By William Bowman
TURBOTVILLE -- Less than a minute into Sunday's game, it was apparent Mike Ede was going to be a handful.
Selinsgrove's leadoff hitter did exactly what a lead-off hitter should do, working the pitcher for eight pitches before drawing a walk. He then stole second and scored on a single, giving Selinsgrove's Junior baseball team a quick lead in an Area II game against Milton.
A couple of innings later, Ede made his presence felt in a bigger way and put Milton away in the process.
Ede launched a game-breaking grand slam well over the fence in left-center in the top of the fourth, and Selinsgrove never looked back in a 15-4, six-inning romp at the Frantz & Moser Complex.
Selinsgrove will now take on Shikellamy-Acorn in a winners' bracket game on Tuesday night at 7:30 . That game will follow the Snyder County-Mifflinburg game, which is slated for 5:30. Milton falls into the elimination bracket and won't play again until Thursday when it meets the loser of the Snyder County-Mifflinburg game.
Sunday's game was tight for the first few innings with Selinsgrove scoring twice in the first but watching Milton rally to make it 3-2 heading into the fourth.
That's when Ede took over. Selinsgrove managed to load the bases without putting the ball in play thanks the bottom part of the order working two walks and a hit batter.
That brought up Ede, who crushed a 1-1 pitch well over the fence to turn a 3-2 game into a 7-2 bulge.
"Mike's a big, strong kid and when he turns on one and gets it in the air, that can happen," said Selinsgrove manager Tim Moyer. "He's a menace as a leadoff hitter, making the pitcher really work and that is another aspect of his game. We got the tournament to a good start offensively, but it took us a little while to get going. Mike got us going."
Milton lefty Trevor Zimmerman, despite allowing two runs in the first, was able to keep Selinsgrove under wraps early on. He struck out the side in the first and set the side down in order in the second.
"We don't see a lot of lefties during the season and he just had us out in front of some pitches," said Moyer. "The second time through the order, we started to get our timing down and we hit some balls hard."
Selinsgrove pushed five runs across in the fifth to take an 8-2 lead and then continued to pile it on in its final two at-bats. It loaded the bases again in the fifth with Ede at the dish again, but this time he stayed in the park, driving in his fifth run on a fielder's choice. Dylan Hoke capped three-run rally with a two-out, two-run double.
Selinsgrove loaded the bases for the third consecutive inning in the sixth. Dylan Kratzer drove in one run before Tyler Cook singled home another. One more run scored on a balk and a final run on an error to give Selinsgrove the 11-run lead.
"We got those couple of runs in the first inning and it really settled some of our younger players down," said Moyer. "We have some experience on this team, but we also have a lot of young kids, first-year all-stars, and they performed well."
Selinsgrove banged out 11 hits. Ede had just one hit, but it was the grand slam, while Hoke and Nate Lauver had two hits each. The top three hitters in Selinsgrove's lineup had five hits, six runs scored and eight RBIs.
Milton scored in each of the first two innings with Zimmerman racing home on a wild pitch in the first and Taylor Porter doubling home a run in the second.
It got its final two runs in the fifth when Selinsgrove's defense got a little sloppy and Milton was able to take advantage of three errors to plate two runs. Michael Jacobs -- who made a terrific diving stop up the middle before throwing to first for an out earlier in the game -- drove in one of the runs on a sacrifice fly.
n E-mail comments to bbowman@dailyitem.com
