MICDS Baseball Team Goes 3-1 in Tournament

MICDS senior Will Johnston is well aware of his primary duty on the 2011 Ram squad.

"I just try to get on base as much as I can and be aggressive when I am on base," said Johnston, the team's leadoff hitter. "I know we have a real solid two, three and four hitters and other good hitters on the team. They are going to get me around."

Johnston reached base four times Sunday afternoon and scored twice in a 12-7 MICDS victory over Murray, Ky. at MICDS. It was the final game of the MICDS-Clayton Round Robin Tournament.

The Rams finished 3-1 in the tournament with its only loss coming in extra innings against Crystal City Saturday. The Hornets won the tournament, sweeping their four games.

"We faced a really good pitcher against Crystal City but we battled back from three runs down and got it to extra innings," Jans said.

Jans was happy with his team's play in the four games after going 1-2 on a Florida trip to open the season.

"We did a lot of experimenting as we begin our league season tomorrow (Monday at home against Principia)," Jans said. "We didn't have the same lineup in any of our games and threw a lot of pitchers."

Jans learned some positive things about this year's Rams.

"I have as many as nine pitchers that I feel comfortable putting on the mound," Jans said. "And I can go right-handed and lefty as we have five southpaws. I think we are going to be a pretty good defensive team and we can score runs although we need to be more aggressive at the plate."

Jans used four pitchers against the Tigers Sunday. Freshman Trey Baur started the game and allowed just one hit and no runs in his three innings.

"He has all the ability in the world," Jans said of Baur. "We are trying to bring him along slowly. He had our win in Florida and also had three hits in that game."

Baur had plenty of offensive support Sunday as the Rams scored 11 runs in the first four innings to take an 11-2 lead.

Adam Putnam had an RBI double in the first inning and drove in two with a single in  a three-run second inning. MICDS scored twice in the third inning and five times with just one hit in the fourth. 

Murray, which started an eighth grader on the mound against the Rams, made things interesting with four runs in the fifth, three coming on a home run by Austin Adams.

Gary Russo hit a homer to lead off the fifth for the Rams and southpaw Steven Frank closed the game as he struck out four of the six batters he faced in the final two innings.

"We made a few mental mistakes in the tournament and faced a good lefty against Crystal City," Johnston said. "But I thought we did well overall and I am looking forward to the season."

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