By Travis Whitton
For The Herald Bulletin
ANDERSON, Ind. —
The weather and field conditions were perfect for the Anderson Hockett blue team as pitcher Tyler Holloway led his team to a 7-4 victory over Mishawaka Post 161 in the John Miles Memorial Fourth of July Tournament.
Hockett started off the game slow and Mishawaka took full advantage. Cameron Schooley led off the game with a single. After a stolen base and error put him on third, Rickey Dubois drove him in on a fielder’s choice and a 1-0 lead.
The Hockett bats started to come alive in the third inning when they scored three runs on three hits. Two of the hits went for extra-bases as Zach Tumulty, an All-State baseball player for Class A Daleville, drove in a run with a double and Chase Freeman drove in Tumulty with a triple.
“We’ve started off slow the past couple of games,” said Hockett coach Travis Keesling. “We’ve got to figure out how to pick up the intensity to start the game because sometimes you start off slow and a team won’t let you back in (the game).”
Hockett set on their 3-1 lead until the bottom of the fifth when they tacked on three more runs to give Holloway a more comfortable 6-1 lead.
Tumulty and Freeman each singled and Chandler Sidwell followed them with a bases-clearing triple. Drew Overman drove in Sidwell with a single for the third run in the inning
Grant Hendershot led off the bottom of the sixth with the fifth extra base hit of the day by smacking a triple and scored on a wild pitch, giving Hockett a 7-1 advantage heading into the final inning.
Holloway got into some trouble in the top of the seventh as Mishawaka’s bats came to life. They collected two hits and Hockett committed an error to plate three runs, but Holloway struck out Adam Hibsman to end the game.
Holloway pitched a complete game giving up seven hits, striking out seven, while only walking three. Keesling said that a complete game from one of his pitchers was key in tournament play.
“In a tournament like this, that’s huge, because you know what, you want to save your arms as much as you can,” said Keesling. “So if you can get a full, complete game out of your starter that’s golden because that’s just one more arm you can use for the next game.”
Daleville’s Tumulty led the offensive attack by going 3-for-4, scoring two runs and collecting an RBI. Highland’s Freeman and Sidwell combined to go 3-for-5 with three RBIs and two runs scored in the game.
