Three outs from a mercy rule win, Elkins, W. Va., coach Chris Broughton asked his pitcher if he wanted to work the last inning or save his arm.

“I said I wanted to go back out there,” Fox said. “He said 'OK, finish the no-hitter.' ”

Until then, Fox claimed he did not even realize what he had going.

“I was nervous,” he said.

But he followed his coach's instructions getting his fifth strikeout for a fitting finish to the five-inning no-hitter and 12-0 win over Meade County, Ky., Saturday in the Babe Ruth baseball Ohio Valley Regional at Grimes Field.

“I had my bullpen ready but to be honest I checked the scorebook and I saw he had a no-hitter,” Broughton said. “It's a once in a lifetime opportunity especially in a regional so I let him stay in.”

This was a first for Fox, who is to be a junior in high school this fall.

“I've been close lots of times but never did pull it off,” he said.

The no-hitter was just part of the mercy rule win for West Virginia champion Elkins, which was the last of the 11 Ohio Valley qualifiers to get on the field for this double-elimination tournament after arriving in Mattoon Wednesday night following a 10-hour trip.

“You kind of wish it would hurry up and get here,” Fox said.

Broughton said: “They stayed focus. It's to keep 15-year-olds focused but they stayed on a mission. They did a good job. We focused all year on our pitching, our hitting and our defense and it all came together today.

“When we got up this morning I could tell they were ready to play. They couldn't wait to get here.”

Fox, batting second in Elkins' order, was also the first player to get a hit starting a two-run first inning.

Cody Knavenshue had three hits, Caten Murphy drilled a two-run homer over the left field fence in a four-run third inning while Tyler Beford and Riley Lloyd had a double and single each in the 14-hit assault.

One of four four unbeatens left in the tournament, Elkins is to play New Castle, Ind., at 4:30 p.m. Sunday in the winners' bracket.

Western Kentucky champ Meade County is to play Eastern Kentucky's in 9 a.m. Sunday elimination game.

--

New Castle, Ind, 10, Westmont 5

No, New Castle, Ind., is not just spotting teams first-inning runs for the challenge of a comeback.

“I don't like that one bit but these kids are real good about not getting down on themselves and coming back,” New Castle coach Kelly Rector said. “It's easy to fold when you give up three runs in the first inning but we came right back and got six.”

On Friday, New Castle fell behind 2-0 to Mattoon in the top of the first but managed a 4-3 win.

Northern Illinois champion Westmont had a first-round bye and then committed four of its seven errors in its first inning on the Ohio Valley Regional's Grimes Field.

Scott Whitehead had a pair of run-scoring singles for Southern Indiana champ New Castle, whose Jake Kendall got the win pitching five innings with only three of Westmont's five runs being earned.

Then after pitching a scoreless seventh inning for the save in New Castle's Friday win over Mattoon, Devin Nickelson threw two shutout relief innings after Westmont's two runs in the fifth inning cut the New Castle's lead to five.

“He's probably by far the best pitcher we have but he's had some arm problems so we try to baby him a little bit,” Rector said. “(Friday) night we saw the opportunity to use him to close things out and today when they started getting close we decided to use him. He can be pretty good in that role.”

However, do not discount seeing Nickelson starting on the mound sometime during this tournament.

“There's a chance of it happening,” Rector said.

Nickelson did allow a hit to Nick Notariano, who had three in the game for Westmont.

--

Mount Vernon, Ohio 9, LaPorte, Ind., 1

--

Already confessing not to be a morning person, Shawn Maxwell's Saturday started earlier than even necessary.

“Five-thirty,” he said. “We miss-timed some stuff.”

That messed-up hotel alarm clock was about the only thing that went wrong for Mount Vernon in a game that started at 9 a.m. Central Time.

Backed by errorless defense, Maxwell pitched a four-hitter as the Ohio state champion beat LaPorte, Ind., 9-0 Saturday for Mount Vernon's second straight win in the Babe Ruth baseball Ohio Valley Regional for 15-year-olds.

“Our high school teams usually don't play until noon,” Mount Vernon coach Brian Ford said. “I was a little concerned but we got up and we always eat breakfast together whether we have a game or not.”

LaPorte coach Mike Price said: “They did better than us. We typically aren't a very good morning team. We've had trouble with this before.”

The Northern Indiana champion never could answer the wake up call starting with a three-run first inning by Mount Vernon.

Tyler Lewis wound up with a double and two singles and Maxwell, Riley Swanson and reserve C.J. Atherton contributed two hits each for Mount Vernon;

Even if Maxwell is not always a rise-and-shine kid, he rose to the occasion in the Ohio Valley Regional spotlight Saturday.

“”It's definitely the best one,” he said of his pitching performances this year. “I was surprised.”

Striking out six batters and walking just one to start the bottom of the seventh, Maxwell got six of LaPorte's 15 outs from outfielders, including a running shoestring catch by right fielder Tim Rainer to prevent a run in the fifth inning.

“I was just throwing strikes and keeping the ball low and letting my defense make plays,” Maxwell said.

Pointing to his team's fly-ball outs, Price said, “We were getting underneath the ball and popping it up but the opposing pitcher had something to do with that.

“That was a good team that beat us.”

This was not really a surprise to Ford.

“I expect that out of Shawn,” the Mount Vernon coach said. “We have three pretty good pitchers. He did a good job with his breaking ball and keeping it low. That contributed to his popouts and groundouts.”

--

LaPorte, Ind., 14, Benton Harbor, Mich. 4

Tommy Snyder pitched four innings of one-hit ball as the Northern Indiana champ LaPorte bounced back from a morning loss to eliminate Michigan's Benton Harbor in the final game of the day.

Before Henry Furtell's fourth-inning double broke up the no-hitter, a hit batsman and a walk accounted for Benton Harbor's only base runners and both were thrown out trying to steal by LaPorte catcher Ian Price.

“We heard they were fast and we had to keep them off the bases, which we did,” LaPorte coach Mike Price said. “Tommy pitched a real good game and Ian threw out a couple of runners and that kind of set the tone. And of course we hit better than we did this morning.”

Garrett Walter's triple in the first inning got LaPorte on the board and he later had a run-scoring single. Jacob Craft added a double, a single and two RBIs.

Game 5

Mount Vernon 301 002 3 - 9-11-0

LaPorte 000 000 0 - 0-4-3

Winning pitcher: Shawn Maxwell 7 innings, 4 hits, 0 runs, 10 strikeouts, 1 walk

Mount Vernon, Ohio: Riley Swanson single, double; Tyler Lewis 2 singles, double, RBI; Ryan Goetzman single, RBI; Shawn Maxwell 2 singles, RBI; C.J. Atherton double, single, RBI; Tim Rainer single, RBI

LaPorte, Ind.: Tyler Smith single, double; David Eldridge double; Jacob Craft single

Game 6

Westmont 300 020 0 - 5-8-7

New Castle 630 001 x - 10-7-3

Winning pitcher: Jake Kendall 5 innings, 7 hits, 5 runs, 3 earned, 3 strikeouts, 1 walk. Relief: Devin Nickelson 2 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 2 strikeouts, 0 walks

Westmont: Nick Notorious 3 singles; Zach Hill triple, single, 2 RBIs; Colin Labak single, RBI; Ian Mertans single; Neil Pederson sacrifice; Kevin Good single, RBI

New Castle, Ind.: Jake Kendall single, sacrifice; Zack Rittenberry single, RBI; Max Reagan RBI; Derek Spong double, 2 RBIs; Devin Nickelson single; Scott Whitehead 2 singles, 2 RBIs; Garrett York single

Game 7

Elkins 204 60 - 12-14-0

Meade County 000 00 - 0-0-0

Winning pitcher: Scott Fox 5 innings, 0 hits, 0 runs, 5 strikeouts, 2 walks

Elkins, W. Va.: Scott Fox 2 singles; Cody Knavenshue 3 singles; James Gainer single, double, 2 RBIs, sacrifice; Tyler Bedford single, double, 2 RBIs; Riley Lloyd double, single, 3 RBIs; Caten Murphy home run, 2 RBIs; Tyler Foster double, 2 RBIs; Brennan Dettinger single

Meade County, Ky.

Game 9

LaPorte 120 29 - 14-10-0

Benton Harbor 000 00 - 4-3-2

Winning pitcher: Tommy Snyder 4 innings, 1 hit, 0 runs, 6 strikeouts, 1 walk

LaPorte, Ind.: Tyler Smith single, RBI; Jacob Craft single, double, 2 RBIs; Garrett Walter triple, single, 2 RBIs; Tommy Snyder single, 2 RBIs; David Eldridge single; Zack Wiznewski 2 singles, 2 RBIs; Damon Thomas single; Nick Latham RBI

Benton Harbor, Mich.: Henry Furtell double; Lartell Pryor single; Devin Williams triple, 3 RBIs

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