Martin Oil will open the NABF Regional Tournament this afternoon, weather permitting at 12:30 against Mt. Airy of the Western Maryland American Legion League.
Nate Carlson will get the start for Martin Oil and then according to manager Ed Davis, “we will go with whatever and whoever we need to throw.”
There are just nine teams in the NABF Regional. The Delco Hurricanes have been scratched from the field.
“We have only three starters back from last year’s team that played in this tournament,” said Davis, “so we really don’t have the advantage of much experience at this level, even though we were here before. We will take them one game at a time. We need to do the same things we have done all season. The basic fundamentals are extremely important in a tournament like this. We have to play defense, get good pitching and be able to hit in key situations. Our speed helped us during the federation season and we hope it will be a factor here as well that we can use to our advantage.”
Martin Oil will play again at 8:30 p.m. at Vets Field, regardless of whether they win or lose. If Martin Oil wins, they will play the winner of the Team Ontario-Cockeysville game in the championship bracket. If they lose, they will play the loser of that game in the losers’ bracket.
McMullen Furniture played White Oak Batting Practice of the Tri State Palomino North League, from the Pittsburgh area at 9:30 this morning. McMullen added Tyrone Legion pitcher/first baseman/outfielder as a late pickup. If McMullen wins they will draw a bye through the remainder of the first day of play. Should they drop the morning contest, they will face the loser of the game between the Headfirst Barrons from the Old Dominion League and Yough Palomino, another Pittsburgh area team from the Tri State Palomino South League. McMullen pickup Ryan Clouse of Altoona First will draw the starting assignment against White Oak.
In first round games, Cheney Enterprises draws a bye, Martin Oil plays Mt. Airy at 12:30 at Blair County Ballpark in game one, Team Ontario meets Cockeysville in game two at Vets at 9:30 a.m., game three features Headfirst Barrons against Yough Palomino at 9:30 a.m. at Mansion Park and McMullen Furniture plays White Oak at Blair County Ballpark at 9.30 a.m. Acting as the host, the George B. Kelley Federation will keep their representatives on either BCB or Vets Field for all their games, win or lose.
In a late move, because of the weather, the 12:30 Martin Oil-Mt. Airy game was moved to Vets Field.
