Western Boone Jr. - Sr. High School

The WEBO Jr. High Baseball Blue Stars concluded their season in a thriller against Lebanon on Wednesday night that went down to the wire. Aiden Lester and Noah Cole split time on the mound and had their hands full with some fierce Tigers hitters, but each managed a 3-up and 3 down inning. Aiden added 3 more strikeout victims to his season total and Noah tacked on 2 more to his. Each of them had strikeouts to end innings and left runners stranded on bases in big moments. The defense played a big role in this one with plays from all over the field. Destin Caraballo was a machine at shortstop, gunning down Tigers on 3 separate occasions, including a fifth inning-ender that left runners on first, second and third, and stopped Lebanon from scoring. Jacob Collins fired the ball into second from right field to take out a Tiger runner and also caught the final out of the second inning. Aiden Lester added 3 more outs from the mound: two on grounders back up the middle and another on a beautiful pickoff move to Levi Hayden at first to catch a Tiger runner napping. Aiden also added 2 more plays at first base. And finally, Owen Young rounded out the defensive effort getting the ball in quick from left field to hold a runner at second and then started a 1, 2, 3, third inning by fielding a sharply hit grounder at second base and firing it to first for the out. Despite being down 8-0 after 3 innings of play, the Stars rose to the challenge and came soaring back, scoring 8 runs in the fourth to tie it up with big hits by Levi Hayden and Charlie Jones. The Tigers then recaptured the lead in the top of the fifth, going up 11-8. Masyn Hoskins came up in the bottom of the fifth and worked the count full, eventually drawing his second walk of the game and getting things going for the Stars. Aiden followed up with a well-hit ball through the right side of the infield. Then Owen Young worked his way on base with a walk to load them up for Noah Cole, who came through in the clutch with a huge double to bring the Stars within one and put runners at third and second with none out. One batter later, Owen Young flew home on a passed ball and slid in on a close play at the plate to score the game-tying run. Josiah Williamson looked like he might have had the game winner, but second base managed to coral his hit, and despite Timothy Boddicker putting the ball in play with Noah Cole ready to score from third the Tigers got the final out and the game ended in an 11-11 tie. The Red team also concluded their season and the stars beat Lebanon 7-3 The boys did a outstanding job on offense and defense. Westerfeld started on the mound and went 5 innings just giving up 2 hits one run with 8 strikeouts and no walks. Kiplinger came in for the last two innings giving up 1 hit 2 runs and 2 strikeouts and 1 walk. Offensivley we had 4 hits: 2 by Kiplinger, 1 by Nance and Nicely. Way to go Stars!