North Clay Uses Big Hits To Beat St. A; Cumberland Blanks Neoga

North Clay High School used big hits to hand Effingham St. Anthony a 6-1 loss and win the Class 1A Regional A baseball championship Tuesday.

The Cardinals rumbled in the first inning as Collyn Ballard led off with a single and Holden Clifton drew a base on balls. Several foul balls were screamers, showing what was to come. The Bulldogs' Logan Antrim got tough. With no outs, he got Brady Ingram to fly out and the next two batters on strikeouts to end the threat.

The Bulldogs went up and down in the inning and North Clay's Donnie Zimmerman made a great sliding catch in left field on a shot hit by Angelo Mendella.

Both teams went up and down in the second. Then came the fateful third inning.

With one out, it was back to the top of the lineup and this time Ballard hit a triple to centerfield. He was followed by a shot over the scoreboard in centerfield by Clifton and the Cardinals were suddenly up 2-0. Ingram followed with a back-to-back home run and it was 3-0. The Bulldogs got out of the frame without further damage.

But the Bulldogs couldn't get anything going offensively through the first three innings as North Clay's Carson Burkett kept them off balance.

In the fourth, North Clay tacked on another run, this one coming with two outs. Bryton Griffy singled and ended up stealing second. Ballard got on for the third time with a walk and Clifton came through again, this time with a single that scored Griffy.

In the bottom of the frame, Mendella ended Burkett's no-hitter with a single. He was forced out on a fielder's choice and then the Cardinals came up with a double play to end the inning.

North Clay sealed the contest with a run in the sixth and one in the seventh. The run in the sixth came as Dakota Teague drew a walk and came home on a single by Clifton.

In the seventh, Logan Fleener and Burkett drew back-to-back walks. An error put Dakota Weidner on base and Fleener came home on a wild pitch.

St. Anthony finally broke onto the scoreboard with a run in the seventh on a centerfield shot over the fence by Eli Moore.

North Clay finished with eight hits. Burkett gave up three hits, one walk while striking out three.

St. Anthony ends the season with a 17-7 record.

North Clay advances to the sectional Wednesday where the Cardinals will host Cumberland, a 6-0 winner over Neoga.  North Clay improved to 17-7 on the season.

Cumberland's Brennyn Cutts threw a no-hitter for the Pirates with 14 strikeouts. He also was the hitting leader with three hits and two RBI. Ross Hemmen had two hits and an RBI and Jaxon Boldt a hit and two RBI. Cumberland had eight total hits in the contest.

The Pirates took a 1-0 first inning lead, tacked on twoin the third and fourth and one in the seventh. 

At Evergreen Hollow Park

North Clay            003    101    1    --    6-9-0

St. Anthony          000    000    1    --    1-3-1

WP -- Burkett. LP -- Antrim.

North Clay -- Ballard, 2 singles, triple; Clifton, 2 singles, home run, 4 RBI; Ingram, home run, 1 RBI; Fleener, single; Griffy, single

St. Anthony -- Moore, home run, 1 RBI; Levitt, single; Mendella, single