MONROE — Alex Carr is probably the smallest player on the Monroe National baseball roster.
But he was thrust into the biggest moment of the winners’ bracket finals in the 64th annual Monroe County Fair Baseball Tournament Tuesday.
Ash-Carleton loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the fourth inning, trying to build on a 4-2 lead.
Monroe National coach Matt Wszelaki summoned Carr to pitch.
“It was not the best situation,” the coach said.
But he had confidence in Carr.
“He’s only a fifth grader, so he’s really young,” Wszelaki said. “We thought he would be able to throw strikes and make them hit the ball.”
Carr struck out the first batter he faced, then Ash-Carleton plated a run on a slow roller to second base.
The next hitter hit a bouncer up the middle that shortstop Weston Cosby grabbed and stepped on second base for a forceout that ended the inning.
It wasn’t like Carr was the last option for the team.
Wszelaki and his assistants felt he was the best option.
“We have such depth in our pitching,” Wszelaki said. “We honestly had three other guys we could have used there. We thought he could do the job.”
After Carr provided the emotional lift with his clutch pitching performance, the Monroe National bats came to life with a 14-run fifth inning that put the game away.
There were three doubles, a triple and a pair of over-the-fence home runs in the inning, but it was Carr who delivered the big blow.
His double drove in the go-ahead run.
“He did very well,” Wszelaki said.
The win puts Monroe National in the finals of the tournament for 12-under teams at 6:15 p.m. Wednesday.
Ash-Carleton will play Dundee at 4:30 for the right to play in the finals.
Dundee eliminated Maybee 13-3 in a game earlier Tuesday.
Monroe National opened the scoring in the first inning when John Cousino doubled and scored on a single by Harry Becker.
It added another run in the third on singles by Levi Cousino and Cosby.
But Ash-Carleton surged in front with a four-run third inning that included a long three-run homer by Gavin Metzger, the second time he has cleared the fences in the tournament.
A double by Mason Lefebvre followed by singles from Brayden Zanger and Chris Brusetta produced another run.
After Carr helped his team sidestep disaster in the bottom of the fourth, the offense cranked up.
Becker and Luke Wszelaki cleared the fences and John Cousino doubled and tripled and scored twice in the inning.
Levi Cousino and Cosby also had two hits and two runs in the inning. Ian Golding added a double.
“That’s baseball,” Ash-Carleton coach Cody Jones said. “They hit the ball hard and we didn’t make some plays.”
Camron Baker doubled and singled for Ash-Carleton.
Dundee 13, Maybee 3
Carter McKart, Gavin Goins and Braxton Zavala combined on a two-hitter for Dundee.
The winners scored three times in the first inning and two in the second. That would have been enough but they added four in the fourth and three in the fifth to trigger the mercy rule.
Goins, Bubba Gariety, Adam VanDaele and Kaedon McCarty led the offense with two hits each. Goins and VanDaele ripped doubles.
Logan Beaubien went 2-for-2 for Maybee.
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