Valley Sports Report
OWEGO — The Nichols-Tioga Major All-Stars remained alive in Owego 12 & Under Tournament action Tuesday, eliminating the Ithaca Dragons, 15-3, in five innings
Nichols-Tioga found itself trailing early as Ithaca pushed a trio of runs across the plate in the top of the first, but that would be all the Dragons would get.
The locals then scored scored six runs in the bottom of the first. Lead-off Jake Evanek and No. 2 hitter Gabe Hoose reached base on balls and Nick Cotto singled in Evanek. Adam Layman doubled, scoring Hoose and Evanek, and Adam Zwierlein reached after being hit by a pitch. Tyler Whitmore belted a tripled to score Zwierlein and Layman. Whitmore came home on a passed ball to round out the scoring.
Nichols-Tioga scored five more runs in the second as Evanek reached on a single, stole second and third, and came home on a passed ball. Hoose reached on a walk, followed by a Cotto single. They were both brought home by Layman's 3-run homer. After an Ithaca pitching change, Zwierlein singled, then came home on a passed ball.
Matthew Lounsbury, who pitched all five N-T innings, scored the only run of the third, doubling, and was brought in by Dani Kindrew.
The final trio runs in the fourth were scored by Layman, who tripled, and was brought home on Whitmore’s second triple of the game. Austin Payne singled to score Whitmore and Hunter Singer then hit the third triple of the inning to bring in Payne.
Nichols-Tioga plays the loser of first-seeded Owego and fifth-seeded Endicott Thursday at 6 p.m. N-T has played both teams in the tournament, losing to Owego, 5-4, in round robin, and Endicott, 10-9, in the first round of double elimination. In both games, N-T out-hit and out-pitched their opponents.
