The West Liberty-Salem 10U team scored an 8-2 win over Elevate on Saturday at LEI Field in their Banana Ball debat.
Banana Ball features a different take on baseball. There are no walks, no bunting and batters can steal first base on any pitch. The goal is to win the inning to earn a point.
Elevate scored six runs in the top of the first to grab a 1-0 lead. The key play in the inning was a dropped foul ball by a Tiger dad who shall remain nameless to protect his identity. Any foul ball caught by fans in Banana Ball result in an out. In Jeff’s defense, it was a very sunny day and he forgot his glove at home.
The Tigers evened the score after pitcher Ozzy Anders shut out the visitors in a quick second inning. Needing just one run in the bottom of the inning to win a point, leadoff batter Talyn Lowe drew four balls out of the strike zone and raced around the bases on a sprint (rather than a traditional “walk”) and scored on a throwing error.
Both squads plated two runs in the third and three runs in the fourth to leave the overall score knotted at 1.
The Tigers blew the game open with a 6-run fifth inning. The Tigers tacked on five more runs in the sixth to take a 3-1 lead. Pitchers Elliott Deitrick and Talyn Lowe shut down the Elevate offense.
WL-S entered the seventh and decisive inning, with a 3-1 lead, but in Banana Ball, all runs count as points in the final inning.
Zeke Bair provided some breathing room for his Tigers with a leadoff triple to the right center field fence. After a couple of walks, a hit batter and RBI singles from Benjamin Yeater and Ozzy Anders, the Tigers led 8-1 heading into Elevate’s last at-bat. After a leadoff single, Kaleb Horn induced three straight groundouts to secure the 8-2 victory.
Yeater scored four times to lead the Tiger offense. Anders added 3 runs and 3 RBIs. Weston Loehr scored twice and drove in a pair. Alexander Roberts was 3 for 3 with a run and an RBI. William Roberts scored 3 runs. Deitrick drove in two. Lowe scored twice. Horn was 1 for 2 with 2 runs and an RBI, and Braxton Mathews, Rowan Sadlier and Bair all scored twice.