Burkett Boys ALL-Stars

Matt Ball pitched a gem of a game for Burkett, striking out ten batters, walking only one, giving up just four hits, and holding Jack Barry to just two runs as Burkett beat Barry 8-2 in the loser’s bracket setting up a showdown with Joe Schwartz for the right to advance to the District finals. With 10 strikeouts, Matt needed a little help and he got it all from his infield and catcher. Thad Kaliszewski looked superb at third base stopping just about everything that was hit his way. For the day, Thad had four assists on hard hit grounders, two each in the second and sixth innings. Matt Ball had two assists on ground balls hit back to the mound and Matt Higgins had an assist on a grounder to second and caught a pop up. Brian Reynolds caught at least three foul tips for strikeouts. That is it, 10 k's plus 7 ground ball outs plus a pop up equals 18 outs. Barry scored two runs in the top of the first to take a 2-0 lead, but Burkett came back to take the lead 3-2 thanks to a sacrifice fly RBI by Thad Kaliszewski in the first inning and two runs on hits by Matt Ball, Kurt Sabacinski, Tejean Pluverge, and Matt Higgins in the top of the third. Perhaps the most spectacular effort of the day occurred with Matt pitching in the third. Barry, behind by just one run, loaded the bases with no outs in the bottom of the third. The game could go either way here. No one had all the momentum. Matt proceeded to strike out the next three batters in a row to get out of the inning and preserve the lead and the momentum shifted. Then Burkett erupted in the fourth inning on hits by Matt Ball, Pat Sullivan, a walk to Kurt Sabacinski, and a two run home by Tejean Pluverge, his fourth in the districts, and an 7-2 lead for Burkett. Pat added a home run in the top of the sixth to push the score to 8-2. Pat ended up with three hits, a single, a double, and home run and was a joy to watch with his infectious enthusiastic play at shortstop. For Burkett, at the plate, Matt Ball had three hits, Tejean had two, and Matt Higgins had two. From a Burkett fan's perspective, you couldn't have asked for a much better game. This game had everything: solid pitching, timely hitting, good base running, excellent fielding, and a little bit of early doubt. Nice win boys. For game pictures, click here, click here, click here, click here and please be sure to sign our Guestbook (scroll down to the bottom of the page).