BY CLIFF SMELLEY
Lake Butler Middle School’s baseball team got two RBI each from Shane Huebner, Westyn Miller, Kiptyn Shuler and Fisher Thomassen in defeating fourth seed Keystone Heights 11-1 in four innings in the semifinals of the Suwannee Middle Athletic Conference on April 23 in Lake Butler.
The top seed Tigers (14-2-2) will play second seed Bradford (4-6-1) for the championship on Thursday, April 25, at 6 p.m. at the O.J. Phillips Recreation Complex in Lake Butler.
Lake Butler pitchers Spencer Legg and Aden Ranard kept Keystone in check in the semifinals. Legg started, giving up one run and four hits through 2.1 innings. Ranard then finished it off, allowing one hit and striking out two.
The Tigers built an 8-0 lead after two innings.
Tristan George led off the bottom of the first with a walk, followed by consecutive singles from Shuler and Miller, with George scoring on Miller’s hit. Thomassena and Huebner each drove in a run on a ground out to make the score 3-0.
Lake Butler began the second inning the exact same way, with George walking and then scoring after back-to-back singles from Shuler and Miller. After Shuler scored on a wild pitch, Thomassen walked. Weston Thompson then drove in a run on a single, while an error on the play allowed another run to score. Huebner drove in the fifth run of the inning on a ground out.
George drew a one-out walk in the third before Shuler hit a home run to make the score 10-1. Miller walked and advanced two bases on an error before scoring on Thomassen’s ground out.
Shuler finished 3 for 3, while Miller was 2 for 2.
Thompson went 2 for 3 with an RBI.
