Published: August 16, 2008 12:21 am      

Record numbers in a big victory

Baltimore continued its run in the 64th annual AAABA Tournament, advancing to face unbeaten Philadelphia in a Friday night game with a 22-0, seven-inning shutout over Zanesville Friday afternoon at Roxbury Park.

“I watched Zanesville play against Livonia and they had a great tournament,” Baltimore manager Dean Albany said. “They just ran out of pitching. You don’t like to see that score because it’s really not indicative of how they played. They had a good tournament this year. The kids fight hard. We were due to have a big game like this and they were out of pitching.”

Youse’s Maryland Orioles pounded out 19 hits and collected 21 RBIs over the Pioneers with center fielder Leon Landry providing two grand slams and 10 RBIs, a AAABA record, bettering the nine of Columbus’ John Orkis in 1978. Orkis’ mark was tied a year ago by New Orleans’ Jared Comarda.

“I’ve never had that many RBIs in a game before, or actually in a series,” said Landry, who was 3-for-4. “I struggled a little hitting on Thursday. I came out and saw the ball and put contact to it. It so happened that I got two home runs with the bases loaded. I’m hoping it will carry over for the second game. It gives you more confidence.”

Holding a 4-0 lead, the Orioles sent 17 men to the plate in the fourth inning, erupting for 12 runs on nine hits and aided by a Zanesville error to take a 16-0 advantage.

Baltimore added six more runs in the fifth to set the final.

Scott Schneider got the victory on the mound with Wade Kaido suffering the loss.

Gerard Hall was 4-for-6 with three runs and two RBIs while Pat Blair and Tyler Hibbs were both 2-for-3 and each scored three runs. Nick Natoli was 2-for-4 and also scored three runs and Kieran Flannery had a triple.

Jordan Foster, Chaz Mohler, Nate Van Meter and Kaido each had a single for Zanesville.

“We had a great tournament,” Zanesville manager Doug Pollock said. “We knew it was going to be tough against Baltimore. You run into the best team in the country on a good day with your best pitching, it’s going to be tough.

“All things considered, these kids really overachieved. We played really horrible the last two or three weeks of the regular season. They got excited about coming over here to Johnstown and listened to what we told them about the tournament and really played well.”