Braves take two from Cards

The Braves got the best of the Cardinals on two occasions in recent

Robinwood Little League Majors Division action, getting a 10-0 victory,

and rallying in their second meeting to record a 7-6 win over a three-day

period.

Strong pitching and timely hitting proved the right combination in the

10-0 triumph.

Kevin Powers pitched the first three innings and shut down the

Cardinals. Todd Locken came on in relief in the fourth and immediately

got into trouble. He gave up a leadoff single and walked the next two

batters to load the bases, but battled back against the fourth hitter to

earn a strikeout on a 3-2 fastball.

Locken proceeded to strike out the next two batters to get out of the

inning unscathed.

Locken finished his three innings on the mound with eight strikeouts.

The Braves posted their first two runs in the top of the fifth inning

as D.J. Huber led off with a single, and scored on Kevin Powers’ hit.

Powers would later score on a Kevin Radle hit.

Radle ended the game with three hits, while Powers, Kyle Suthemier and

Ryan Olson had two hits apiece.

In the second game, the Cardinals had the Braves down 4-0, but the

Braves rallied and won the game, 7-6, in the bottom of the seventh inning

when Radle singled and scored on three passed balls.

The Cardinals used a Jamie Swain base hit and three Braves errors to

grab a 4-0 first inning lead. The Braves came back with five runs in the

fourth inning to go on top, 5-4, beginning with an Andrew Compton leadoff

single. He would score on Olson’s triple, and Sean McDaniels would get a

double and later score on a passed ball.

After the Braves extended their lead to 6-4 in the fifth inning, the

Cardinals roared back in the sixth with two runs to force extra innings.

Tyler Borkovetz delivered the big blow, an RBI double that hit the top of

the wall and stayed in the park. Borkovetz went on to score the tying

run.

In the seventh, the Cardinals appeared headed for the lead, but

Stryder Huff, who began the top-half of the inning with a single, was

thrown out when Powers relayed a throw from right-fielder Keegan Grebe to

Braves third baseman Andrew Compton for the out.

Locken then shut down the Cardinals the rest of the way to collect his

second win of the season as the Braves improved to 5-0.

The losses are the only two in five games this season for the

Cardinals.

IN MINOR A DIVISION PLAY:

* Yankees 7, Angels 6

In a wild one, Tyler Rink hit a two-run home run in the top of the

sixth inning to break a tie and send the Yankees on to victory. Buddy

Cheek had two-RBI double, Nick Locken singled in the sixth inning, and

Josh Mason struck out the final batter with the tying run on base in the

bottom of the sixth to preserve the win.

Chris Daugherty and William Gaskill each hit a two-run double for the

Angels, and Cody Frame doubled off the center field fence with two out in

the sixth inning, and later scored on Brian Frattelli’s single to pull

the the Angels within 7-6.