Junior Legion Wrap: Sobe-Toyota Wins Easy; Merchants Fall to  Senior Babe Ruth Squad

By The Chronicle

    ELMA — Sobe-Toyota swung the bats well and relied on strong pitching performances as they cruised past Elma, sweeping a doubleheader 11-1 and 12-4 here Wednesday afternoon in Junior Legion baseball action.

    The Lewis County Merchants, however, weren’t so lucky, falling 15-4 to the Senior Babe Ruth Chehalis Outlaws in Mossyrock.

Sobe-Toyota 11, Elma 1

    Justin Wilson gave up just one run on one hit in a five inning complete game for Chehalis as they made easy work of Elma, winning 11-1.

    “Justin threw real well after having a week off,” said Sobe-Toyota coach Tommy Elder. “He threw a lot of strikes and kept guys off-balance all game.”

    Sobe-Toyota had just two big innings — a five run third and a six run fifth — but they were enough to invoke the mercy rule after five frames.

    Brennan Casteel led the way for Chehalis by going 2 for 2 with two doubles and scored a run for Sobe-Toyota.

    The boys from Chehalis scored 11 runs on nine hits and took advantage of four Elma errors.

    Dario Jones broke the game open in the third inning for Sobe-Toyota with a two-run double.

    “His (Jones) double kind of busted the game wide open for us,” said Elder.

    Yasser Khan’s three-run triple closed the game out for Chehalis.

    Mitch Gueller went 2 for 4 and scored a run.

Sobe-Toyota 12, Elma 4

    Chehalis took advantage of six Elma errors to finish off the twinbill sweep with a 12-4 victory over Elma in the nightcap.

    Brennan Casteel came relieved Colton Watson in the fourth inning and gave up nary a run on just 25 pitches in his four innings on the mound.

    “He came in and threw a lot of strikes and let the defense do the work,” said Elder of Casteel’s outing.

    Sobe-Toyota scored 12 runs on eight hits and were led by Christian Orozco’s 2 for 3, three-RBI performance.

    Bryce Hanson went 2 for 4 with two RBIs and Joe Rothlin chipped in a pair of hits with one RBI.

    “Orozco, Hanson and (Max) Smith came in and did a nice hob of giving us a boost,” said Elder.

    Sobe-Toyota is 10-1 on the season so far and will play South Thurston Sobe-Toyota in Rochester today at 4 p.m.

Outlaws 15, Merchants 4

    MOSSYROCK — The Senior Babe Ruth Chehalis Outlaws found Mossyrock to be the land of plenty, taking a 15-4 win over the Lewis County Merchants here Wednesday afternoon.

    Lewis County’s pitching troop of Mike Hellem, Jordan Bowman, Colby Jensen and Josh Vogel gave up 14 runs on 16 hits to the team from Chehalis.

    But the six errors and 14 walks didn’t help, either.

    “They capitalized every time we gave them a free base,” said Lewis County coach Cole Kanyer.

    Lewis County’s Peter Martin finished the game with a pair of hits and two RBIs, including an RBI double in the third inning.

    While Trevor Alexander had two singles and scored two runs.

    “We played OK, but they were a pretty good team,” said Kanyer. “We’ll just have to take a couple of bruises and move on.”

    The Merchants (12-5) host Chehalis Sobe-Toyota on Tuesday in Mossyrock at 6 p.m.