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Business News
Blue Springs, MO —
Blue Springs Rod’s Sports A’s manager Mike Rooney wanted to send a stern message Thursday afternoon.
His team had just clipped Bellevue (Neb.) Post 339 West in the American Legion Wood Bat Invitational to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals. Even so, the A’s still had a game against the Lee’s Summit Post 189 Pirates slated for Friday morning. And Rooney could already tell that his guys weren’t overly concerned about a game with seemingly minimal significance.
“I said, ‘You take that type of approach into a game like this and it will reach up and grab you and bite you,’” Rooney said.
The A’s apparently took his message to heart, because they notched eight runs in the first two innings Friday at Blue Springs High School on the way to an 11-0 five-inning triumph.
Kyle Reed cracked a two-run homer in the first inning, Corbin Hare added a three-run blast in the second and Brian Burasco allowed only three hits in registering the complete-game shutout.
“Yesterday, we were thinking, ‘Who we going to throw? We don’t have to really play,” said Wylson Lamb, who stroked a single and double, stole a base and scored twice. “But as soon as you get out here you’re like, ‘We’re playing baseball.’ You can’t really slack off.”
Reed’s two-run shot put the A’s (40-10) up 2-0 and William Kessling brought in three more runs with a double.
The A’s went up 8-0 on Hare’s bomb in the fourth, added another run on Reed’s sacrifice fly and extended the lead to 11-0 on Brett Barbeck’s two-run double.
“We wanted to make sure we were still coming out and playing strong,” Reed said. “We wanted the win. You don’t want to be coming off a loss going into quarterfinals.”
Burasco made it easy in the field. He only tallied two strikeouts, but pitched to contact and allowed multiple baserunners in just one frame.
“The one nice thing about Brian is he works fast,” Rooney said. “So he’s not working slow to where the fielders get back on their heels and you start thinking about other stuff than what’s going on in the game. He’s the type of pitcher that most fielders like to play with.”
Hare finished 2-for-2, reached three times and scored three runs. Barbeck and Matt Morrison were both 2-for-3.
Now, the real fun starts for the A’s as single-elimination begins with Saturday’s quarterfinals. They’ll meet St. Charles Post 312 at 10 a.m. Saturday at Hidden Valley Park.
“And now we’re having our big pitchers coming up too,” Reed said. “So I think we’re good. We’re playing well right now. We’re hitting the ball and we’re pitching good.”
Blue Springs Rod’s Sports A’s manager Mike Rooney wanted to send a stern message Thursday afternoon.
His team had just clipped Bellevue (Neb.) Post 339 West in the American Legion Wood Bat Invitational to clinch a spot in the quarterfinals. Even so, the A’s still had a game against the Lee’s Summit Post 189 Pirates slated for Friday morning. And Rooney could already tell that his guys weren’t overly concerned about a game with seemingly minimal significance.
“I said, ‘You take that type of approach into a game like this and it will reach up and grab you and bite you,’” Rooney said.
The A’s apparently took his message to heart, because they notched eight runs in the first two innings Friday at Blue Springs High School on the way to an 11-0 five-inning triumph.
Kyle Reed cracked a two-run homer in the first inning, Corbin Hare added a three-run blast in the second and Brian Burasco allowed only three hits in registering the complete-game shutout.
“Yesterday, we were thinking, ‘Who we going to throw? We don’t have to really play,” said Wylson Lamb, who stroked a single and double, stole a base and scored twice. “But as soon as you get out here you’re like, ‘We’re playing baseball.’ You can’t really slack off.”
Reed’s two-run shot put the A’s (40-10) up 2-0 and William Kessling brought in three more runs with a double.
The A’s went up 8-0 on Hare’s bomb in the fourth, added another run on Reed’s sacrifice fly and extended the lead to 11-0 on Brett Barbeck’s two-run double.
“We wanted to make sure we were still coming out and playing strong,” Reed said. “We wanted the win. You don’t want to be coming off a loss going into quarterfinals.”
Burasco made it easy in the field. He only tallied two strikeouts, but pitched to contact and allowed multiple baserunners in just one frame.
“The one nice thing about Brian is he works fast,” Rooney said. “So he’s not working slow to where the fielders get back on their heels and you start thinking about other stuff than what’s going on in the game. He’s the type of pitcher that most fielders like to play with.”
Hare finished 2-for-2, reached three times and scored three runs. Barbeck and Matt Morrison were both 2-for-3.
Now, the real fun starts for the A’s as single-elimination begins with Saturday’s quarterfinals. They’ll meet St. Charles Post 312 at 10 a.m. Saturday at Hidden Valley Park.
“And now we’re having our big pitchers coming up too,” Reed said. “So I think we’re good. We’re playing well right now. We’re hitting the ball and we’re pitching good.”
