By Rob Potter
MONTICELLO — The Sullivan West Bulldogs are the champions of the second annual John Spear Memorial Baseball Tournament.
SW defeated the Ellenville Blue Devils, 13-2, in the tourney’s title game on Saturday at Monticello High School.
The Bulldogs grabbed a 5-0 lead in the top of the first inning. Leadoff batter Eric Minton singled and after one out was recorded, Brad Reimer reached base on an error. Both Minton and Reimer crossed home plate on a double by Mark Tesseyman.
Tesseyman scored when the next batter, Jeremy DeGori, hit a home run.
Two batters later, Lucas Bauer singled to bring DeGori in to score.
In the top of the second, Reimer singled and scored when Logan Grishaber singled to give SW (4-0) a 6-0 advantage.
DeGori led off the top of the third with a triple. He scored on Bauer’s sacrifice fly.
Ellenville (2-2) narrowed the Bulldogs’ lead in the bottom of the third.
Don Matthews began the inning with a double. He scored when the next batter, Deon Ferraro, singled. Ferraro crossed the plate moments later courtesy of a Bulldogs’ error.
With its lead cut to 7-2, SW responded in the top of the fourth. Ryan Alsdorf doubled and scored on a single by Reimer.
The Bulldogs added to their advantage in the top of the fifth. With one out, Austin Sauer singled to center field. Michael Durkin then entered the game to run for Sauer. Durkin advanced to second base on Gaston Owen’s single down the left field line. Durkin and Owen both scored when Minton slapped a base hit to center field.
Alsdorf scored on a single by Grishaber, who then scored on a Blue Devils’ error to push the Bulldogs’ lead to 12-2.
SW scored its last run of the afternoon in the top of the seventh.
With one out, Jim O’Connor ripped a double to right field. After Ellenville recorded the second out of the inning, O’Connor scored on a single by R.J. Rosa.
Grishaber earned the win on the mound for the Bulldogs. He pitched six innings, gave up four hits, struck out five and walked two. Reimer pitched the bottom of the seventh for SW. He set the Blue Devils down in order with an infield grounder and two strikeouts.
“Logan Grishaber pitched a great game for us today,” SW Coach Kurt Scheibe Jr. said. “He was able to mix his pitches and hit his spots. He just did a great job.”
Scheibe also praised his team’s performance at the plate.
“We hit the ball well today,” he said. “We have scored at least 10 runs in all four of our games this season, which is very good.”
Ellenville Coach Merrill Conner noted that problems on defense and a lack of timely hits hurt his team.
“You can’t keep giving a team five and six outs an inning, it’s going to hurt you,” he said. “We didn’t set up well on defense, we were back on our heels.
“Offensively, we had runners on second and third a few times, but just couldn’t get a hit to bring them in,” Conner added. “You need to have big hits in those situations.”