Merchants win Walcott Championship

     The Thomson Area Merchants men's fastpitch softball team beat the Quad City Sox twice on Saturday to capture the title of the Walcott ISC Iowa Area Qualifier. The Sox had won the tournament the previous 9 years in a row.
     In the winner's bracket final the Sox took a 2-0 lead  with runs in the first and second innings before the Merchants would break through in the fourth inning to take a 3-2 lead that they would not give up. The Merchants added two insurance runs in the sixth.
     Jonas Mach was the winning pitcher allowing 4 hits and a walk to go along with 14 strikeouts. Marcelo Malatesta came through with 2 big hits to drive in 3 runs and Bruce Bielema singled to drive in the last insurance run.
     In the championship game the Merchants again fell behind as the Sox scored in the third inning following back-to-back infield singles and then a couple of wild pitches by Merchants pitcher Andrew Putnam. These would be the only hits allowed by Putnam as he struck out 15 batters and never allowed a ball out of the infield.
     The Merchants tied the game in the fourth when BJ Gulick lead the inning off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Scott Beal. Again Malatesta delivered the big hit scoring Gulick. The Merchants added 3 more runs in the fifth when Ray Sharp drew a lead off walk then Beal reached on an infield single with one out to bring up Malatesta again. Malatesta hit the ball hard to the second baseman who could not handle the play allowing the go ahead run to score. Rob Bennett added a single to score Beal and Malatesta to close out the scoring as the Merchants won 4-1.
     Jonas Mach brought home the tournament's Most Valuable Pitcher award as he went 3-0 allowing just 9 hits with 36 strike outs in 18 innings. Ray Sharp led the team in batting with an .444 average and a .643 on base percentage. But, the offensive star for the Merchants was Malatesta as he batted .375 with 8 RBI's. Q Cody helped the cause with 6 RBI's and two homeruns.
     The Merchants will not be in action over the holiday weekend. Next on the schedule is the Boys of Summer tournament in Denmark, WI on July 10-12.
  The latest news, results, and stats can be found on the team website at www.thomsonfastpitch.com.