Healing nicely: Derby Twins win NBC opener

Parents of Dylan Dillard, know this and move along: Your son tripled and hit a grand slam on Friday in the National Baseball Congress World Series and his Derby Twins won 12-5.

Those six stitches above his left eye? He caught a cleat sliding into second base a week ago. He’s fine. Now stop reading.

The real story: Dillard caught a cleat over his eye while playing hacky sack with his teammates before a game at Hays. He missed the game and manager David Allbritton banned cleats during the ritual of kicking a footbag around in a circle.

“If it gets out in the news, I want my parents to know that it was a double, not a hacky-sack injury,” Dillard said. “The story is the double. My dad will just call me an idiot and I’d rather him not know.”

Mr. Dillard, relax. Your son can still hit.

Dillard, who plays left field, went 3 for 4, scored twice and drove in five runs in the win over Jasper (Ind.). Dillard led the Jayhawk League with 10 home runs in 31 league games and Friday he hit the NBC’s first grand slam since 2010.

“We had to beg him not to play when he got stitches in his eye,” Allbritton said. “He wanted to play that night. He’s here to play and that’s what he wants to do.”

The Twins scuffled into the NBC, losers of eight of their past 10 games. But they beat Wellington 5-4 on Thursday in a warmup game and hit the refresh button for this tournament. Dillard’s mishap came in the middle of several injuries and the Twins are returning to health.

They pounded out 14 hits against the Reds, seven for extra bases and four of them triples.

“This is a completely new season,” Allbritton said. “First goal of the summer was to make it here. At the start of the summer we played really good baseball and we’re going to try to do that now.”

It took the Twins until the fifth inning to take control against overmatched Jasper. The Reds went 0-2 in last season’s NBC and scored one run. They surpassed that total in the second inning, but lacked the pitching to stick with Derby.

The Twins took a 6-5 lead with a three-run fifth inning. Tyler Eager and Dillard tripled in runs and scored. Dillard’s triple ended the night for Jasper starter Jake Eberling, who began to tire and leave pitches up in the strike zone.

“I had been seeing the ball well all game and I knew that he didn’t really have anything to beat me with,” Eager said. “He gave me a fastball, middle in, and I just was able to put a good swing on it and get things going.”

In the sixth, Jarrod Flax worked a leadoff walk and Juan Rivera singled. Michael Herman’s bunt loaded the bases for Dillard against reliever Josh Merrill.

Dillard, a junior at Jacksonville (Fla.), pounded an 0-1 pitch over the fence in left-center to give the Twins a 10-5 lead. He punched his arm in the air when it landed and a pack of teammates greeted him a home plate to celebrate.

“I’m looking for a ball up in the zone so I can get a sac fly or something to the outfield,” Dillard said. “Everybody from around here has been telling me this (stadium) is a graveyard.”

Lawrence-Dumont normally is for college players swinging a wood bat. On Friday, teams totaled two home runs. Last summer, it took 17 games to reach that mark.

With the lead, Derby’s bullpen shut down the Reds. Sean Laughlin, Ladgie Zotyka and Gus Strunk combined to hold the Reds scoreless for 5 2/3 innings. Starter Stuart Patke struggled through 3 1/3 innings and allowed eight hits.

“Patke has been a bulldog for us; he just had an off night,” Allbritton said. “We have some very, very dominant arms, but they’ve got to show up.”

Herman went 4 for 5 and drove in two runs. Rivera walked and singled twice. Flax, batting ninth, tripled and walked twice to score two runs.

“We can score in a hurry and we’re never out of a ball game,” Eager said.

After a tough ending to the regular season, the NBC is off to a good start for the Twins. Mr. Dillard, if you’re still reading, wait until the tournament is over before asking your son about the cut over his eye.

This story was originally published July 25, 2014 at 4:08 PM with the headline "Healing nicely: Derby Twins win NBC opener."