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Sudbury Makes The Voyage Worthwhile

Photo by Cody Tomer Braedan Pakkala celebrates his first career home run with his teammates during Thursday’s Beast of the East game at John Marshall High School.

GLEN DALE — The Sudbury Voyageurs 18U team is accurately named.

It made a 10-hour voyage from Sudbury, Canada to compete in the 34th Edgar Martin Beast of the East Classic in the Ohio Valley.

The Voyageurs made the trip worthwhile on Thursday with a pair of victories over the Ontario Giants (9-1) and Moundsville Post 3 (12-5) at John Marshall High School.

Scott Rienguette led the way for the Voyageurs with two singles, a home run and five RBI.

Braedan Pakkala also smacked a home run over the left field fence for his first career longball. His motivation? His mom, who could not be there due to her flight being canceled.

“I did it for her,” Pakkala said just before getting doused with a gatorade bath by his teammates. “She is still coming down. I think she is taking a train from New York to get here. She won’t be happy that she missed my home run though.”

Pakkala knew as soon as he made contact that he was about to take his first free trip around the bases.

“I knew it was gone and that is probably the best feeling I’ve ever had honestly,” Pakkala said. “It was a 3-2 pitch so I was looking for a fastball to drive and I got that pitch inside.”

Rienguette got Sudbury on the board first with a two-run home run in the first inning.

“His nickname is Scooter and he has been our MVP all year,” Sudbury skipper Stephen Donahue said. “He just puts the ball in play and hits it hard every time. There are no wasted swings with that guy.”

Post 3 didn’t go away as Brooks Harrison delivered a RBI single in the second to cut the deficit in half.

Gavin Roy made it a 3-1 Sudbury advantage with a RBI knock but an error moved Moundsville to within 3-2.

That’s when a three-run fourth put some distance between the Voyageurs and Post 3.

A pair of passed balls allowed two runs to come in and Pakkala’s first dinger created a 6-2 cushion.

Rienguette nearly blasted his second homer of the game but it was inches foul. He followed that swing up with a two-run single and another error gave Sudbury a 9-2 upperhand after five.

Grant Nieswonger, who enjoyed a three-hit day for Post 3, supplied an infield RBI hit and pinch-hitter Daniel Montes added a two-run RBI knock to pull his squad within 9-5 but Rienguette and Alex McNiven supplied hits to bring in some insurance runs to put the game on ice.

Ryan Lacasse earned the win with three stirkeouts and a walk over five innings pitched.

“Ryan is always a work horse for us,” Donahue said. “He’s always throwing strikes and pounding the zone. He either gets strikeouts or lets the defense make the play.”

Roy tallied a single and a double in the win, while McNiven added two hits.

Grant Swift struck out six in four innings pitched for Post 3 and even had the opponent mezmorized by his curveball.

“He pitched really well,” Post 3 manager Tim Koontz said. “Everything was working for him.

“I thought we played pretty well and we started to get to their pitcher late so I think we’re getting there.”

Moundsville lost its first game of the day 13-1 to the Motor City Hit Dogs at Patterson Field.

Along with Nieswonger’s three-hit performance, Cole Sutphin collected a pair of hits for Moundsville.

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