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1:06 AM Saturday, August 6, 2011

By Jay Morrison

Staff Writer

INDIANAPOLIS — Hamilton West Side All-Stars player Korren Thompson showed up at the Great Lakes Regional looking sharp.

Thompson, a pitcher and left fielder, went to Razor Sharp Barbershop in Hamilton earlier this week and requested a design to commemorate his nickname, the Mexican Missile.

The razor cut includes Thompson’s number (11), a star and a missile.

“A guy named Travis did it,” Thompson said. “It looks pretty cool, doesn’t it?”

Happy birthday: The West Side team had two reasons to celebrate Friday. The first was a 6-0 victory against Illinois in its pool play opener. The second was the 66th birthday of assistant coach Gary Grabel.

“They all sang to me after the game, and we had a big cake,” Grabel said. “It disappeared pretty quick.”

Grabel said this birthday ranks up there with some of the best of his life.

“I was here in 2007, sitting in the stands, and I was thinking how neat it would be to be down on the field,” Grabel said. “But I figured at my age, there wasn’t much of a chance.”

He was on the field Friday, coaching first base.

Which war?: At age 66, Grabel is the junior member of coach Josh Sams’ staff. The other assistant is Dick Plemmons, who is 75.

When the team was in Englewood for the state tournament, the players toured the Air Force Museum.

One of them asked Plemmons, “Which war did you serve in, the Civil War or the Revolutionary War?”

Plemmons never saw combat, but he did serve in the Army from 1958-60.

Hot hitters: West Side only managed five hits against Illinois, its fewest in nine district, state and regional tournament games, but leadoff hitter Jake Pennington had one of them to continue his run as the only player to hit safely in all nine tournament games.

Teammate Vince Sanford, a sub who usually only gets one, maybe two, at-bats per game, entered the regional with a remarkable batting average of .909 (10-for-11).

Sanford walked in his only plate appearance Friday and scored one of the team’s six runs. He has scored at least once in eight of West Side’s nine games.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2193 or jmorrison@coxohio.com.

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