BOURBON – Tippecanoe Valley sophomore Clayton Adamson was solid in his first varsity start on the mound. It certainly didn’t hurt that his teammates pounded out 10 hits, including two home runs and a pair of doubles, giving him more than enough run support as the Vikings beat the host Triton Trojans 11-1 in six innings Monday afternoon. “I thought a big key today was Clayton Adamson,” said Valley coach Scott Backus, whose team improved to 2-2 on the season. “He pitched pretty well in his first varsity start. He came out and got the job done.” En route to the win, Adamson worked four innings and gave up just three hits and one run. He struck out four and walked two. Junior Chase Burnau and senior Cory Krider both came on in relief, giving up two hits and two runs between them. They struck out three Triton batters between them and walked none. “Valley is probably one of the best teams we’ll see this year,” said Triton coach Jim Shively, whose team fell to 2-1. “They didn’t have their top pitcher on the mound today and we struggled to get hits.” While the Trojans struggled to produce offensively, the Vikings had a field day. Junior Brody Andrews, Valley’s No. 3 hitter, belted a solo home run over the rightfield fence in the first inning, and the Vikings later plated six runs in the third inning and three more in the fourth to take a commanding 10-1 advantage. After losing both games of a doubleheader at Elkhart Central Saturday, Backus was more than happy to see his team bring their bats to Bourbon Monday. “We hit the ball today, that was the difference from Saturday,” said Backus. We got hits up and down the lineup today. We struggled a bit at Elkhart Central. Some of that was due to inexperience, whatever the case may be. Today the kids came out and put the bat on the ball. We got a good effort on the mound out of our sophomore pitcher, pounded out 10 hits and put a couple balls over the fence, I’m proud of the guys.” Senior Trey Jones hit a homer for Valley, while junior James Hackworth and Krider ripped doubles off Triton pitcher Maxx Ullery. Ullery, a senior, pitched all six innings, giving up 10 hits and 11 runs, eight of which were earned. He struck out seven and walked two. “I thought Maxx pitched well,” said Shively. “They have good hitters, especially the top of their order. We just had way too many mistakes today. The little things really hurt us. We beat Plymouth the other day, and they made some mistakes that hurt them. We did those same things today, and it hurt us.” The Trojans committed six errors in the loss. Triton’s five hits were all singles, two by Ullery and one each from junior Marc Lindsey, sophomore Drew Fleagle and freshman Cole Creighbaum. Krider led Valley with three hits and a pair of RBIs, while junior Tyler Akers had two hits and two RBIs and freshman Tanner Andrews had a pair of hits. Valley is in action again Wednesday at 5 p.m. when it hosts county rival Warsaw in its home opener, while Triton hosts Caston today at 5 p.m.
TIPPECANOE VALLEY 11, TRITON 1 (6 innings) V 106 301 – 11 10 3 T 001 000 – 1 5 6 Clayton Adamson (W, 4 IP, 1 R, 4 K, 3 H, 2 BB), Chase Burnau (5th, 1 IP, 1 K, 1 H, 0 R), Cory Krider (6th, 1 IP, 2 K, 1 H) to Jacob Ritchey, Brody Andrews (6th) Maxx Ullery (L, 6 IP, 7 K, 10 H, 2 BB, 11 R, 8 ER) to Erik Hoffman 2B – James Hackworth (TV), Cory Krider (TV) HR – Brody Andrews (TV), Trey Jones (TV) Records: Valley 2-2, Triton 2-1
