Elks cruise past Merchants: Quichocho’s effort helps squad take fourth straight championship
Boya Quichocho is one of the few Jamestown Elks not currently a player for the Jimmies, but you can hardly tell.By: Dave Selvig, The Jamestown Sun, The Jamestown Sun
- Boya Quichocho
Boya Quichocho is one of the few Jamestown Elks not currently a player for the Jimmies, but you can hardly tell.
The 28 year old, who is a former Jimmie and current assistant coach at JC, capped off another big state tournament with a five-hit game as the Elks sewed up another Class AAA title, making it four years in a row.
Quichocho’s Elks scored in every inning but the third en route to a 15-5 seven-inning win over the Jamestown Miller Lite Merchants on Sunday at Jack Brown Stadium.
“There have been a lot of great Elks teams and a lot of great players and maintaining that tradition is important to us,” said Quichocho. “It’s never easy. We always tell the guys not to overlook anybody. The Merchants always have a great team. We were just fortunate to have things go our way today.”
As they did the last two seasons, the youthful Elks went 3-0, outscoring their opponents 29-8. After a shaky regular season it all came together in August.
“We were pretty inconsistent most of the summer,” Quichocho said. “The last couple of days our lineup came together and our pitchers threw strikes and it worked out for us.”
Seven players had hits and six collected RBIs in the 18-hit barrage off three Merchant pitchers.
Quichocho’s monster 5-for-5 game led the way. He had five RBIs and missed a sixth when his rocket to straightaway center field in the second inning banged off the wall, about two feet from a home run.
The Merchants did make a game of it early. They were down 4-0, but a three-run bottom of the third inning tied it thanks to RBI singles by Jared Purdy and Preston Jensen. When John Ness walked with the bases loaded it was tied 4-4, but not for long.
The Elks scored 11 of the final 12 runs of the game. Clean-up hitter Mitch Stevens had the loudest blow with a three-run home run to left-center field in the fifth.
Stevens, an all-conference performer for the Jimmies, finished 3-for-5 with four RBIs. Jake Ohmann singled four times, while Erik Peterson and Jordan Tescher had two hits each.
Kacy Gardiner got the win despite laboring for much of the game. He allowed five hits and walked seven.
Purdy had two of the Merchants’ five hits, both of them RBI singles. The Merchants, who finished the season 16-11, struggled defensively, committing seven errors.
The Elks capped it off 18-9 after accepting another championship trophy from tournament director R.D. Brown.
“The Elks Club has been very gracious to us and former players throughout the community always give us a lot of support,” Quichocho said. “It means a lot to our team to be able to play well and have success in this tournament.”
Jamestown Elks 15, Jamestown Miller
Lite Merchants 5, 7 Innings
Elks 220 243 2 — 15 18 2
Merchants 103 01 0 — 5 5 7
Kacy Gardiner and Jake Ohmann. Greg Lunski, Anthony Kliniske (3), Steve Hirchert (6) and Anthony Fontana. W—Gardiner. L—Kliniske. 2B—Elks, Boya Quichocho, Mitch Stevens, Jordan Tescher. 3B—Stevens. HR—Elks, Stevens. SB-Elks, Jared Purdy 2, Andy Young, Nick Colwell, Preston Jensen. Elks, Quichocho.
Sun sports editor Dave Selvig can be reached at (701) 952-8460 or by e-mail at daves@jamestownsun.com
Tags: amateur baseball, sports, elks, baseball
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