Yankees win features strong pitching

A strong pitching effort from a pair of Yankees Saturday keyed their team’s 3-1 victory over the Rays in the final tune-up before the start of the Ocean View Little League Majors division regular season.

Gavin Kells and Andrew Bentley combined to surrender just one run. Kells started the game and gave up the run while striking out five in 2 2/3 innings. Bentley took the mound and recorded the final out of the third inning and drove the Yankees home the rest of the way. In his 3 1/3 innings, he need just 40 pitches and allowed one walk and two hits.

The Yankees struck early and never fell behind. In the first inning, Jake Alvarez singled and drove in Kells and Kota Nakamura. The Rays cut the Yankees lead in half (2-1) in the third inning when Luke Ponchak drew a walk and later scored. The Yankees scored an insurance run in the fourth inning when Van Harmon scored after leading off the inning with a flair single to left field and a stolen base.

The Rays pitchers shined, too. Cole Kenrich threw the first three innings and struck out seven while only allowing two runs. Ponchak and Mikey Pantel pitched the fourth and fifth innings, respectively, and kept the Rays in the game.

In addition to Alvarez and Harmon, Kells and Dillon Villanueva also singled for the Yankees.

The Rays received hits from Ponchak, Nick Flum and Jonathan Galbraith who laid down a well-executed bunt single.

— Reader submission