DOVER Dover City Park was the venue for the Division I baseball sectional semifinal Monday afternoon, featuring the eighth seeded Dover Tornadoes hosting the the ninth-seeded Bulldogs of Canton McKinley.
Baseball's old adage proved once again full-proof in the Crimson and Gray's 7-0 victory.
1. Good pitching, Dover's Alec Sayre recorded eight strikeouts and six scoreless innings pitched. 2. Timely hitting, Dover was 6-of-9 from the plate with runners in scoring position. 3. And finally solid defense, Dover committed no errors.
Dover (14-6) will travel to play top-seeded Jackson today at 5 p.m. for the sectional title.
“We have been working with Alec on getting ahead in the count, and I believe he did that today. I would say this was his best outing to date,” said Dover head coach Jeff Fondriest.
Neither McKinley nor Dover was any threat at the plate the first inning. McKinley had what turned out to be its only scoring opportunity in the top of the second. A ball advanced runners to second and third for the Bulldogs, but a Sayre strikeout ended the threat.
McKinley’s Aaron Monroe struck out the side in the home half of the second to keep the score knotted at zero after two innings played.
After being retired in order in the top of the third, the McKinley (8-13) defensively fell apart in the bottom half. Dover sent five to the plate before an out was recorded, highlighted by an RBI double from Collin Whitman and a hard-hit single from Owen Poland that drove in two to give the hosts a 5-0 lead after three innings. Dover sent 10 to the plate in total thanks in part to McKinley's miscues.
“We did a good job of putting bats on balls with runners in scoring position," said Fonfriest. "We haven’t always done that this year but today we did, and the results spoke for themselves."
Sayre was lights out from the fourth inning on, only allowing three base runners the last 15 batters he faced.
”Defensively we were solid," said Fondirest. "You always like games where there is a zero in the error column."
The fifth mirrored the fourth for the Tornadoes, for the second consecutive inning they sent five to the plate before an out was recorded. Kooper Smith drove in a run on a single to left, then Poland drove in his third run of the game to give the Tornadoes a 7-0 lead that turned out to be the final.
“We have a tall task tomorrow (today at Jackson), but if we play like we play today (yesterday) I’ll be interested to see where the chips fall,” said Fondriest.