Bear River Giants draw first blood in Dist. 11
Tournament of Champions title series
All season long the Bear River Little League Giants have been finding
ways to win and Thursday night in the opening game of the District 11 Little
League Tournament of Champions title game series the Black and Orange were
up to their old tricks.
Playing before a partisan home crowd at the BRLL Park, the Giants
received a yeoman's relief pitching effort from Justin Brown and some late
game plate heroics from brothers Tyler and Josh Toft to post a scintillating
4-2 win over the Area I champion Rocklin Rangers.
The victory for the Giants - their 24th of the season - advances the
BRLL team into game two of the championship series tonight at 7 p.m. at
Lincoln's McBean Park.
A win by the Giants would give the District 11 title to the Bear River
squad however a win by the Rangers would bring the best of three series back to Bear River Saturday night for another 7 p.m. finale.
In Thursday's win, a pivotal point of the contest came in the third inning when Giants manager James Toft inserted Justin Brown on the hill in place of injured starter Josh Toft and Brown responded with a gutsy effort.
| Bear River pitcher Justin Brown gives gutty performance after arm injury forces starter Josh Toft off mound. |
The Giants relief man went the final four frams and allowed the heavy hitting Rangers just one run on two hits while fanning six batters.
Still, the Giants needed to come up a late game rally to pull out the
win.
Trailing 2-1 going into the bottom of the fifth inning, Mac Slane led off the frame with an infield single. Tyler Toft then roped a RBI single toright field that chased home Slane with the tying run.
Josh Toft then provided what would prove to be the game winning run when
he drilled a doubled that plated his brother to make it 3-2.
| Rocklin Shortstop Drew Ashby Shuffles ball to second baseman Garret Van Rockel to retire Brll Giant Nick Medenwald. |
Brown then added a key insurance tally when he followed with a RBI single that upped the count to 4-2.
However, the Giants weren't out of the woods just yet.
In the top of the sixth, the Rangers threatned by putting two runners on
base with just one out but the hosts turned a contest ending double play to
secure the thrilling victory.
The winners picked up eight hits including two each from Tyler Toft and
Justin Brown while Kyle Soria and Josh Toft both added doubles.
Nickolas Medenwald also added a base rap and drew a key walk.