Lions face Cross Plains at bi-district
The Lion baseball team clawed their way back to second place in District 8-2A with a 4-1 win over the Haskell Indians last week in Hermleigh. The game was orginally scheduled in Albany but was moved due to weather conditions.
The Lions are paired against the Cross Plains Buffaloes in the bi-district playoff series set to start Thursday (today) in Eastland at 5:00 p.m. Game 2 is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. Friday in Eastland, with the third game 30 minutes afterwards if needed.
Admission will be $3 for adults and $2 for students.
With rain in the forecast for both days, a delay or moving the location and even the game dates is possible, according to coach David Fairchild.
The Buffaloes are the third place team from District 7-2A, with DeLeon taking the title and Winters finishing in second.
The winner of the Albany vs. Cross Plains series will move to the area playoff round to play McCamey, winner of District 5-2A. The Badgers had a bye in the first round.
The area playoff series will be played at San Angelo Central High School at 5:00 p.m. Thursday and Friday, May 9 and 10. Game 3 will be played after Game 2 if needed.
The Lions started district action slow with a 1-2 record in the first round against the other 2A members of the district. However, Albany fought back to win all three games in the second half of district, including dealing district champion Hawley Bearcats their lone loss in league play.
“After losing a couple of important games we shouldn’t have lost, we made adjustments in the second half of district to finish strong with a 3-0 record,” Fairchild said.
Hawley won the district with a 5-1 record, followed by the Lions in second with 4-2. Haskell was third with a 3-3 mark, and Stamford finished fourth with an 0-6 district record.
Albany vs. Haskell
In their final regular district game, the Lions rallied off the bats of a pair of hits in the third by freshmen players, scoring all four runs in the frame. Haskell tallied their one run in the sixth.
Cade Neve was the winning pitcher, giving up one run and one hit and five walks. He struck out three batters. Ben West came in as relief, allowing one hit and one walk. He had four strikeouts.
“Cade had a rough start but hung in there for five innings,” the coach said. “Ben came in to finish. They both found a way to stay ahead.”
The coach said that the Lions’ offense struggled at the plate.
“We finally got a couple of hits off of our two freshmen players to get our offense started,” he said. “We also took advantage of a couple of errors to score.”
The coach said he is looking to his more seasoned players to step up in the playoffs.
ALBANY LIONS vs Haskell
SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E
ALBANY 0 0 4 0 0 0 x 4/2/2
Haskell 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1/2/3
INDIVIDUAL STATS
C Fairchild 1 for 2, 1 sgl, 1 run
B Kayga 0 for 3, 1 RBI, 1 run
BJ Morris 0 for 2, 1 run
L Ivy 1 for 2, 1 sgl, 1 RBI, 1 run
J Dyer 0 for 2, 1 RBI
