BATH

After giving up the lead in Monday’s U12 District 4 baseball All-Star Championship game, the Ararat Allstars were in a prime position to even the score back up.

In the top of the fifth inning, Carson Taylor took advantage of a wild throw to first base and reached safely with one out. From there, he advanced to second on a wild pitch and third on ground out to second base. When another pitch got away from Lisbon catcher Justin Le, Taylor broke for home in attempt to tie the score.

Problem was, Le and pitcher Levi Tibbetts were ready for it.

Le quickly gathered the ball and tossed it back to the covering Tibbetts, who narrowly tagged Taylor just before he slid into home. The Lisbon bench went wild and with its lead intact, were ready to seal the deal. Darren Brown’s team picked up three more insurance in the bottom half of the inning, and went on to defeat Ararat, 6-2 to secure the District 4 title.

“That’s drill after drill after drill,” Brown said of the play at the plate. “Over and over again, making sure the catcher (Le) is there. We’ve got the best catcher in the league in my opinion and he made the out.”

After a scoreless first inning, Ararat took a 2-0 lead in the top of the second. Lukas Holman got things going with a walk, which Jay Kearney followed up with a single in the six spot. After a throwing error brought Holman home, Taylor singled in Kearney to double the score.

Unfortunately for coach Bubba Henky’s squad, the lead didn’t last long.

In the next inning, Le, who tallied two hits and scored twice on the evening, laced a double down the leftfield line to get the Lisbon bats going. From there, leadoff man Neil Larochelle reached base on a grounder and an overthrown ball in the infield moved him to second and moved Le across home. Tibbetts hit an RBI grounder to shortstop before third baseman Hunter Brissette came up and blasted a solo home run over the right-field wall in the next frame.

Lisbon held a 3-2 lead when it ended the top of the fifth inning on the close play at the plate. An RBI double from Nick Ferrence and two more runs scored by Larochelle and Le made the score 6-2 and put the game out of reach.

It was the fourth meeting in a row for Brown and company against Ararat in the championship game, having lost the previous three seasons.

“Totally proud,” Brown said of his group. “It took all 12 of them today to do this. We’ve been here four years in a row trying to get this from the same team, so it was our night and we brought it.”

Off balance

Lisbon used the duo of Larochelle and Tibbetts on the mound, who each tossed three innings of productive work. Larochelle started the game and struck out two batters before Brown switched it up with the 3-2 lead. After Holman looped a double into right field on Tibbetts’ fourth pitch of the night, the righty settled in and used two strikeouts and the play at the plate to get out of the inning.

In the top of the sixth, where Ararat’s Kobe Clark reached base on a hard-hit liner to shortstop, Tibbetts struck out two more and forced a fly out to end the game. In all, he fanned five batters and allowed just two hits.

“Levi Tibbetts is outstanding,” Brown said. “One of the best kids I’ve ever worked with. He has the great arm and he will work, work, work until the job’s done.”

“We’re always in it because of our hitting,” Henky said. “But they’re pitching kept us off balance. They (Lisbon) pitched well today. I tip my hat to them.”

Henky’s team tallied six hits on the night, a setback for his normally potent offense.

“Hitting,” he said of the game’s difference. “We didn’t have the timely hitting that we’re capable of. This is one of the best hitting teams that I’ve coached, but it’s baseball. Sometimes you hit, sometimes you don’t.”

Ararat starter Ryan Robertson tossed 63 pitches and struck out one before being pulled for Taylor in the fifth inning. Combined, the pair gave up six hits and three earned runs. The loss breaks a dominant streak of Ararat coming out of District 4 in the U12 division.

“I’ve had this group since they were 9-years old,” Henky said. “They’re a great group of kids and it’s disappointing. I expected to go further, but we ran across a good team and that’s baseball.”

Lisbon 6, Ararat 2

District 4 U12 All-Star baseball
championship game
At Donnie Small Athletic Complex
in Bath
Ararat — 0 2 0 0 0 0 — 2-6-2
Lisbon — 0 0 2 13 X — 6-6-1
Ryan Robertson, Carson Taylor (5)
and Cody Bowker; (L) Neil Larochelle,
Levi Tibbetts and Justin Le.
Doubles — (A) Lukas Holman; (L)
Nick Ferrence, Justin Le.
Home runs — (L) Hunter Brissette.
Repeat hitters — (A) Kobe Clark; (L)
Justin Le.
Next up for Lisbon — Regionals,
opponent and time TBA.