Murrayhill make the news!

Murrayhill explodes, routs LO to win title. Its 10-6 win gives Murrayhill the District 4 title, as well as a berth into the 10-11 state tournament
By Miles Vance
The Beaverton Valley Times, Jul 12, 2007, MILES VANCE / Beaverton Valley Times

CHAMPIONSHIP ACTION – Murrayhill shortstop Matt Kimball tries to turn a double play with Lake Oswego’s A.J. Van Leeuwen bearing down on him in the sixth inning of Murrahill’s 10-6 win on Tuesday night.

HILLSBORO —

Nerves are not a part of the equation for the Murrayhill Little 10-11 baseball all-star team.
Murrayhill, trailing Lake Oswego 3-0 in Tuesday night’s District 4 championship game at West Union Elementary School, kept its nerves in check, got its bats in gear and rallied past the Lakers 10-6 to earn a spot in the upcoming 10-11 state tournament. Murrayhill opens the state tournament at 7:30 p.m. Friday in Gresham against the District 6 champion.

“I’m looking forward to winning it all” at state, said Murrayhill shortstop Matt Kimball, who went 1-for-4, drove in two runs and scored twice in Tuesday’s win over Lake Oswego. “Most Murrayhill teams, when they go to state, they win it all.”

“Considering that this is my first time in finals and winning and going to state, I think we’re going to do pretty good,” added pitcher Chandler Whitney.

And Murrayhill was pretty darn good against Lake Oswego on Tuesday, despite falling behind by that 3-0 deficit after 2-1/2 innings. The Lakers got on the board with two runs in the top of the first when A.J. Van Leeuwen drew a one-out walk and teammate Daniel Verburg followed with a long homer to left off Whitney for a 2-0 lead.

After two fruitless Murrayhill at-bats, Lake Oswego made it 3-0 when Van Leeuwen singled to open the third, took second on an out and scored when Ben Torkelson singled to right field. But Whitney bore down after that, didn’t allow another run and eventually gave way to Micah Clardy in the fifth.

Murrayhill’s offense finally got started in the bottom of the third when Kimball reached base on a two-out error, Bruin Campbell singled and Kimball scored two batters later on another Laker error.

Murrayhill then tied the game in the fourth when Whitney and Joe Bland led off with back-to-back singles and Connor Shaw reached on a fielder’s choice to load the bases. Mike Varadi followed with an RBI single to left field and Bland came home on a wild pitch with two outs to tie the game at 3-3.

And then, in the bottom of the fifth, Murrayhill broke the game wide open. The Beaverton all-stars sent 12 batters to the plate in the frame, banged out seven hits, forced two more Laker errors and scored seven runs to grab a 10-3 lead they would not relinquish.

Whitney kicked things off with a two-run double to center that glanced off the LO outfielder’s glove and brought home Clardy and Mason Shaw. Bland singled to right to plate Whitney and knocked LO starter Tyler Coleman from the game. Next batter Zack Kiene greeted reliever Avery Prentice with an infield hit, and after an out, Kimball doubled to left-center to drive in Ryan Dueker and Kiene.

Campbell then singled in Kimball, Drew Pryor collected an infield hit and Clardy capped the inning with another infield hit to bring home Campbell.
Despite their early deficit, Murrayhill’s players and coaches said they were confident they’d win.

“I wasn’t too happy on the mound … but I thought we were going to come back after we did it against Tigard two days earlier,” Whitney said. “We just had to play through it, keep our heads up and keep fighting back.”

“We’ve been waiting for a huge inning like that for a long time. It just felt great to spank the ball,” Kimball said. “After that inning, it was pretty obvious we were going to win.”

“I wasn’t nervous at all, not with this group,” Murrayhill manager Scott Zanon said. “We tell them every game they’re going to face adversity every game so I wasn’t nervous at all for them.”

The Lakers added their final three runs in the top of the sixth on hits by Max Meade, Kenny Oyama, Van Leeuwen, two Murrayhill walks and one error.

For the game, Campbell and Clardy both went 2-for-4 with one RBI and one run scored, Bland was 2-for-3 with one RBI and one run, and Pryor was 2-for-3. For Lake Oswego, Van Leeuwen was 2-for-3 with one RBI and two runs, and Verburg, Torkelson, Meade, Oyama and Will Burton added one hit each.