PEFYA’s Machine Pitch Season Comes To A Close
Published 11:55 am Tuesday, July 14, 2015
- PEFYA player Leighton Folz waits for the ball to be thrown to him. (Photo by Hannah Davis)
CREWE — The Prince Edward-Farmville Youth Association’s (PEFYA) Machine Pitch team fell twice to Crewe-Burkeville on Saturday in the District 5 All-Star Tournament. The locals lost 13-10 in the first game and 15-14 in the second game of a doubleheader after winning Friday night’s opener in the best-two-out-of-three series.
With just two teams competing in the tournament, the title was awarded to Crewe-Burkeville and PEFYA’s season ended.
PEFYA started fast in Friday night’s 11-4 win with five runs in the first inning, while Crewe-Burkeville scored three.
Neither team would score again until the fourth inning, when PEFYA notched an additional run. PEFYA scored its final five runs in the sixth inning. Crewe-Burkeville scored a run in the sixth inning..
“Friday night I thought we played absolutely as good as we could have played,” PEFYA Machine Pitch Manager Mark Simon said. “We pretty much made every play on the field, which is very unusual for kids that age. I knew that the other team could hit from top to bottom of their line-up, and we would have to come back Saturday and play our absolute best again.”
Saturday’s games would be a different story.
Although PEFYA scored a run in the first inning, three in the third and five in the sixth, it was edged by three runs in the end. In the second game, PEFYA scored three runs in the first inning, four in the third and seven in the fifth.
However, due to a rule limiting a team to seven runs in any inning but the sixth, PEFYA had to stop hitting. It did not score any more runs the rest of the game.
The PEFYA Machine Pitch team during the opening prayer. (Photo by Hannah Davis)
Clevante Watkins led PEFYA over the weekend with seven runs. Sawyer Furlong scored six runs in the three games combined, while Leighton Folz scored five. Khris Ligon, Josh Simon, Noah Boehmer and Austin Morgan scored four runs each over the weekend series. Isaiah Fisher also scored a run.
“My kids came out after working hard for three straight weeks. Everyone of those kids is an excellent baseball player with a great future. I just hope that they all keep working hard,” Simon said.
“At that age, my number one goal is to just try to make it fun for them. I hope they had fun and I hope they continue to work hard to get better because they all deserve it.”
