After capturing the regular season title, Nichirin entered the Marshall County Babe Ruth League’s postseason tournament as the main rival of the talented Columbia based Game Time squad.

The two teams made it to the Gold Pool finals on Thursday night at the Jonathan D. Hollingsworth Memorial Babe Ruth Field and Nichirin jumped out to an early 1-0 lead before Game Time exploded with 16 unanswered runs to take the 16-1 three-inning, run-rule win.

Game Time starting pitcher Michael Lester tossed all three innings, giving up two runs (none earned) on two hits while striking out two and walking two Nichirin batters.

Lucas Hery and Colton Flick had the only two hits for Nichirin and Flick also tossed the first inning on the mound.

Nichirin’s first inning run began with a one-out base on balls to James Hery, who was out at second base on a fielder’s choice groundout by Grayson Miller.

Miller moved up to third base on a failed pickoff attempt at second and scored on a wild pitch before Lester induced an inning ending grounder to short.

Jake Tegeler and Corey Paterick slashed back-to-back base hits to start the bottom of the first inning and Tegeler came home on a fielder’s choice RBI by Cole Taylor.

After a 5-3 put-out, Lincoln English walked and Paterick scored to make it 2-1 on a wild pitch ball four to Gage Bolton.

Another wild pitch moved both runners to second and third and Keaton Umstead delivered a bases clearing triple to make it 4-1.

With two down in the top of the second inning, Lucas Hery singled to right field and stole second before Reid Mitchell drew a base on balls.

Flick came up with a single to center field that loaded the sacks, but Lester caught the next batter looking at a called third strike to end the inning.

Rob Hawkins came to the hill for Nichirin in the top of the third inning and set down Game Time 1-2-3.

Lester returned the favor in the top of the third, setting down Nichirin in order before the floodgates opened in the home half of the stanza.

Game Time sent 15 batters to the plate in the inning with Taylor, Kincaid, and English reaching base and scoring twice.

Paterick had a leadoff double to start the inning while Kincaid had the only other base hit (RBI single) in the frame.

Game Time was helped out by seven bases on balls, three errors, four wild pitches, and one hit batsman.

Thank you for playing this year and good luck the rest of the summer to Game Time, which is hoping to continue a travel ball season.

There will be no Babe Ruth Regional Tournaments and World Series for the 2020 season due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Nichirin 100-1 2 4

Game Time 40(12)-16 5 1

Nichirin: Lucas Hery 1-for-1, Colton Flick 1-for-1.

BB: James Hery, Reid Mitchell.

RS: James Hery.

SB: Lucas Hery.

LOB: 3

E: Daniel Sellars 2, Flick, Mitchell.

LP: Colton Flick (1IP, 3H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 0K).

Relief: Rob Hawkins (1.2IP, 2H, 12R, 7ER, 7BB, 0K).

Relief: Baylin Luttrell (0IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K).

Game Time: Corey Paterick 2-for-3, Jake Tegeler 1-for-2, Cole Kincaid 1-for-2, Keaton Umstead 1-for-1.

BB: Lincoln English 2, Cole Taylor, Kincaid, Gage Bolton, Umstead, Brandon Crabtree, Michael Lester, Ethan Putnam.

RS: English 3, Paterick 2, Taylor 2, Kincaid 2, Gage Bolton 2, Tegeler, Umstead, Crabtree, Lester, Putnam.

3B: Umstead.

RBI: Umstead 2, Tegeler, Taylor, Kincaid, Lester, Putnam.

HBP: Tegeler.

FC: Taylor.

SB: Taylor 2, Kincaid 2, Paterick.

LOB: 1

E: Lester.

WP: Michael Lester (3IP, 2H, 1R, 0ER, 2BB, 2K).