Wyatt Friley's grand slam powers Squirrels to mercy-rule victory over Altoona

Aycorp's Wyatt Friley smiles after hitting a grand slam during a Monday, August 12, 2024 Babe Ruth World Series game between the Aycorp Fighting Squirrels and Altoona, Pennsylvania. Aycorp won, 13-3 in five innings.

Cole Lee ~ clee@semoball.com

It’s been the year of the big inning for the Aycorp Fighting Squirrels, and Monday night’s battle against a playoff-likely Altoona squad was no exception.

Shaking off a quick three runs by the Pennsylvanian visitors, the Squirrels scored nine runs in the bottom of the first to jump out to a mighty lead early and win 13-3 in five innings.

After a long year without much pop in the bats, something’s clicked at this year’s Babe Ruth World Series, as the Squirrels have been sending the ball further than ever in the pool play of late.

Wyatt Friley got up with ducks on the pond in the first and sent a jolt into one, clubbing a monster grand slam off the scoreboard in left to lead the charge offensively.

Following a wishy-washy night offensively last time out, winning 3-1 over Manassas, Aycorp undid a lot of pain with its offensive outburst Monday as it run-ruled a tough team to stay undefeated.

“We've got two home runs on the year, and thankfully, both of them have come in the biggest spots we've had so far,” Friley said.

This World Series, the Aycorp Squirrels have done most of their scoring in one inning per game – twice the first, once the seventh.

Across the first inning of Game 1, the seventh inning of Game 2 and the first inning of Game 3, the Squirrels have scored 17 runs. In the 15 innings outside of those, they’ve scored just 5 runs total.

That’s more than three times the production in a fifth of the time, which is a notable trend that the Squirrels have been riding to the finish line this past week.

With starting pitcher Brady Smith getting shelled in the first inning, giving up two doubles, a single and a hit-by-pitch for three runs, the Squirrels needed to make a response.

That they did, and it was a loud one.

“We hit some balls really hard,” Squirrels coach Michael Minner said. “We hit about six or seven balls really hard.

“That inning showed a lot of grit by our guys to get back in the ball game and give us a chance to win.”

That response ushered Smith’s own response, allowing him to settle in and shake off some early anxiety to push back in front of Altoona.

“He’s a young guy. He's 16,” Minner said. “This is a big stage, and he, he was nervous early, but once we got out of the first inning, he didn't give up another hit. He was really, really good.”

Smith is a rising junior at Van Buren High School, which is a far drive from Capaha Field to say the very least.

Somewhere in the ballpark of two hours, the 16-year-old has made an obvious commitment to the process this summer, and it hasn’t gone unnoticed with his spot in an excellent Nuts rotation.

Not only does he bat .363, second in a loaded lineup of guys much older than him, but he leads the side in innings pitched with 42 ⅓ this year on an impressive 3.14 ERA against some phenomenal teams.

Like Minner said: the moment was big. But after shaking off some of the early nerves and settling in against the Pennsylvanians, Smith put together a heck of a game.

“It’s like a burden off your shoulders,” Smith said. “To just go out there, have fun and pitch the ball.

“I settled down and started throwing strikes. Getting the curveball ball to work, and then it all worked from there.”

Nearly everyone in the Squirrel order notched a hit on Monday night, led by the leadoff man in Will Green, a 2023 Meadow Heights graduate that’s worked his way to the top of the order.

Both Green and Levi McKinnie put two hits on the board in the win, while Friley’s one hit literally hit onto the board got him a game-high four RBIs on one swing.

Just as he did on Saturday, Owen Osborne got up in the “clutch” once again and delivered, drilling a single through the middle infield to score Talan McDaniel and walk the game off by mercy rule to finish his day with two RBIs.

Ahead of one final pool game against the Netherlands, currently sitting at 0-3 with a -19 run differential this World Series, the Squirrels come in heavily favored with a chance to go undefeated.

Going 0-4 at last year’s tournament, never sniffing bracket play, Aycorp has already clinched the top spot in the pool and is looking for the No. 1 overall seed ahead of Wednesday's bracket play.

That all hinges on the result of Tuesday’s final game, and Minner’s looking to keep the same intensity going into that matchup with some big implications.

“Big game tomorrow, it’ll have a lot to do with the seeding,” Minner said. “Tomorrow's an important game for us. We're excited to still be playing.”