West Side opens tourney with win

Korren Thompson tosses a no-hitter in 6-1 victory over Hamilton/Fairfield.

West Side's Alex Weller (7) slides across the plate in front of the tag from Hamilton/Fairfield pitcher Charlie Faraci (36) on Sunday at Testerman Park in Hamilton Twp. West Side won the District 9 Little League tournament game 6-1. Contributed photo by Robert Leifheit

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Photos: West Side vs. Ham/Fairfield

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By Rick Cassano, Staff Writer Updated 2:20 AM Monday, July 11, 2011

HAMILTON TWP. — The heavy favorites didn’t look so heavy.

Hamilton West Side is clearly the team to beat in the District 9 Little League baseball tournament, yet the perennial power didn’t have its usual aura of invincibility Sunday afternoon at Testerman Park.

West Side tallied six unearned runs in the last three innings to erase a 1-0 deficit against Hamilton/Fairfield, opening the postseason with a 6-1 triumph behind Korren Thompson’s no-hitter.

“That’s the burden we have to carry, being compared to last year’s World Series team,” West Side manager Josh Sams said. “In the end, I’m not really pleased, but I’m not really disappointed. We won the game. We’ll move on.”

Thompson, a left-hander, struck out 13 and walked the first two batters he faced. They were his only free passes of the day.

Alex Little had a two-run single in a five-run fourth inning for West Side, which returns to Testerman on Tuesday to face Middletown at 6:30 p.m.

“We haven’t been shut out in three years, so I figured we’d score some runs,” Sams said. “And I had Korren out there, and he’s probably the best left-handed pitcher in the state. We just needed to start hitting the ball.”

Southpaw Charlie Faraci tossed a seven-hitter for Hamilton/Fairfield, which dropped a pair of tough decisions to West Side two years ago at the 10-year-old level.

“These kids are not afraid of them,” said Hamilton/Fairfield assistant coach Matt Bauman, the team spokesman in the absence of manager Doug Partlow. “We expect to see them again.”

Faraci led off the bottom of the first by drawing a disputed walk. The West Siders felt Faraci struck out, but the home-plate umpire said he checked his swing on a full-count delivery from Thompson.

Shayne Rice’s ground out plated Faraci, making it a 1-0 affair.

West Side broke through in the fourth, keyed by the bottom of its order. Vince Sanford and Jake Pennington each had an RBI single, while Alex Weller added a run-scoring single in the sixth and went 2-for-2.

Thompson took care of the rest. Ten of his strikeouts came in the last four innings.

“We won 18-1 yesterday because we were attacking the ball,” Bauman said. “Today, the kids were too worried about the strike zone and not attacking pitches they could hit.”

Hamilton/Fairfield will meet either Mason or Anderson Twp. in a losers’ bracket game Wednesday at 6:30 p.m.

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