The Beckley Babe Ruth All-Stars will likely not be on the Christmas card list from anyone in Indiana this December.
Definitely not in the town of Crown Point.
Thursday afternoon the Crown Point All-Stars battled Beckley in two different states with the same result.
In Wisconsin, the Beckley Babe Ruth 16U All-Stars beat Crown Point 7-0 behind a combined no-hitter. A little south in Indiana, the Beckley 14U All-Stars knocked off the host team 6-3 to secure the sweep.
Both Beckley teams will be back in action Friday in round two of pool play. Beckley 14U will battle the powerful Janesville Generals from Wisconsin at 10:30 a.m. Game two for the Beckley 16U squad will pit the boys from Harry Lewin Field against one of the host teams, Eau Claire Black.
The story for the Beckley 16U All-Stars was a familiar one, solid hitting and lights out pitching.
Sam Barnett, Drew Gallaher and Aiden Scarbrough provided the muscle on the hill combing for a no-hitter. Barnett went 2 1/3 innings to start the game, striking out six. Gallaher followed with three strikeouts over his 3 1/3 innings before Scarbrough went the final 1 1/3 innings to slam the door.
The no-no comes on the heels of three no-hitters Beckley tossed last year at the 14U level in the run to the Babe Ruth World Series.
Barnett also set the tone at the plate giving Beckley all the runs it would need by smacking a bases loaded double for a 2-0 lead.
The Beckley boys were far from done in the opening at-bat, however.
Parker Williams, who was 3-for-3 on the day, doubled the Beckley advantage with single, scoring two more runs and Kayden Quesenberry capped the five-run first inning with an RBI-single to score Noah Fox.
Brady Williams ripped a one-out triple in the second inning to score Maddex Sims and stole home for the final margin.
The 14U team also struck quick to open its game.
Two out doubles from Chance Moore, Jacob Varney and Preston Eades all plated one run for a quick 3-0 before Crown Point made its first swing of the game.
Starting pitcher Parker Hodges scored on a wild pitch in the second inning and Anderson Eades made it a 5-0 lead with a fielder’s choice RBI in the third.
Crown Point made it interesting with a run in the fourth inning before two Beckley errors led to a pair of runs in the fifth, but it was their only life the rest of the way.
Kyler Quesenberry gave Beckley some breathing room with a sacrifice fly, scoring Braxton Nuckolls, before Varney held the host team scoreless over the final two frames.
