A-Plus Collision Center put a serious dent in Marshall Medical Center’s hopes of taking the Silver Bracket crown via a 9-3 second round win in Monday night’s Marshall County Babe Ruth League Tournament at the Jonathan D. Hollingsworth Memorial Babe Ruth Field in Lewisburg.

MMC beat the Elks in the first round, but ran up against a stellar performance by Grayson Miller on the mound and at the dish in round two.

Miller tossed a complete game one-hitter with seven strikeouts and one base on balls while going 2-for-3 at the dish with a two-run homerun and three runs scored.

Preston Gentry (BB, 2RS, 3RBI, SB) and Kason Fuller (RBI, RS) also had two hits apiece and Daniel Sellars and Reid Gentry had one base knock apiece.

MMC starting pitcher Austin Kelley struck out the first batter he faced in the game before Sellars reached on an error and Miller followed with a long home run over the left field fence.

Kelley went on to escape any further damage when he escaped a bases loaded jam.

The A-Plus defense shined in the home half of the inning when Sellars make a great catch on a pop-up near home plate and Reid Gentry followed with a circus catch at second base on a short fly to right field.

A-Plus busted the game wide open in the top of the second inning when they sent 12 batters to the plate and scored six runs on just three hits.

MMC helped them out by issuing three bases on balls, one hit batsman, two errors in the field and a wild pitch and passed ball.

Fuller and Preston Gentry had RBI singles in the frame.

Red Birds’ standout Jake Usleton, playing in a pickup role for MMC, slammed a leadoff triple to right field in the top of the second inning but was left stranded as Miller induced a lineout to Reid Gentry at second and followed that with back-to-back strikeouts.

Miller led off the home half of the inning with a base hit and ended up scoring on a passed ball with two outs to make 9-0.

Miller struck out the side in order in the top of the third inning and A-Plus added three more runs in the home half of the stanza as Reid Gentry and Gabe Collins were both beaned to leadoff the frame.

They advanced to second and third on an MMC error and came home to score on a two-run single by Preston Gentry.

Uselton worked a one-out walk in the top of the fifth inning, but was thrown out by Sellars trying to steal second base and the game ended on a grounder back to the mound to Miller.

A-Plus, MMC, and the Elks are in the Silver Bracket, while Game Time, the Red Birds, and Nichirin are in the Gold Bracket.

Both bracket winners will receive championship hardware in Thursday night’s Babe Ruth League finale.

All other postseason tournaments have been cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

A-Plus 261 3-12 8 0

MMC 000 0-0 1 7

A-Plus: Preston Gentry 2-for-3, Grayson Miller 2-for-3, Kason Fuller 2-for-3, Daniel Sellars 1-for-4, Reid Gentry 1-for-2.

BB: Preston Gentry, Miller, Reese Hooten, Jace McPherson.

HBP: McPherson, Reid Gentry, Gabe Collins.

RS: Miller 3, Preston Gentry 2, Sellars 2, Fuller, Hooten, Reid Gentry, Collins, Ronan Scott.

ROE: Scott 2, Miller, Logan Springer.

HR: Miller.

RBI: Preston Gentry 3, Miller 2, Fuller.

SB: Preston Gentry, Collins.

LOB: 6.

WP: Grayson Miller (4IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 7K).

MMC: Jake Uselton 1-for-1.

BB: Uselton.

3B: Uselton.

LOB: 2.

E: Ashton Grubbs 4, Uselton 2, Austin Kelly.

LP: Austin Kelley (1IP, 5H, 8R, 6ER, 4BB, 2K).

Relief: Christian Malone (2IP, 2H, 1R, 1ER, 0BB, 0K).

Relief: Cova Rowland (1IP, 1H, 3R, 2ER, 0BB, 3K).