VENICE — After breezing through the district tournament to open the all-star season earlier in June, the Venice Juniors All-Star team made quick work of its opponents once again this past weekend to secure the Sectional 6 tournament title.
Venice outscored the Lehigh Juniors All-Star team, 21-3, in two contests last Saturday to keep its all-star campaign alive.
“The biggest key was this team’s ability to pick up timely hits,” Venice head coach Jeff Fulcher said. “The kids did a great job of hitting the baseball hard and putting it in play with runners in scoring position. I also saw some really good base running and, we played very good defense again. All weekend, we only had one error.”
Going into the weekend’s slate of games, Fulcher wanted to showcase his depth on the mound.
“I’ve been telling the guys it’s impossible to win a state tournament with just three pitchers,” Fulcher said. “We have our dogs, but I know it’s going to take eight or nine pitchers. We wanted to throw out some new guys to pitch in the sectional tournament, and I think they did a great job.”
In the first game — a 10-1 win for Venice — Connor Dreschler and Sam Boa shared the bump.
Dreschler tossed three scoreless innings, not allowing a hit and striking out five. Boa threw four innings, allowing one unearned run on three hits, while striking out seven.
In the second contest, Venice won, 11-2, with a pair of strong outings from Carter Hayward and Gavin Richardson on the mound.
Hayward threw three innings of shutout baseball, allowing two hits and striking out three. Richardson pitched in two innings, surrendering two earned runs, while striking out four.
“Those kids filled up the strike zone and pitched to contact,” Fulcher said. “When you do that, you’re going to have a high chance of being very successful.”
In the batter’s box, Jayden Lockhart was the main threat for Venice in the team’s 10-1 victory. Lockhart had three hits to go along with three RBIs in the team’s first crack at Lehigh. Additionally, Nolan Hutchison and Alex Straebel had an RBI each in the contest.
In the second game, Shield Shaw (two RBIs) and Boa (three RBIs) were the only players with multiple RBIs. Richardson and Elyjah Blankenberg each contributed an RBI as well.
“We have so many hitters we can count on in our lineup,” Fulcher said. “Jayden Lockhart is an RBI machine. Sam Boa just hammers the baseball. Elyjah Blankenberg is an all-around great hitter. We have a lot of great hitters, and those are just a few of the guys that have been standing out.”
Next, Venice moves on to the state tournament over in Viera, Florida, starting on Friday evening against Lake Mary. The other two teams in Venice’s pool will be Parkland and Port Saint Lucie.
“Lake Mary was the team that eliminated a lot of my 13 year olds in the 12U state championship last year,” Fulcher said. “These guys have been wanting to face this team again since they got eliminated. I’m a big motivational story type of guy, but I don’t think I’m going to need one for this next game.”
The two teams with the best record from each four-team pool will play in the championship game on Sunday. The winner will advance to regionals, which take place in Bridgewater, Virginia. Those games start on July 19.
“We’re going to head over there and try our best to represent Venice baseball the way it needs to be represented,” Fulcher said.
Most Popular
Comments / 0