By JIM MISUNAS
jmisunas@gbtribune.com
LARNED — Larned’s American Legion baseball team blew past Beloit 8-1 Monday to open the Class AA Zone 5-6 Tournament. Larned and Beloit qualified for Class AA State Tournament last year.
Larned will meet a familiar foe Concordia in Tuesday’s 12:30 p.m. winner’s bracket game at Moffet Stadium. Concordia rallied past Larned in the Class 4A-Division 2 high school state semifinals in 2015.
LARNED 8, BELOIT 1 — Larned rolled to an 8-0 lead after scoring two runs in the first and third innings. Tyler Stelter led Larned with two hits and three runs batted home.
Landon Erway and Stelter singled home Evan Skelton and Gage Skelton in the first inning. Isiah Perez singled home Gage Skelton and Perez scored on a wild pitch for a 4-0 lead against pitcher Dakota Shurts.
"When we jump on top, it takes pressure off," said Larned coach Chad Erway. "My emphasis was our kids come out with controlled emotion and jump on top. That's what we did."
Mason Schartz singled home Carson Smith after a fourth-inning double.
Stelter’s two-run single scored Evan Skelton and Perez for a 7-0 lead. Alex Barger’s single scored Johnathan Herter for an 8-0 lead.
In Monday’s opener, catcher Tyler Stelter gunned down two baserunners. Larned turned a pair of double plays, started by second baseman Landon Erway and first baseman Jonathan Herter. Beloit scored in the sixth on Brandon Conn’s groundball that scored Luke Hesting after two singles and a walk off reliever Gage Skelton.
LARNED 8, BELOIT 1
LARNED AB R H BI
Evan Skelton 4 2 2 0
Gage Skelton 2 2 1 0
Landon Erway 4 0 1 1
Isiah Perez 3 2 2 1
Jon Herter 3 1 1 0
Tyler Stelter 3 0 2 3
Alex Barger 4 0 1 1
Carson Smith 2 1 1 0
Mason Schartz 4 0 1 1
TOTALS 29 8 12 7
Larned 202 103 0 — 8 12 0
Beloit 000 001 0 — 1 4 1
2B—Smith. SB—Gage Kelton, Perez, Stelter, Schartz, Barger. CS—Hesting, Mosher, Evan Skelton. PB—Stelter. WP—Shurts 2. E—Joe Cool. LOB—Larned 10, Beloit 4.
Larned IP H R ER BB SO
ESkelton 4 1 0 0 2 4
GSkelton 2 3 1 1 1 1
Perez 1 0 0 0 0 2
Beloit IP H R ER BB SO
Shurts 4 7 5 5 3 4
Harris 2 4 3 3 5 2
Meier 1 1 0 0 0 0
MONDAY’S GAMES
(Moffet Stadium)
Larned 8, Beloit 1
Russell 16, Sylvan Grove 6
Ellis 19, WaKeeney 0
Sylvan Grove 19, WaKeeney 6
TUESDAY’S GAMES
Larned 8, Concordia 0, 5 innings
Russell vs. Ellis
Game 7, 4:30 p.m.—Concordia vs. Sylvan Grove
Game 8, 6:30 p.m.—Beloit vs. Russell-Ellis loser
WEDNESDAY'S GAMES
Game 9, 3 p.m.—Winners Game 7, 8
Game 10, 5 p.m.—Larned vs. Russell-Ellis winner (Zone 5 champion qualifies for Class AA State)
Game 11, 7 p.m.—Winner Game 9 vs. loser Game 10 (Zone 6 champion qualifies for Class AA State)
