Mount Pulaski Bruins win 2018 Logan County Baseball Tournament

Send a link to a friend  Share

[September 04, 2018] 

The Mount Pulaski Bruins won the 2018 Logan County Baseball Tournament on Saturday by defeating the Carroll Catholic/Zion Lutheran-Lincoln/New Holland-Middletown/Zion Lutheran-Mount Pulaski Crusaders 5-2 in the semifinals and then downing the Chester East-Lincoln Panthers 9-3 in the championship game.

Championship game

Mount Pulaski 9
Chester East-Lincoln 3

Mount Pulaski opened the scoring in the second inning with three runs, all in part due to errors crossing home plate.

Chester East-Lincoln came back with two runs in the bottom of the second inning. The big hit of the inning was an RBI double by Brady Crane. Alec Ferguson scored on the double.

The Bruins put up four more runs in the third inning. Mount Pulaski scored on a wild pitch, an error by the pitcher and RBI singles from Colt Selinger and Landon Smith.

The Panthers managed a run scored in the bottom of the third inning on Ashton Corley's RBI single that scored Tyler Sasse.

Mount Pulaski padded the 7-3 lead in the top of the fourth inning as Gavin Smith singled in Andrew Bailey. Gavin Smith would then steal second and manage to take third on a passed ball. Gavin Smith also came around to score the final run of the game on another passed ball.

Mount Pulaski takes the championship by a score of 9-3.

Gavin Smith led the Bruins in batting by going 2-for-3 with an RBI and three runs scored. Landon Smith, Evan Cooper, Oran Kuhlman and Colt Selinger had the other hits for Mount Pulaski.

Andrew Bailey earned the win for the Bruins. Bailey tossed three innings, allowing three runs on four hits. He walked three batters and struck out five. Bailey was relieved by Evan Cooper, who struck out four batters in two innings of work. Nolan Deibert pitched the final two innings in relief. Deibert struck out the side in the sixth inning and after allowing a lead-off single in the seventh inning, he recorded the final outs by way of a groundout, strikeout and pop out.

Chester East-Lincoln got singles from Tyler Sasse, Brenden Wurth, Ashton Corley, J.J. Fults, and Karson Komnick. Brady Crane slugged a double for the Panthers.

Tyler Sasse was the losing pitcher for the Panthers. Sasse worked two and two-thirds innings, giving up seven runs on three hits. Only four of the runs were earned. Sasse walked six batters and struck out four. He was relieved by Dyllan Ferguson and Jacob Lawrence.

Semifinal game

Mount Pulaski 5
Carroll/Zion-Lincoln/NH-M/Zion-MP 2

The Bruins managed to squeak across a run in the bottom of the first inning off Crusader's starter Clay Aylesworth. After a lead-off walk to Landon Smith, Smith reached second base on a wild pitch, stole third base and came around to score on another wild pitch.

[to top of second column]

The Crusaders tied the game 1-1 in the top of the third inning on an RBI single by Dawson McConnell.

Gavin Smith reached on an error leading off the bottom of the fifth inning for Mount Pulaski. Gavin Smith would steal second base and third base and well, why not take home, too. Very Javy Baez-like for the speedy Bruins starting pitcher and Mount Pulaski takes a 2-1 lead.

After five innings of work, Clay Aylesworth had reached his pitching limit for the Crusaders and he exited the pitching mound with no hits allowed and 12 strikeouts. His outstanding pitching performance was only marred by three runs and five walks. Mount Pulaski Bruins coach Troy Burgard pointed out that Aylesworth was "outstanding in the first game and very impressive." Aylesworth is an 8th grader at Zion Lutheran in Mount Pulaski.

Aylesworth was relieved by Jarrett Evers after issuing a lead-off walk in the bottom of the sixth inning. Evers gave up singles to Evan Cooper and Andrew Bailey, allowing Mount Pulaski to score a run. The Bruins scored two more runs on wild pitches and that would be all the offense Mount Pulaski would need as they took a 5-1 lead.

The Crusaders added a run in the top of the seventh inning. Aylesworth led off the inning with a line drive to centerfield. He advanced to third base on a single by Evers and scored on an error by the shortstop. Two strikeouts later and Mount Pulaski was working their way out of a jam. Catcher Jackson Fricke would end the game by throwing out Evers, who was trying to steal third base.

Mount Pulaski takes the 5-2 win behind great pitching performances from starter Gavin Smith and reliever Evan Cooper. Gavin Smith earned the win and he went three innings and gave up just two hits and a run while striking out eight batters. Cooper worked four innings and gave up just three hits and a run while striking out eleven batters.

Evan Cooper and Andrew Bailey had the only hits for Mount Pulaski.


The Crusaders out hit the Bruins five to two, with Clay Aylesworth and Jarrett Evers each going 2-for-3 at the plate. Dawson McConnell added the other hit for the Crusaders.

In the other semifinal game of the Logan County Tournament Chester East-Lincoln defeated West Lincoln-Broadwell by a score of 9-3.

Congratulations to the Mount Pulaski Bruins, who have now won the Logan County Tournament three years in a row.

[Teena Lowery]

Back to top