By By Jim Luke / special to The Star
April 18, 2002
PHILADELPHIA The Philadelphia Tornadoes used a pair of six-run innings to blast their way to a one-game advantage over the Forest Bearcats in the first round of the State 3A baseball playoffs by the score of 17-6.
Forest opened the scoring in the top of the first inning with a two-out homer over the leftfield fence by Drew Kenna to take the initial lead. That lead would only stand until the bottom of the inning when Cameron Tawater answered with a two-out blast of his own that also pushed Dustin Turner, who walked on four pitches, across the plate for a 2-1 Philadelphia advantage.
The Bearcats came right back in the top of the second to pick up a pair of runs as Drew Chance and Jacob Windham both crossed the plate. Chance reached on an error and scored when a single by Windham was mishandled in the outfield. Windham raced to third and later scored on a sacrifice fly to right by Joey McDill.
In the bottom of the second the Tornado bats came alive as 11 batters made it to the plate to score six runs on six hits and two Bearcat errors. With one out in the inning Jonathan Holland reached when he was hit by a pitch and moved to second on a wild pitch. One out later Tyler Threadgill singled to drive in Holland and tie the game at 3-3.
At that point Philadelphia went on a scoring spree that set the tone for the rest of the game. Kip Turner singled, followed by an RBI single by his brother Dustin. Tawater singled to drive in Threadgill and Kip. Jonathan Booker reached on an error to give the Tornadoes a pair of runners for pitcher Hunter Holley. Holley ripped a single to drive in Tawater and Booker ended the scoring in the inning by crossing the plate when a ball put in play by Tyler Rounsaville was errored.
The Bearcats went down in order in the top of the third, but the Tornadoes picked up where they left off by adding six more runs to gain a 14-3 advantage. Threadgill, both Turners, Tawater, Holley and Rounsaville all score in the inning on four hits and two Bearcat errors.
Forest got a pair of runs in the top of the fourth as Chance and Micheal Townsend both singled and scored in the inning to cut the margin to 14-5. But the Tornadoes were not through scoring as Threadgill, Tawater and Booker all crossed the plate in the bottom of the inning. The last two runs for the Tornadoes came on a two-run homer by Booker to close the scoring in the game for Philadelphia.
The Bearcats added the final run of the contest in the top of the fifth as Chance singled and later scored on a sacrifice fly by Townsend.
Holley picked up the win for Philadelphia, 17-9, with 4.1 innings pitched while Kenna took the loss for Forest, 17-11.
The two teams will face each other again today at Forest as playoff action continues. Should Forest win the contest, the third and deciding game will be played Saturday at Burnside Park at Philadelphia.