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PHOTO PROVIDED Members of the West End 13-year-old Babe Ruth All-Star team pose together for a photo in Virginia in their Mid-Atlantic All-Star uniforms. West End lost its opener to New England, 6-5, on Friday.<\/p>\n
GLEN ALLEN, W.Va. – West End’s 13-year-old All-Star team dropped its Babe Ruth World Series opener Friday afternoon to New England Regional champion Pittsfield, 6-5, in Glen Allen, West Virginia.<\/p>\n
The Babe Ruth World Series is a home-and-away tournament that runs through Saturday, August 20. West End takes on the state champions from Virginia today at 4pm in their second game.<\/p>\n
West End jumped out to a quick 4-1 lead after the first inning, but Pittsfield slowly went to work again. Pittsfield scored twice in the top of the fourth to cut the deficit to 4-3 and then went ahead with three runs in the top of the fifth to take a 6-4 lead. West End scored a run in the bottom of the fifth to cut the deficit to 6-5, but Pittsfield kept West End from tying the game in the sixth or seventh innings to secure the win.<\/p>\n
“We were telling the kids to let them hang on to the ballgame. We’ve had opportunities before to have extended the lead and I think this team could have blown us away, but we let them.”<\/span> Marc Hess, director of the West End, said. “We could not achieve the great success. We had guys on base at second and third, then we’d get a run. Things happen, it’s baseball.”<\/span><\/p>\n Both teams had six hits each.<\/p>\n LJ Miller, Zack Neill, Noah Kirby, Briar Persing, Trey Domschroder and Deshaun White collected hits for the West End. White had the team’s only extra-base hit when he hit a double.<\/p>\n But the key blow eluded West End in defeat.<\/p>\n \u201cThey also walked a lot of guys, we just couldn’t get the key hit with guys in scoring position the whole game. Even in that first inning, I think we had three or four runs and then with the bases loaded and one out, we just added one run.”<\/span> Hess said. “We haven’t had that much success.”<\/span><\/p>\n Persing pitched 3 1\/3 innings on the mound, recording seven strikeouts. Walks hurt the West End though as the Mid-Atlantic champions issued seven balls and one batter.<\/p>\n “At the end of the day, when they’re only hitting 50 percent of the time. We had too many pitches and we went too deep in the count.”<\/span> Hess said, noting that Persing threw 73 pitches over 3 1\/3 innings but allowed just one hit.”<\/p>\n However, Hess and West End are not stressing about losing their first game. He knows it’s a round robin and they’re still in good shape to advance after pool play.<\/p>\n