Hagerstown advanced to the semi-final round of state tournament play Sunday with an 11-4 win over Jasper.
The boys in purple, who never trailed, took control of the game in the top of the first inning. Hagerstown scored four runs in their first at-bat. The last two of the four runs came from stealing home plate twice.
Hagerstown pounced early. Jaykob Troutwine opened the game with a single; Graham Vinson singled behind him, and Kaden Hall drew a walk to load the bases. After the next batter struck out, Nolan Cheeseman drew a walk to drive in a run.
Vinson stole home during the next at-bat and on the same play, in the confusion, Hall also stole home right behind him. Clark followed with an RBI single.
Hagerstown Coach Pat Allred talked about the play. “I looked at (Kaden) Hall on third and said –‘That catcher is not looking down here, if you think you can steal home do it,” Allred explained. “Getting that early lead was a huge mental edge for our kids.”
Hagerstown added on another run in the top of the second inning. Hayden Moore singled and advanced to second when the fielder bobbled the ball. Preston Allred laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Moore to third and Troutwine hit a ground ball to bring him home.
Hagerstown broke the game open with a five-run fifth inning to extend their lead to 10-0. Heath Johnson singled. Bentley George hit a slow roller and made it to first, when Jasper tried unsuccessfully to throw Johnson out. That put Hagerstown runners at first and second with no outs.
Ben Golliher followed with an RBI ground out. Troutwine stepped to the plate and hammered the ball over the right field fence into the street. Hall and Jonah Hale also singled in the inning to provide two more runs.
Jasper finally got on the scoreboard with a three-run fourth inning, but Troutwine, who came in on relief for Vinson, struck out the last two batters to end the threat. Jasper added another run in the bottom of the fifth inning but left the bases loaded when Cheeseman made a brilliant play at first base to end the inning.
Hagerstown added a sixth-inning insurance run. Thornburg singled to produce the run and the boys in purple held on to pick up the win by the final score of 11-4.
Vinson started the game on the mound and pitched very well. He left after 50 pitches. Troutwine and Johnson came in to finish out the game. Hagerstown collected nine hits off five Jasper pitchers. Vinson had two hits and Troutwine had three.
Coach Allred said Hagerstown is in good shape from a pitching standpoint. “So far things are going according to our plan,” Allred said. “We will have Jaykob (Troutwine) and Heath (Johnson) available Tuesday, and Graham (Vinson) and Kaden (Hall) both eligible for games Wednesday. But our focus remains taking one game at a time.”
Hagerstown
4 1 0 5 0 1 11
Jasper
0 0 0 3 1 0 4
Hagerstown Hits: Hall, Johnson, Moore, Thornburg, Troutwine (3), Vinson (2)

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