Friday, July 16, 2010

Pecha shuts out Brookston, but Ely settles for split

Ely inched closer to a top-seed for the district playoffs on Thursday night, but missed out on a chance to clinch.

Nick Pecha recorded his third shutout of the season and tossed a four-hitter - with 12 strikeouts - as Post 248 took the first game of a home doubleheader with Brookston.

Despite 13 hits, including home runs by Alex Koschak and Jory Johnson, Ely missed too many chances and fell 11-6 in the nightcap.

Now 17-5 overall and 10-3 in district play, Ely can earn the number-one seed for the district tournament with a win on Friday over Chisholm. The contest is set for 7 p.m. at Veterans Memorial Field.

The opening game of the doubleheader with Brookston was a pitching duel between Pecha and Bryce Karppinen. Pecha didn't walk a batter and reached double-digits in strikeouts in his seventh straight start, but Karppinen largely kept Ely at bay.

Ely scored a pair of unearned runs in the third, with Alex Koschak's two-run single plating Sean Fisher and Josh Ojala. Johnson doubled in a run as Ely scored three times in the fifth.

Brookston (7-4 overall, 7-3 district) took advantage of five Ely errors in the nightcap, and scored four times in teh second on five hits to jump out to a 5-2 lead.

Ely clawed back to within 7-6 in the fourth with a two-run homer by Alex Koschak and a solo shot by Johnson.

It was 9-6 in the sixth when Ely loaded the bases with one out. But Brookston escaped when Johnson lined into a double play.

Nick Mathews worked three innings and was tagged with the loss. Johnson tossed the last four frames, yielding five hits. Koschak,  Ojala, Johnson and Trevor Bernsdorf all had two hits for Ely.

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