Steals pace Toppers

Steals pace Toppers

Marion moves to 20 games above .500

Sports Editor Prior to every summer season, Junior Weaver sets a number of goals for his teams to reach during their schedule.

One of those goals is to steal 100 or more bases every year.

The Marion Toppers are unlikely to steal that many bags in 2016, but did their best to catch up last night at John Robbins Field.

The Toppers stole seven bases in the 6-2 win against Armorel, their season- high in thefts.

Digging deeper, five different Toppers took bags, with Bryce Logan snagging two of his own.

Those steals allowed Marion to score six times in the game’s first three innings to move to 24-4-1 overall.

Gavin Stone, Blake Daniels, Nick Alsbrook, Logan and Matt Fraser were the base thieves, and that crew also accounted for four of Marion’s six runs, with Cam Smith and Evin Cooper coming up with the other tallies.

Alsbrook was the game’s winning pitcher after tossing five innings and allowing two earned runs. He allowed four hits, walked two and struck out five.

Right-hander Kris Peet entered in relief and worked the last two innings, allowed a pair of hits and struck three hitters out.

Marion score three times in the first inning when Gavin Stone singled, stole second and scored on a Daniels base hit.

Alsbrook doubled and moved to third on a Nolan Smith hit and Alsbrook came home on the throw.

Kollin Stone tripled to center field to score Nolan Smith.

Gavin Stone was back at it in the second inning when he doubled and scored on a Cam Smith double. Daniels would plate Smith with a double of his own for a 5-0 lead.

The Toppers capped their scoring in the bottom of the third when Johns walked and courtesy runner Evin Cooper scored on a wild pitch.

Armorel came up with a two-run rally in the top of the fifth, scoring on a passed ball and a timely RBI single, but Alsbrook was able to strand the bases loaded in the fifth before giving way to Peet, who slammed the door on the visitors.

By Chuck Livingston