Apr 10, 2008

The weather this spring has not been ideal for baseball, to say the least, but the Ava High School Bears managed to pick up wins 3 and 4 this past week. On Saturday, April 5, the Bears played Mtn. View-Liberty in conference action at home and took a 5-3 win behind the strong pitching of Adam Heriford and Weston Loftin. Ava pounded out nine hits in the game, including extra-base hits by Loftin, Nathan Goodall and Matt Ritter. Loftin was 3-4 at the plate with two doubles, two runs scored and two runs batted in. Goodall was 1-for-3 with a double and Ritter was 1-for-2 with a double and an RBI. On the mound, Heriford struck out eight batters and allowed only one earned run through four innings. Loftin came in in the 5th and struck out seven Liberty batters, allowed no runs, and earned the save. Heriford was also 2-for-3 at the plate with two runs scored for Ava. The Bears boosted their SCA record to 2-0 on Monday with a 7-0 shutout of Willow Springs on the home field. Jonathan Batcheller started for Ava and allowed one hit and recorded nine strikeouts in five innings. Goodall took over in the sixth and completed the shutout. Loftin was 2-for-3 at the plate with a double, and a two-run homer in the third. The Bears are scheduled to play Thayer here today (Thursday) at 4:30, and Ava is to host a junior varsity tournament on Saturday, weather permitting. Next week the Bears will travel to Houston on Monday and to Salem on Thursday for SCA games.