The Merrill 10U Little League All-Stars may be far too young to get behind the wheel, but they were in the driver’s seat of the District 5 tournament after last Tuesday’s 11-1 thumping of the Northwoods squad at Merrill’s Ott’s Park.
That set up Tuesday’s winner’s bracket final contest with Antigo, in a game played too late for this edition of the Foto News.
Merrill scored in all but one inning of the Northwoods game shortened to five innings by the 10-run rule.
“I liked it,” Merrill manager Steve Kufahl said. “They played good defense and they hit the ball a lot better (than in their opening 5-2 win over Wausau National).
“What we told them before the game was ‘just have fun’ and they did.”
The depth of the team is a boon with a small drawback for Kufahl.
“If they keep playing defense the way we’re playing right now they could win a lot of games,” he said. “It doesn’t matter if we put the starter or the sub in the game, they do the same job.
“There’s no big drop-off in players and that’s a plus. I was telling the kids Tuesday night that it’s hard to fill the line-up out because it’s hard to figure out who’s going to sit and who’s going to play. If you’re going to have a problem, that’s the one to have.
“The kids are really unselfish, too. When you take a guy out to put another guy in, he’s cheering him on. The kids get along really, really well. They all have the same goal in mind. Caleb (Gustafson) was on the team that made it to state (in 2011) and we asked him right in front of the kids, ‘Caleb, how much fun did you have playing at state,’ and he said ‘It was a blast.’ That’s their goal.”
Merrill took early charge of the Northwoods game with four runs in the first inning, highlighted by a two-run single from Spencer Schneider.
Michael Casper tripled to lead off the 2nd but he was caught at the plate and Merrill didn’t score in the frame. Northwoods cut it to 4-1 in the top of the 3rd, but Merrill answered with two on a Ty Bailey 2-run hit after Caleb Timm doubled and Drew Bolder singled.
The boys bumped it to 8-1 in the 4th without a hit, then put the game away in the 5th. Bailey, Casper, Jake Bailey, and Cole Zimmerman ripped consecutive singles, then after two outs, Hayden Smith crushed a double that could have scored three runs except just one was needed to end it. Jake and Cole had driven in runs with their hits.
Merrill finished with 12 knocks, led by T. Bailey (3-4, 2 R), Casper (2-4, 3B, 2 R), Schneider (2-3), Smith (2B) and Timm (2B).
T. Bailey (2 H, 3 W, 9 K, 1 R in 5 I) picked up the win on the mound.
Merrill would play Wed. if it lost Tues., and on Thurs. in the finals if it won Tues. The winner of Tuesday’s game would need to be defeated twice.