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Hamilton West Side's John Heckman is greeted by his teammates as he touches home plate after his first inning home run during their District 9 Little League championship game against Miami Little League Sunday, July 12, 2009 at Oxford Community Park in Oxford, Ohio.

Staff photo by Nick Graham Hamilton West Side's John Heckman is greeted by his teammates as he touches home plate after his first inning home run during their District 9 Little League championship game against Miami Little League Sunday, July 12, 2009 at Oxford Community Park in Oxford, Ohio.

Hamilton team wins district championship with shutout against Miami.

By Pete Conrad, Staff Writer Updated 11:46 AM Thursday, July 23, 2009

OXFORD — If the West Side Little League team keeps playing the way it did Sunday, July 12, this could turn into a lengthy, and memorable, summer for the squad from Hamilton.

“This tournament showed what we could do as a team,” Jacob Stewart said after crushing the baseball three times in West Side’s 13-0 victory over Miami in four innings in the District 9 Little League championship game at Oxford Community Park.

West Side advances to the state tournament in Tallmadge and will face the District 1 champion at 8 p.m. on July 25.

“This makes you feel like you’ve really accomplished something as a team,” added teammate John Heckman, whose first-inning home run gave the West Siders a quick 2-0 lead.

West Side not only run-ruled a very good Miami team, it completed the entire tourney without having allowed a run, outscoring the opposition 62-0.

“We played well, and we hit the ball well,” said West Side coach Mark Maus, whose team cracked 16 hits in four innings, including Heckman’s two-run homer in the first, Joey Hudson’s second grand slam of the tournament in the third inning and Stewart’s two-run shot in the fourth.

“Jacob Stewart just mashed three balls,” Maus said. Stewart went 3-for-3 and also had a double.

“My first goal was to score a run against these guys,” said Miami coach Scott Persinger, whose team put runners in scoring position in two of the first three innings. “Once we get over that hump, we take off.”

After West Side had taken a 5-0 lead in the top of the first, Miami’s Jacob Beck walked with two out, Curran Persinger singled and both moved up on a wild pitcher, but Hamilton starting pitcher Matt Snyder ended the threat with a strikeout.

Snyder hurled a two-hit shutout with nine strikeouts. The only other hit he allowed was a double by Mason Fox in the bottom of the fourth.

Hudson finished 3-for-3 with six RBIs for West Side. Other hitting leaders included Snyder, 2-for-2 with a double, walk and RBI; Reid Maus, 2-for-3 with a double; Heckman, 2-for-4; and Adam Robbins, an RBI-single.

Persinger said it was a great tournament run for the Miami squad.

“When we started this whole thing, my goal was to finish in the top three,” he said. “We wanted to keep the respect up for the Miami Little League program, and I think we did that.”

Other members of the championship team are Cameron Nunn, Jake Zeek, Kade Carlyle, Caleb Wuest, Brody Denning and Zack Keene.

Contact this reporter at (513) 820-2197 or pconrad@coxohio.com.

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