Baseball Bears Begin District Play Next Monday Afternoon

The Ava High School Baseball Bears played three games this week in the Ash Grove Tournament, dropping one and winning two.

The Bears opened with Ash Grove on Saturday and suffered a 2-1 loss.

Ava had only four hits in the game and Dillon Adams drove in the only run.

Adams, Ben Loge, Jesse Johnson and Cody Huff had one hit each for Ava.

Kody Kutz pitched for Ava, striking out seven and walking only one batter.

Next the Bears would face Marionville, also on Saturday, and came out on top in the high scoring 12-9 decision.

Senior Zach Leonard was 4-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored. Johnson was 3-for-3, Cooper Emerich was 2-for-3 with two RBIs and Loge was 3-for-5 with two runs batted in.

Johnson started for Ava and pitched one-third of an inning before giving way to Cody Wallace who finished the game.

The Bears faced Fordland on Tuesday afternoon and rolled to a 12-2 win.

Adams was 3-for-3 with three RBIs. Johnson and Huff were each 2-for-3 and Huff drove in two runs.

The Bears were playing for the tournament championship Wednesday night.

Class 3 District 10 tournament action begins this weekend, but the Bears, with the No. 1 seed, will have a first round bye.

Ava’s first opponent will be the winner of the Cuba vs. St. James game at 2 o’clock Monday. The tournament is being played at Houston.

The championship will be decided Tuesday, May 15, with a 4 o’clock starting time for that game.