J & D Storage wins Shrine Tournament Varsity title

• J %26 D Storage made several strong defensive plays behind pitcher Gavin Mangus.
• Jake Sherman hit a two-run home run to dead center in the fourth inning.

NEWARK – J & D Storage's dominant pitching throughout the Licking County Shrine Tournament made a defense almost unnecessary.

That changed Thursday, and the defense rose to the occasion. J & D Storage made three big plays behind right-hander Gavin Mangus to keep the Newark Optometry bats quiet, and it was the extra boost needed to give J & D Storage an 8-2 victory against its North Newark rival in the Varsity Division final at Mound City Little League.

"It was amazing," J & D Storage coach Brian Sherman said. "We had big plays. That is what helps with pitch count."

Shane Whitehead made a sliding catch in center field in the first inning, Ashton Cox a lunging catch in short right field in the second and Tyler Clark a catch on a long drive in deep right in the third.

Mangus barely broke a sweat, throwing just 42 pitches through the first four innings. He finished with eight strikeouts and six hits allowed in the complete game.

"It's hard to win a championship game when you only score two runs, and that's a credit to Gavin for throwing the way he did," said Newark Optometry coach Scott McLaughlin, whose team was the 2014 Farm Division runner-up. "He's an excellent pitcher."

J & D Storage was the area's behemoth throughout the spring, losing just two games. The team backed up the record against Newark Optometry, scoring four in the first inning and adding a two-run Jake Sherman home run to dead center in the fourth.

"We are a pretty good ball team, but once we get down on ourselves or the team pounces on us early, we usually hang our heads," Whitehead said. "We came up big (Thursday), and that's all that matters."

J & D Storage appeared to be showing just a small bit of weakness of late, losing to Dan's Family Pizza in the final game of the North Newark regular season and needing to go to extra innings to beat Med Ben in the semifinals.

The first inning, however, erased any doubt in the team's ability. Whitehead hit a sharp single to center, and Mangus walked before Jake Sherman and Justin Snodgrass each reached on infield hits. All four runners eventually scored.

"You always hate to lose a game, but when we lost our last regular-season game to Dan's ... it kind of woke us up," Brian Sherman said.

Snodgrass led a 12-hit attack with three hits, and Whitehead, Jake Sherman and Brayden Williams added two each. Jake Sherman and Mangus combined to score five runs.

"It felt great," Jake Sherman said. "After our last game against Med Ben was a close one, we just played really well (Thursday). ... We had to show (other teams) how it was done."

Drew Hess had two hits for Newark Optometry, Collin Bradley a single and a run scored and Ian Roe an RBI double. Brandon McLaughlin pitched the first three innings and struck out three.

Med Ben beat Edward Jones 13-7 in the consolation game. Allen Moore, of Mound City's Dor-Mar Heating, received the Chris Shell Memorial Award between games.

ksnyder@newarkadvocate.com

740-328-8556

Twitter: @newarkurt