Youngsville's Jake DeSimone

A 6-run fourth inning broke the game open, and a 5-run sixth put it away as Youngsville baseball picked up a 12-3 season-opening win over visiting Iroquois Wednesday.

Eagles third baseman Jason Beers had three hits, including two doubles, and a pair of RBI to lead the way offensively and Sam Hoover and Jake DeSimone held the Braves scoreless over three combined innings of relief.

“The pitchers pitched really well,” Youngsville coach Kevin Hoover said. “The kids played really good defensively tonight.”

The Braves (0-1) struck first. Gray hit a 1-out double and May doubled him home one out later to put Iroquois up 1-0.

Youngville (1-0) answered with a run of its own in the bottom half. Curry was hit by a pitch to lead off and Beers followed with a walk. Iroquois pitcher Zach Jackula induced a pair of strikeouts and looked like he might get out of the inning unscathed, but a wild pitch brought home Curry for the tying run.

Iroquois retook the lead in the top of the fourth. Gavin Wakefield hit a leadoff single and Collin May tripled him home. A wild pitch brought May in and gave the Braves a 3-1 advantage.

The first three batters in the home half were all hit by pitch to load the bases. Walton singled in a run, then Mercado came in on a wild pitch and Smith walked to reload the bases. Kemery scored on a wild pitch and Curry singled the bases loaded for a third time in the inning. Beers grounded into a fielder’s choice with Walton running into a force out at the plate. Smith was picked off at third but Hoover walked to get the bases loaded again. DeSimone and Reese each walked in a run and Victor, who entered as a courtesy runner, scored on a wild pitch to put the Eagles ahead 7-3.

“We had a few baserunning errors, but we’ll work on it,” Kevin Hoover said.

After Hoover pitched clean fifth and sixth innings, the Eagles offense got to work again in the sixth. Three walks and three hits put another five runs on the board. DeSimone came on and worked a 1-2-3 seventh to close out the win.

The game had originally been scheduled for Friday, but was bumped up. The Eagles travel to Cochranton Monday for their first road contest of the season.

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IROQUOIS (3)

Jackula p-cf 3-0-1-0, Gray cf-p 3-1-1-0, Wakefield ss 3-1-1-0, May c 3-1-2-2, Visalle 3b 2-0-0-0, Johnson 2b 2-0-0-0, Cruz rf-p 2-0-0-0, Sandell 1b 2-0-0-0, Oswalt lf 2-0-0-0, Chapman p 0-0-0-0, Totals 22-3-5-2

YOUNGSVILLE (12)

Curry cf 1-3-1-0, Beers 3b 3-1-3-2, Hoover ss-p 4-0-2-1, DeSimone 1b-ss 2-0-0-1, Turner cr 0-1-0-0, Reese rf 0-2-0-1, Mercado lf 3-1-0-0, Kemery p-1b 3-1-0-0, Walton 2b 3-1-2-1, Smith c 2-0-1-0, Victor cr 0-1-0-0, McGranaghan cr 0-1-0-0, Totals 21-12-9-6

Iroquois 100 200 0 – 3 5 0

Youngsville 100 605 x – 12 9 0

DP – None. 2B – May (I), Gray (I), Beers 2 (Y). 3B – May (I)

IP H R ER BB SO

Iroquois

Jackula 3 3 3 3 3 3

Gray (L, 0-1) 1.2 3 4 4 0 6

Cruz 0.1 0 2 2 0 2

Chapman 1 3 3 3 0 2

Youngsville

Kemery 3 4 3 3 2 1

Hoover (W, 1-0) 2 1 0 0 0 4

DeSimone 1 0 0 0 0 2