Prep baseball: Sultan 8, Granite Falls 1

Published 10:24 am Tuesday, March 29, 2011

GRANITE FALLS — Sultan’s Sam Hatton took control of the Cascade Conference boys baseball game with superb performances both on the mound and at the plate. Both teams came into the game without a win this season, and Hatton’s nine strikeouts were just what Sultan needed to notch that elusive first victory.

“(He had) good velocity, a good curve ball. He did a nice job,” said Granite Falls head coach Doug Engstrom of Hatton.

Hatton added three RBI and finished 3-for-4 from the plate, but got plenty of help from his team’s four-run second inning, where Kennan Anderson hit the only home run of the game with a two-run shot. Jay Leverett followed with an RBI on a sacrifice fly. Hatton hit home the last run of the inning for Sultan. Granite Falls aided the big inning by committing five of their seven errors in the second.

If the game had been decided by only earned runs, coach Engstrom pointed out, Sultan would have won only 2-1, but added that, “Sultan played a very good game.”

Josh Weaver hit the only RBI for Granite Falls, a single in the first inning.

At Granite Falls H.S.

Sultan 142 010 0–8 7 1

Granite Falls 100 000 0–1 1 7

Hatton and Leverett. Larsen, Denke (5) and Byron. WP–Hatton (not reported). LP–Larsen (0-2). 2B–S. Leverett (S) 1, J. Leverett (S) 1. HR–Anderson (S) 1. Records–Sultan 1-5 league, 1-5 overall. Granite Falls 0-3, 0-5.