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Altoona-based AAABA teams begin play with victories: Alarm goes off early for Imler’s

By Michael Boytim 5 min read

JOHNSTOWN -- A surprise wake-up call can sometimes jolt someone into action even quicker than a coffee or an energy drink.

It certainly paid off for Altoona's top entry in the All-American Amateur Baseball Association National Tournament, Imler's Poultry, on Monday.

Many of Imler's players were still in bed, anticipating a noon game at Roxbury Park's Dee Dee Osborne Field when the decision was made that the Altoona franchise would instead take on the Zanesville Pioneers at Sargent's Stadium at the Point at 10 a.m. as part of a tripleheader due to Sunday's rain.

Altoona catcher Nick Kraft certainly had time to remove all the sleepers from his eyes as he finished 5-for-5 with two doubles and five RBIs in Imler's Poultry's 15-1 seven-inning victory over Zanesville to open AAABA Tournament pool play.

"I found out as soon as I woke up, which happened when people started banging on our doors around 8 this morning," Kraft said. "We found out we were playing at 10, so it was a quick turnaround. But we came out here, started off hot and kept it going throughout the game."

Kraft doubled with two outs and no one on in the top of the first inning, and Chase Plummer followed with an RBI single to open the scoring.

"We came out loose," Imler's Poultry manager Adam Plummer said. "Being the away team and coming out and getting a run in our first at bat was huge. We got the momentum rolling. We know (starting pitcher) Brandon (McClure) can shut a team down on the mound, but getting up early and getting those jitters cleared away was huge."

McClure threw four shutout innings before Matt Gutshall finished off the final three.

In between, Imler's Poultry scored a lot of runs and had a lot of hits.

Leading 2-0 going into the top of the third inning, the Altoona entry broke the game open with a nine-run outburst.

Gavin Fowler, Connor Perry and Kraft opened the inning with singles. Plummer and Brayden Parsons followed with walks and Preston Farabaugh was hit by a pitch to end Zanesville starter Jake Valentine's morning on the mound.

Reliever Wyatt Stapleton didn't fare much better.

Owen Oakes and Brady Steiner greeted him with RBI singles, and Ty Szynal hit a sacrifice fly before Fowler had an RBI single and Kraft singled home two more runs.

"Between Nick, Chase and Gavin that's 11 hits on the day," Adam Plummer said. "Nick obviously came up big. Our No. 3 and No. 4 hitters had eight hits, and Nick was driving the ball. We had a lot of people getting on base, and the guys who were supposed to knock them in did their job today. We have to stay relaxed with this momentum we have and build on it going forward."

Kraft added another two-run single in the fifth inning, and his double in the top of the seventh inning led to another run.

"I was seeing it really well today and got a couple of hits, which was good," Kraft said. "They weren't throwing too many offspeed pitches to me, so I was just sitting fastball and getting my pitch."

Zanesville scored its only run after Carson Anderson walked with two outs in the fifth inning and scored on Aiden Reis' RBI double.

Imler's Poultry will continue its three-game pool play with a game against Buffalo at Portage today at noon.

"It's really big to open with a win," Kraft said. "Hopefully we can carry this momentum through the whole tournament and go pretty far. We just need to stay locked in and play our game."

Fowler went 3-for-4 and scored four runs, and Chase Plummer was 3-for-4, including a double, and drove in three runs.

Imler's Poultry is scheduled to close out pool play on Wednesday at the same place -- Roxbury -- it was originally intended to begin with a game against Schenectady at 10 a.m.

Monday's lopsided win could help Imler's Poultry in the case of pool tiebreakers with teams having the same record.

"It's big for (run) differential, but it's also big to win that first game and not be playing from behind," Adam Plummer said. "You're not getting into must-win situations and getting that added pressure to win the next game or the next two games. But scoring a bunch of runs and keeping them to one run was big for any tiebreakers."

IMLER'S POULTRY (15): Fowler 2b 443, B. McClure p 000, Gutshall p 000, Perry dh 421, Kraft c 505, Brauer cr 030, Plummer 3b 413, Parsons rf 310, Farabaugh 1b 310, Oakes lf 321, Powell lf 100, Steiner ss 301, Szynal cf 211. Totals -- 32-15-15.

ZANESVILLE PIONEERS (1): Campbell cf 300, Anderson 2b 111, Reis rf 402, Ralph ss 400, Tichenor 3b 201, McLain lf 300, Hartman c 300, Glaub 1b 300, Valentine p 000, Stapleton p 000, George dh 300. Totals -- 26-1-4.

SCORE BY INNINGS

Imler's Poultry 119 020 2XX--15 15 1

Zanesville Pioneers 000 010 0XX--1 4 0

E--Gutshall. 2B--Kraft 2, Plummer, Reis. RBI--Reis. WP--B. McClure. LP--Valentine. SO--B. McClure 2, Gutshall 2 Stapleton 3, Valentine 1. BB--B. McClure 1, Gutshall 3, Valentine 4, Stapleton 1.

Umpires: Bill Meyers (HP); Wes Meyers (1B).

Records: Imler's Poultry (1-0); Zanesville (0-1).

Starting at /week.