PF Flyers 16U wins PBR Southwest Ohio Fall Championship
The PF Flyers 16U team scored 18 runs in two games on Sunday to win the PBR Southwest Ohio Fall Championship.
Carson Tabler led the Flyers offense all weekend, hitting .562 with three doubles and a home run, for a 1.526 OPS.
The Flyers lost the first game of pool play on Saturday because of a rocky defensive first inning. They fell behind 5-0 before losing 7-3 to the Legends.
But the team bounced back in the second game of pool play. Mason Moore led the game off with a hit by a pitch. Tabler doubled to put runners on second and third. Logan Hardesty grounded out to score a run, and Sawyer Williams singled to drive in Tabler.
Meanwhile, Max Hornberger was cruising on the mound for the Flyers. Through five innings he allowed only one hit.
That hit came in the bottom of the fifth with the Flyers up 4-0 and a runner on second. That runner attempted to score but a perfect relay from Moore to Hardesty to catcher Colby Mullens cut the runner down at the plate and kept the Rawlings Tigers off the scoreboard.
In the sixth, the Tigers managed to get a rally going on two ground ball singles and a walk. That chased Hornberger from the game. They managed to score three runs before Jack Andolina got a line out to short to end the inning.
That took the game to the seventh.
In the bottom of the seventh, the Tigers loaded the bases off Tabler with two outs. Tabler got ahead 0-2. He was pitching out of the windup and the runner on third attempted to steal home. Mullens, a catcher from the Flyers 15U team playing up on Saturday, caught the pitch and slammed the tag down to prevent the tying run from scoring and end the game.
That sent the Flyers into Sunday as the three seed and set up a rematch with the Tigers.
Rudy Glotfelty got the Flyers on the scoreboard in the top of the first with a line drive RBI single.
The Tigers managed to scrape across a run in the bottom of the first off Flyers starter Eli Questa, but that was all they would get against Questa. The righthander went five innings, allowing six hits and striking out nine.
The Flyers took the lead in the second inning. With two outs, Kaiden Raible reached on an error. Wes Canan moved to third on that play. Raible broke for second on the first pitch and stopped to get into a rundown, allowing Canan to steal home before the inning’s final out.
The score remained 2-1 until the fifth.
Hardesty hit a one-out single. Tabler then hit the first pitch he saw over the right field fence to give the Flyers some breathing room.
The Flyers added on in the top of the seventh with RBI singles by Andrew Copfer and Andolina, followed by bases loaded walks to Raible and Moore. They added one final run on an error.
Hayden Meeker came on to close the game for Questa with two scoreless innings, helped in part by a nice double play from Copfer at third to Canan at second and across to Andolina at first.
That sent the Flyers to the championship game and a rematch against the Legends.
Moore again led off with a hit by pitch. Hardesty then crushed the first pitch he saw for an RBI double. He went to third on the throw home and scored on a single by Tabler.
The Legends got a run back in the bottom of the first and loaded the bases with one out.
Glotfelty came in from the bullpen and struck out the next two hitters to end the threat.
Glotfelty went 2 2/3 scoreless innings in the game, striking out six. On the fall, he has pitched 5 2/3 scoreless inning striking out 11.
The Flyers added two more runs in the third. Raible led off with a hit by pitch. Moore singled on a hard ground ball to left. Hardesty hit a sacrifice fly. Tabler followed that up with a single, and then Glotfelty doubled Tabler home to make it 4-1.
The Flyers scored again in the fourth when Andolina hit a one out double and scored on an error on the next play.
The Legends cut the lead to 5-3, but the Flyers tacked on two runs in the fifth and one in the seventh.
Andolina came on to retire the final four batters in order and earn the save.
In addition to his exploits at the plate, Tabler played stellar defense in center field the entire tournament.
Hardesty hit .538. Copfer hit .500.
The Flyers are now 4-3 this fall.
