Two years ago it was a historic time for one youth baseball team in Logan County. That team was the 9- and 10-year old Little League All-Star team from the Logan County-Russellville area. That year the youngsters went on to finish their all-star run with a 12-1 record and a state championship title – the first for any local Little League team. Now as 12 year olds they are looking to repeat that performance.

The Logan County 11-12 year-old all-star team got their postseason off to a good start last weekend by going 2-0 and winning their area tournament.

The area tournament consisted of Logan County, Franklin and Butler County. Logan County first played Franklin, who finished second in the district to Warren County South last season as 11 year olds.

Logan sent Ian Woodall to the mound and he got things started well for the home team. Woodall struck out the first two batters and then got into a little trouble as he walked the number 3 and 4 batters but recovered and got a ground ball out to end the Franklin threat.

Like Franklin, Logan couldn’t find the scoreboard in the first inning as they went quietly 1,2,3 but that would all change with the first pitch in the second inning.

With the score still 0-0 Woodall hit a towering blast over the second fence at Caleb Slaton Field to give Logan the lead and the home team never looked back. Woodall ended up pitching 4 1/3 innings.

He gave up only one hit, struck out four and allowed no runs. Barrett Croslin and Caleb Bruner each also pitched in the game and helped close out the combined one hitter for Logan. Croslin was 3-4 at the plate with a single, double and triple and scored three of the nine Logan runs. Bruner, Woodall and Daniel Beaty each had two hits and scored a run. Matt Harper, Joe Holliday and Zach Denney each doubled and Jacob Wood had a single. Logan County ended up winning the game 9-0. The win moved the Logan County squad’s record to 1-0 and Franklin’s record to 1-1.

On Sunday, Logan County played Butler County. Logan County was the heavy favorite in the game as Franklin had beaten Butler on Friday 14-2 and Logan had just beaten Franklin 9-0 the day before.

This game became very ugly very quick.

Logan County jumped out on top of the young Butler County pitcher very early scoring 10 runs before they could record their first out. In the top of the first Logan ended up sending 22 players to the plate and scored 18 of them. They hit three home runs in the inning off the bats of Croslin, Holliday and Woodall. Croslin’s was a grand slam. In the bottom half of the inning Denney took the mound for the Logan County team and had a very comfortable lead. Butler County looked as if they were up for the challenge early as they lead the inning off with two quick singles and scored one run, but Denney settled down and held the Butler County All-Stars to one run.

He ended up pitching only 1 2/3 innings and recorded three strikeouts. Jacob Procter came on to finish the game for Logan and he shut them down in order for the next three innings allowing no runs and no hits.

The rest of the game was very similar to the first inning.

The Logan County All-Stars scored nine more runs in the second, six runs in the third and seven more in the fourth. Denney homered in the second inning. Holliday hit his second homerun of the game in the third inning which was also a grand slam. Beaty homered in the fourth inning for the team’s sixth and final homerun of the game. All 11 players scored for Logan County with Croslin leading the way with 6 runs scored in the game. Holliday lead the way in the hitting department going 6-6 and hitting for the cycle. Logan County won the game 40-1 and took the Area Championship. The win slots them as the No. 1 seed from Area D in the district tournament.

The district tournament starts this Friday, July 3rd in Franklin. Franklin will get a rematch right off the bat against Logan on the first day of District as the two teams square off at 3 p.m. Logan will then face the winner of the Area C Saturday at 5 p.m. and the runner up of the Area C on Sunday at 7 p.m.