May 20, 2000

NR takes district championship

By Matt Steiner
Sports Writer

OLD FORT &emdash; New Riegel jumped out to an early 3-0 lead against Gibsonburg Friday. The Golden Bears kept fighting back, but the Blue Jacket lead, combined with the arm of Keith Laughlin, proved to be too much as NR took the district championship, 6-3.

"It's always important for us to get out in front," New Riegel coach Dave Uitto said. "We don't have any big bangers. We're not going to go out and hit a three-run homer to bring us back."

The Blue Jackets broke a scoreless tie in the third when Dereck Uitto swatted a one-out single to center field. Darin Nye then reached on a fielder's choice leaving runners on first and second for Brett Hammer.

Hammer promptly drove a Jason Runion pitch into the right-center field gap driving in both Nye and Uitto for two two-out RBIs. John Kauffman completed the three-run inning by driving in Hammer on a single which skipped over the first base bag.

That gave Laughlin, the NR ace, a three-run lead and a boost of confidence. He took the mound and struck out the side in the bottom of the inning en route to 10 strikeouts on the night.

However, Gibsonburg fought back in the fourth, scoring two runs on a single by Dave Mason combined with some help from two Blue Jacket errors.

"We gave them a little bit back" coach Uitto said. "A lot of times that's what it comes down to."

Then came the New Riegel fifth. The Blue Jackets answered Gibsonburg's pair of runs with a couple of their own, stretching the lead to 5-2. Neither run was earned.

Twice in the inning, Jason Runion struck out a New Riegel batter. Both times, the ball snuck past catcher Andy Donnell allowing the batter to take first base. Donnell's throw on the second incident was in the dirt, resulting in Uitto and Hammer each scoring their second runs of the game.

Gibsonburg added a run in the fifth and New Riegel finished out the scoring in the seventh.

Four times in the game the Golden Bears left runners on third base and couldn't muster the offense to drive them home.

"It's known that we're not a high batting average team," Gibsonburg coach Allen Davis said. "Sometimes we gotta get the runs any way we can. It was just a matter of getting the big hit and pushing the runs across. We just didn't step up and get the big hit."

Laughlin put an exclamation point on the victory by blowing a fastball past a swinging Dave Mason to end the game.

Uitto led the offensive attack for New Riegel. The Blue Jacket leadoff hitter scored three runs and reached base four times.

Runion struck out five and walked four in the losing effort. Mike Mason went 2-for-3 for the Golden Bears including a double.

New Riegel (19-6) advances to regional play Friday May 26 against Riverdale (16-5) at Lima Bath.