8 Men Out - Knights Win Pool, Play Semifinals with 8 Players at USSSA Tournament in Villa Rica

The Knights Defense Takes the Field

The Marietta Knights turned in a strong 2-0 performance to win their pool at the USSSA Champs Wear the Rings Tournament at the Villa Rica Civic Center on Saturday. On Sunday the Knights took the field with only 8 players due to injury and illness. Even though they fell in the Semifinal, the gutty undermanned performance was one of Coach Rob's proudest moments with the team.

Marietta opened with the very strong Newnan Scorpions. The game remained scoreless after 2 thanks to the Defensive Play of the Game from #7 Austin Hansell. The Scorpions were poised to break the game open early with runners on 2nd and 3rd and one out when their clean-up hitter scorched a line drive down the 3B line. Austin snagged the ball and tagged the bag for a huge double play to end the inning and the threat. The Scorpions finally did jump out to a lead in the 3rd when they put together a couple of walks and couple of hits to build a commanding 4-0 lead. George Krivsky came on to pitch and not only stopped the bleeding but dominated for the next 3 innings. George did not allow a run and struck out 5.

New Acquisition Cody Hahn was great
in 7 1/3 innings on the mound and had
2 RBI's in the tournament.  

The Knights scratched their way back with aggressive base running in the bottom of the 3rd. Jack Vargo singled and scored on Jackson Tysinger's single. Jackson stole 2 bases and scored when Hunter Williamson reached on an error and Hunter stole 2 bases and scored on a passed ball to close the gap to 4-3. In the 4th George tied the game when he singled, stole 2 bases and also scored on a passed ball. With the game still tied in the 5th, Jack singled and stole 2nd to set up another Jackson RBI single and the Knights finally had the lead at 5-4. Austin took the hill in the 6th and looked great in picking up the Save in just 10 pitches.

Next up was a rematch with the Hiram Hornets. After the Knights shut them out a week earlier, the Hornets dugout was on fire when a Sac Fly gave them a 1-0 lead after 1. But the Knights took the momentum back in a big way when 5 straight Knights crossed the plate with hits from Garrett Wells, Nathan Brooks, Luke Martin and a big 2 run single from the newest Knight Cody Hahn. Gil Hastings kept the Hiram bats quiet in 3 solid innings on the mound. Gil struck out 5 to just 1 hit and 2 BB's.

The Knights added a run in the 3rd after Hunter singled and scored on an RBI double by Austin. They blew the game open in the 5th. George hit a 2 run double and scored on a Nathan Brooks double. After Luke singled again, Jack Vargo added a 2 run single to give Marietta an 11-1 lead. Cody closed it out on the mound in his first appearance by striking out 4 in 2 innings and just giving up 1 run. The Knights took the impressive 11-2 win and Pool title.

George Krivsky shut down opponents in
2 outings during the weekend.

The pool win sent the Knights to the Semifinals of the Gold Bracket where competition would step up dramatically with a game against Hooks Baseball. To make it even tougher, the Knights found out just a couple of hours before game time that they would be down to 8 players due to an injury and illness. The coaching staff was amazed at how the team embraced the challenge and set out to give the Hooks everything they had. The Knights plan was to lock down the infield and put Gil and Nathan in the gaps to chase down any balls that made it to the OF. Their play was amazing and behind outstanding pitching from Cody, the Knights somehow trailed only 2-1 after 5 innings. Finally, the Hooks were able to "hit it where they ain't" a few times in the 6th to tack on 4 runs and each team added a run in the 7th for the 7-2 final score. By rule, the Knights had to take an automatic out every time the 9th spot in the order came up to bat. The Knights left 9 men on base in innings where they were forced to take this automatic out.

There were plenty of great defensive efforts to choose from. Cody pitched 5 1/3 innings and only allowed 2 runs in the first 5 even though he only had 2 outfielders. Big Game Hunter had 6 assists and 2 putouts. Luke threw out a runner trying to steal 3rd. With runners on 1st and 2nd, Gil had to run hard from CF to try to make a catch on a shallow pop fly into LF. He didn't quite make it, but the runners had to hold half way and he was able to turn it into an unusual FC by throwing out the base runner at 3rd. In one of the best hustle plays of the year, a Hook hit a hard grounder into LF when the Knights 2 outfielders were shifted to the right. Jackson ranged to his right from SS but couldn't keep it in the IF. He never slowed down and raced after the ball until he caught up to it well into LF where he wheeled around and threw a strike to Hunter who tagged out the batter at 2B trying to get a double. And finally, the Defensive Play of the Day. Nathan covered a ton of ground going from RCF to make a great running catch on a Flyball in RF. The runner on 1st didn't think he could get there and ventured too far off the bag. After Nathan made the catch he threw to George who made a nice stretch and catch for the double play. These 8 guys were amazing in the field.



Nathan Brooks was a beast running down balls from his gap
position when the Knights had to play with 8.

Offensively, Luke went 3 for 3 on the day and Hunter was 2 for 4 with 2 doubles. George and Cody each added an RBI single. The Knights had plenty of base runners, but in the end they were beaten by the only thing that their great effort and desire could not overcome and that was the automatic out in the 9 spot. Coach Rob hopes he never has to go through that again but he couldn't be any more proud of these guys for the way they took on the adverse situation and made great play after great play. In the long run of their baseball careers these kids got the win today.

Luke Martin had a monster weekend at the plate going 5 for 8 in the tourney.