Flash player is required to view weather conditions. Download

site web  

Little Miami's Kyle Cook and Kettering Alter's Matt Knapke matched zeroes on the scoreboard for six innings Tuesday in the opening round of the Dayton Division II sectional baseball tournament.

Finally, in the seventh, Cook blinked.

Alter pushed across three unearned runs in its final at bat to advance and face No. 3 seed Eaton today by virtue of a 3-0 win.

Seth Christian delivered the game-winning hit, a double to left-center with one out, scoring a run that reached base on an error with one out. The ensuing sacrifice fly — which would have been the third out — made it 2-0, and Christian scored on a wild pitch to account for the final run.

Cook had worked out of trouble all game long as Alter put runners in scoring position in five of the seven innings.

"Kyle pitched very well," Little Miami coach Dan Cleaver said. "He got a little there at the end, but he really battled for us out there today. We just couldn't produce any offense.

"We hit the way we hit. Knapke controlled us. He owned the outside corner of the plate on our left-handers."

The Alter right-hander struck out 10 Panther batters — including five in a row at one point — and held Little Miami to just three hits, two of them by Cory Shirey.

"I just wanted to throw strikes," Knapke said. "I had control of my fastball and got ahead in the count early. That was the most important thing.

"Keeping the team in the game was my main focus. I wanted to do whatever it took to get a win, and sometimes that means getting strikeouts, but I try not to think that way."

With the win, Alter improved to 8-10 on the season. Little Miami wrapped up the year at 10-13, but Cleaver sees hope for the future as the Panthers started six sophomores and a freshman for most of the season and return the entire pitching staff intact.

"I'm excited about the future," Cleaver said. "These kids are baseball players. They'll hone their skills in the summer and come back to us in February and we'll do it again. I'm look forward to seeing them again next year."

Contact this reporter at (513) 696-4526 or shayes@coxohio.com.

Vote for this story!