrett pitched two-and-two-thirds\u2019 innings of middle relief before Reese entered the game to pitch the final inning. While there was little drama in the seventh,\u00a0\u00a0<\/sup>the ball found Barrett on his first play in the infield after moving from pitcher. He made a stab at a hard drive to third base and calmly turned it into a Barrett-to-Freeman-to-Jones double play for the first two outs of the final frame before Reese induced the final hitter into a ground out to second base.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wednesday\u2019s matchup will pit them against Latin American champs from Panama The Eastern Regional Champion Kennett Kings never gave up the lead in their Little League Senior Division World Series game Tuesday night against Central Champion Clear Ridge Little League of Chicago, but they took their time to erase any doubt about the outcome. The […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":8290,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,22],"tags":[3054,3055,3056,3057,3058,3059,3060,3061],"class_list":["post-8289","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured","category-sports","tag-dan-garver","tag-drew-jarmuz","tag-eastern-regional-champion-kennett-kings","tag-eric-takoushian","tag-joe-zirolli","tag-little-league-senior-division-world-series","tag-manager-todd-duerr","tag-mike-pechin"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8289","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8289"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8289\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/8290"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8289"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8289"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kennetttimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8289"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}