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Show Braves Gain Experience In Auto League Games By DAVE WIGHAM MURRAY - Bountiful's entry in the Automotive Tournament took a couple of heartbreaking, losses and finished up a good year for the young club. PLAYING WITH mostly first year players the young Braves earned a reputation as being a highly competitive club with a great future ahead of them next year in the league. The Braves had finished in the top half of the standings in the regular league games and many gave the Bountiful club a good outside shot in the tournament. IN THEIR opening game against Kearns the Braves made some costly errors which resulted in a 9-7 setback. set-back. Bountiful cdme up with eight hits in the game but none were for extra bases and they simply couldn't get a ro'iv started. Jim Perkins started on the mound for the Braves and was helped in the late innings by Kevin Kott. Five errors plagued the young Brave club but Kearns came out swinging swing-ing and picked up 13 hits in the contest. THEN IN the do or die second game, a double elimination affair, the Braves came up against a good Judge club. Bountiful picked up three runs in the third, Jimmy Perkins singled, Jim Hill sacrificed him to second and was safe on an error, then Les Lemmond drew a walk loading the bases. John Hadley then drove in two runs with a single followed by a run scoring single by Mike Haslam. The Judge team came back however and scored six runs (Of their own in handing the Braves a 6-3 setback and putting put-ting them out of the tournament. tour-nament. Kevin Beyer, Perkins, and Kott handled the pitching chores in this game. GOING INTO the season, Coach Jim Hill had noted that the pitching staff was the weakness because of lack of experience. Hurlers like Kott, Perkins and Beyer really hadn't seen much game action ac-tion in high school ball and were limited in their experience. All are first year players giving the Bountiful club some top prospects for next year. Mr. Hill pointed out several individuals who had improved a great deal this year especially first baseman Layn Christiansen. Shortstop Les Lemmon, a starter on the Braves varsity club, helped solidify the infield with his experience but the youth still showed through. WITH MANY players returning re-turning again next year this Bountiful bunch could turn into one of the top clubs in the Auto league. |