Doug Pollock is certainly thankful it’s Friday.
The Zanesville manager is in a new position, as his Junior Pioneers are playing in the AAABA Tournament’s fifth day for the first time.
“It’s a little bit of a new experience for us to be playing on Friday,” Pollock said Thursday after his team beat Livonia 7-1 in an elimination game at Point Stadium for its third win of the tournament. “We’ve had to play a doubleheader on Thursday before.
My coach, Tom Checkush – a legend, had a team that won four one time.”
Nate Van Meter did a little bit of everything for the Junior Pioneers on Thursday. The 20-year-old from Muskingum College threw a complete-game four-hitter and blasted a three-run home run.
“If you aren’t excited down here in Johnstown, I don’t know when you will be,” Van Meter said. “It’s one of the greatest tournaments in the nation right now.”
Zanesville advances to face Baltimore in an elimination game today at noon at Roxbury Park.
Livonia got to Van Meter for a run in the second, as Dan Augustine’s double drove in Aaron Wick, but the left-hander only allowed two hits the rest of the way.
“Their pitcher did a fine job,” Livonia manager Rick Berryman said. “He threw well all day.”
Jordan Foster’s double in the third drove in Wade Kaido to tie the game and Zanesville went ahead with two runs in the fourth as Zack Pollock doubled in two more.
Losing pitcher Tom Whiting left after four innings and relievers Matt Tuttle, Bret Spencer and Colin O’Connell followed, with Spencer throwing 32⁄3 innings while allowing just one hit.
Zanesville made it 4-1 in the fifth as Chaz Mohler singled to right to score Josh Eckhard.
That gave Van Meter some breathing room.
“We had a lot of pressure on us coming in, with a loss already,” he said. “We kept a good attitude and ending up performing pretty well as a team.”
Livonia, which had scored five runs in the ninth inning on Wednesday to beat Brooklyn, had a chance to rally again against Zanesville. The Rams loaded the bases in the eighth inning, but Van Meter struck out cleanup hitter Shawn Little and got Wick to ground out on a close play at first.
“We had our big inning and déjà vu from yesterday, and it just didn’t happen,” Berryman said.
Doug Pollock was pleased with the way his team responded to adversity in the inning.
“Earlier in the season we would have collapsed, or had a tendency to,” he said. “But we hung in there, because the kids want to stay over here. They got excited about playing in the tournament and they want to stay here. And that’s the way they’re playing.”
Van Meter sealed it with his three-run shot over the screen in left field in the top of the ninth.
Foster, Van Meter and Zack Pollock each had two hits for Zanesville.
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