Little League baseball: Elyria shows improvement but still falls to Shelby, gets bounced from Minors district tourney

This story has been changed to correct a misspelled name. AVON — It wasn't the weekend the Elyria Little League All-Stars were hoping for but on Sunday they showed signs of life and hopefully put down some building blocks for the future. Elyria bowed out of the District 7 Minors (ages 8-10) tournament with a 10-0 four-inning loss to Shelby in a consolation bracket game at Veterans Memorial Park. Unlike Friday when Elyria found itself down early to Avon, this time it kept battling. That was primarily due to the pitching of Carter Easterday, who allowed only six hits while striking out five in 3 1/3 innings. If not for seven errors, Elyria might have had a chance to survive for another day. "He gave us a chance to win today and we're proud of him," Elyria coach Scott Schisler said of Easterday. Although there were numerous throwing errors committed by Elyria, its fielding was solid. Shortstop Rowan Schisler made the defensive play of the day in the third inning when he ranged to his left to scoop up a grounder off the bat of Shelby's Beckett Bates on the opposite side of second base and made the throw to get the out. "I saw our pitcher was getting out of the way so I knew I had to go and get it to make the play," Rowan said. Shelby (2-1) scored three times in the first inning with the key hit being Grayden Barnett's double in the gap in left-center field that scored Carter Hall. Shelby, which will play Galion today in the consolation bracket semifinals, scored five times in the second on only two hits. Henry Phillips got the first of Elyria's three hits in the third inning. "Having that first game under our belt really locked things in for us," Scott Schisler said. "We came in today with our nerves a little bit more subtle and we gave it our all. "It was lovely to see some bright spots since we started practicing a couple of weeks ago. Some kids that just made the team ended up being some really key parts for us. As they got more practices in they really started to blossom." Elyria had a chance to get on the board in the fourth inning when Chance Flemming hit a one-out single and Eli Canon-Santiago singled two batters later to put runners on first and second. But Shelby's Fallon Flannery was able to work out of the jam and preserve the shutout. Flannery struck out seven and didn't allow a walk while tossing a complete game. Avon, the lone Lorain County team remaining in the District 7 tournament, will put its 2-0 record on the line tonight against 2-0 Bellevue with a trip to the district championship game on the line. Contact Todd Shapiro at (440) 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.