PARIS — Bessey Motors’ runners spent Saturday morning sliding into bases like a child at a water park. The team stole 19 bases throughout their doubleheader sweep with 12-0 and 11-0 victories over Locke Mills.
Game 1 was all Bessey. Bessey pitcher Troy Johnson threw five innings of three-hit, scoreless ball, and five innings was all his squad needed to prevail in the first game.
“Pitching and defense really carried us the first game,” Bessey coach Lance Bean said. “We came up with some timely hits, but Troy Johnson pitched a great game in the first half of the doubleheader and our defense made all the plays, so I have to credit them.”
Bessey got on the board first in the third inning when Janek Luksza was walked, one of 11 walks in the game, then stole second and scored on a wild pitch. Matt Smith got on with a single and later scored, as did Jake Beauchesne.
Two more runs were tacked on in the fourth to make it 5-0. That’s when Bessey turned on the juice in the fifth, scoring seven times and going through the lineup all the way through to come out on top.
“We didn’t play well the first game. It definitely wasn’t the weather,” Locke Mills coach Brad Clarke said. “Their pitcher played well and we didn’t play well in the field and we didn’t score. You can’t win if you don’t score.”
Come Game 2, Locke Mills was ready to play ball.
The visitors scored first via a double by Tanner Wheeler, who was batted home off a single by Chase Harkins. After a couple of walks, Harkins scored via a single by Matt Sunba, and Locke Mills had a quick 2-0 lead.
Bessey answered with a run of their own off a single then a sac fly later in the inning to push a runner in. Neither team scored until the fourth inning, when Bessey’s bats came alive.
Emery Chickering started the bottom of the inning off with a single and later scored off a wild pitch. After Chickering, Bessey accumulated two quick outs — back to back. Bessey would then draw three walks, four singles, and four stolen bases to score six runs — all with two outs, to take a 7-2 lead.
When asked about the game plan on the base paths for Bessey, Bean said they waited for their opportunities.
“Make things happen,” Bean said. “We saw some things where we could get some extra bases and it worked.”
In the top of the fifth, Locke Mills had their own monster inning. The first three batters of the inning got on base via a walk, an error and a double — all scoring in the inning. Two more Locke Mills batters got on base by drawing walks and also scored, tying the game at seven.
Bessey put up the go-ahead run in the bottom of the sixth when Brayden Bean got on with a single, stole second and was pushed home via an error.
Down 8-7 in the top of the seventh, Locke Mills needed to find some more magic. Leadoff batter Caleb Clarke drew a walk and scored off a double by Chase Harkins, as did Tanner Wheeler, and Locke Mills was up 9-8. Locke Mills scored once more in the seventh and went into the bottom of the inning up two, all of the innings runs coming off of Game 1 starter Johnson.
Bessey tied the game up in the bottom of the seventh. In the bottom of the eighth, they scored the walk off run when Smith hit a single and stole second, then scored when a bad throw to first allows him to come around and score to win the game.
Johnson earned the win in both games for Bessey, who said his arm felt good enough to go.
“He asked me if my arm was ready to go again, so I told him I could go again if he needed me,” Johnson said.
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