Wood is good

WILLARD— At this weekend’s Willard  American Legion Baseball Tournament, teams are supposed to be using wooden bats instead of aluminum. The only problem? Someone forgot to relay that message to the Waynesville Warriors Post 331 team.

“We didn’t really know about it until we got here,” Warriors head coach Scott Turner said. “So we didn’t have much time to practice with them. Luckily, we had a few and Willard lended us some.”
It didn’t matter. The Warriors hit so well, even lead bats wouldn’t have hindered the offense.

The Warriors tallied seven runs on 11 hits to beat hosts Willard 7-3 on Friday in the very first game of the weekend tournament. The game was a shortened six-inning affair because of the two-hour tournament time limit.

“We were just worried about putting the ball in play,” Turner said. “And we did today.”

Waynesville got on the board quickly, scoring two runs in the top of the first inning. Starting pitcher Dustin Doyle took the mound in the bottom half of the inning and didn’t allow a run for the first two frames. In the third, Willard’s Michael Burgess hit an RBI double to cut the Warrior lead to 2-1.
Doyle, however, settled down and retired the next three Willard hitters.

The Warriors struck again in the top of the fifth, scoring three runs— all with two outs.

Matt Hesteness scored on James Holler’s RBI single to make it 3-1. After David Faulkner walked, Kevin Williams hit another RBI single to make it 4-1. The next hitter, Sam Dowling, walked, to bring catcher Lee Lamphear to the plate with bases full and two out.

Lamphear, who said he’d been in a bit of a slump, finally broke through with a single to shallow left center, scoring Holler and making it a 5-1 game.

Lamphear said the wood bat didn’t hinder him, but it took a few at-bats for him to get used to the feel.

“It just takes a while to adjust,” he said. “A 33-inch wood bat is a lot heavier than a 33-inch aluminum bat, so we usually go down to 32,” he said.

It’s also harder to hit inside pitches.

“Most of the time, I pop it up when I’m hitting with wood,” he added.

“The sweet spot is smaller and harder to hit because the barrel is smaller.”

Turner said there’s a trick to hitting with wood, but it doesn’t take long to teach.

“You’re supposed to hit with the label up or down,” he said, not on the label. Once the players remember that,  though, he said it becomes easier.

Despite scoring three runs in that inning, the Warriors wouldn’t get off easily.

Willard scored two more in the bottom of the fifth after Doyle allowed two runners to reach base, followed by a double to left field with one out.

But Doyle regrouped and shut the door for the rest of the game, striking out the last two batters in the inning and the final two in the bottom of the sixth.

The Warriors had added two insurance runs in the top half of the inning to give him a breatheable lead— one of those runs coming from a triple that he hit and scored Patrick Holt.

Doyle finished the game with only two earned runs allowed on five hits, walking four and striking out eleven. He went 2-for-4 at the plate with 2 RBIs.

Holt, Faulkner and Holler all went 2-for-4, with Faulkner knocking in two runs and Holler another.
Matt Hesteness and Kevin Williams knocked in the other two runs.

The win moves the Warriors to the winners’ bracket of the tournament, where they’ll play either Francis Howell Central or El Dorado Springs at 10 a.m. today. They are now 9-5 so far this summer.