West Side rolls in regional opener

Ryan Kellum shuts out team from Illinois in 6-0 victory.

Hamilton West Side team ready for regional

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Updated 1:06 AM Saturday, August 6, 2011

By Jay Morrison

Staff Writer

INDIANAPOLIS — Hamilton West Side Little League coach Josh Sams made a surprising pitching decision in his team’s Great Lakes Regional opener Friday, and Ryan Kellum made Sams look like a genius.

Kellum took a perfect game into the fifth inning before settling for a complete-game, three-hit shutout to lift West Side to a 6-0 victory against Illinois in Indianapolis.

“I knew he’d throw strikes and be around the plate, and that’s all we wanted,” Sams said of Kellum, a left-hander who threw just four innings in district and state action.

“I expected him to throw a good game, but maybe not that good,” Sams said. “He was really on today.”

Kellum repeatedly dropped first-strike curveballs on the Illinois batters, and two of the three hits he allowed were bloop singles.

“That’s probably the best game I’ve ever pitched,” Kellum said after striking out seven without a walk. “I knew if I just threw strikes we’d hit and everything would be all right.”

That part of the plan didn’t exactly work out as West Side managed just five hits off four Illinois pitchers. But Illinois made five errors that led to five unearned runs.

“The errors didn’t matter that much because we never scored anyhow,” Illinois coach Ronnie Pillars said. “We’re not used to seeing left-handers who throw 80 percent breaking balls. We usually get a big hit somewhere along the way, but we didn’t get anything today.”

Christian Acus had an RBI triple and Austin Broshear added an RBI single, but West Side’s other runs scored on a sacrifice fly, a ground out, a wild pitch and an error.

“Josh told us he’d give us this one because we were probably nervous, but we need to come out and hit better next time,” Acus said.

The next time is 2 p.m. today. West Side will face Kentucky, a team Sams said he views as perhaps the best in the region. That was a big factor in his decision to save staff ace Korren Thompson for today.

Jake Pennington, Cameron Stapleton and Trevor Detherage had the other hits for West Side, with Pennington and Evans each adding an RBI to help assistant coach Gary Grabel celebrate his 66th birthday.

Little League Regional tournament

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