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Canfield wins on Beck’s walk-off double
By Ron Clements
INDIANAPOLIS
The general rule of thumb for a batter with a 3-0 count is to take the next pitch. But when Brayden Beck saw a fastball down the middle of the plate, he swung and he connected.
Beck’s RBI double in the bottom of the seventh inning on Monday scored Seth Velker to give the Canfield Cardinals a 3-2 walk-off victory over Warren County South of Kentucky in the third game of the Little League Great Lakes Regional pool play at Stokely Field.
“A 3-0 pitch, I was hoping he was going to take it,” Canfield manager George Beck said of his son. “He was like, ‘Hey Dad, nobody gave me the take sign.’
“He saw a fastball that he liked and he hit it hard. It got by the center fielder and Seth has good wheels. I knew once it got by the center fielder, we had a chance to get Seth to the plate and get the run.”
Velker never hesitated coming around second when he saw the ball roll to the fence and his coach was sending him all the way.
“I was always going to go home,” said the diminutive first baseman, who went 4 for 4. “Any way I was going to go home. I didn’t have any doubt in my mind.”
Velker said the walk-off win was exciting, especially after having to wait through a long rain delay.
“Just to wait that long was so stupid,” Velker said of the two-and-a-half-hour suspension, during which the teams played bingo in the cafeteria. Only Jimmy Maass won a game of bingo for Canfield, but Brayden Beck and Velker came through for the win that mattered.
“I have the utmost confidence in him,” Beck said of Velker. “He just does a spectacular job.
“He’s really been hitting the ball well. That kid has a lot of heart and his motor goes a mile a minute. He loves the game and works hard for it.”
Canfield played like the Cardiac Cardinals on its way to an Ohio state Little League championship and Monday’s game was no different.
“Let me put it to you this way, we have a cardiologist on staff,” Beck joked. “I don’t know why these kids keep doing this to me, but they’ve been doing that all year. I’m getting too old for it.”
In what was essentially an elimination game, both teams had to sit through the weather delay as thunderstorms interrupted the game in the third inning.
Kentucky is winless through three games, but could’ve pulled even with Canfield (2-1) with a victory.
Canfield outhit Kentucky 10-4 and had runners in scoring position in each of the first four innings. The Cardinals were unable to push a run across the plate until the fourth when Brandon Mikos led off with a solo homer to left.
Canfield pitcher Evan Skripac, who threw two innings of relief in Sunday’s 8-1 victory over Michigan, was dominant again on Monday. But his first walk of the game with two outs in the third cost him.
Evan McNaughton drew a base on balls and was replaced on the base paths by Gage Holman, who led off the game with an infield single. Holman tried to steal second, but Cole Morell’s throw to second was kicked into left field by Holman as he slid into second. Holman got up and came all the way around to score the game’s first run.
Skripac did not walk another batter until the sixth inning while tossing 6 2/3 innings before reaching his pitch limit.
“Evan is here to throw and he has been nothing but stellar,” Beck said. “This is the best I’ve seen him throw all year.”
The Cardinals got to hard-throwing Kentucky pitcher Mac Ausbrooks in the bottom of the first. Velker hustled his way into a double on a short blooper that glanced off the glove of Kentucky center fielder Charlie Key. Ethan Fletcher followed with a double to left that gave the Cardinals runners at second and third with one out. But Brayden Beck’s line drive toward right was snagged by Kentucky second baseman Adam Burns, who then tossed to shortstop Owen Logsdon to double-up Fletcher at second. Brayden Beck returned the favor to open the second with a diving catch in short left-center to rob Lance Upright of a base hit.
McCoy Watkins led off the bottom of the second with a double to center that short-hopped the center field fence. Canfield was unable to push a run across the plate as Watkins was stranded at third.
Before the game was halted, the Cardinals had two runners aboard. When it resumed Ausbrooks walked Brayden Beck to load the bases. But just as Burns stole a hit away from Beck in the first, he did the same to Watkins in the third to keep the Cardinals scoreless.
“He made two great plays,” George Beck said of Burns. “That’s a testament to him and to them. They worked just as hard as we did to get here.”
Ausbrooks doubled the Kentucky lead with a solo homer to lead off the top of the fourth. But Mikos cut the lead in half with the first homer of the 11-year-old’s career. Walt Sweeney followed the Mikos homer with a seeing-eye single to right that got past Burns. Sweeney scored two batters later to tie the game on a Kentucky error that put Richie Hofus on first.
Canfield will wrap up pool play tonight at 7 against undefeated Jackie Robinson West from Chicago.
“We’re in a good position right now,” Beck said of advancing to Wednesday’s semifinals. “We’ve got a very good Illinois team that we’re going to play. But we’ll come out and battle again. These kids never cease to amaze us.”