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Lions fall short of state baseball tourney

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By Sam Waller

The Albany Lions saw their run in the Class 2A baseball playoffs come to a disappointing end last week with a loss to the New Home Leopards in the regional finals series.

Albany lost 5-3 in Game 1 on Thursday, June 2, at Snyder’s Moffett Field. The series was forced to move to Coahoma on Friday, June 3 because of rain, and New Home pulled away late to close out the series with a 15-5 victory in Game 2.

Albany finished the season 21-6 and ranked No. 10 in the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association Class 2A poll.

“The kids fought hard,” Lions coach David Fairchild said. “We found a way to stay in both games. New Home’s a good team.”

The fourth-ranked Leopards (33-3) advanced to the 2A state tournament, where they faced Valley Mills in the semi­finals on Wednesday, June 8.

The good news for Albany is the team returns almost the entire roster for next year, losing outfielders Luke Ivy and Cooper Fairchild to graduation.

“It’s been a great year,” David Fairchild said. “Cooper and Luke came in as starting freshmen and went to state. It would have been nice to go out with another trip to state.”

The Lions held early leads in both games, but the Leopards put together a string of big innings. While Albany battled back in each game, the Leopards were able to hold on.

“We got within two runs, and we didn’t help ourselves out,” David Fairchild said. “We had some mental errors and physical errors.”

Game 1 was frustrating for Albany, which stranded 11 runners, eight in scoring position. Trailing 5-2 in the fifth inning, the Lions had men at second and third with one out, but failed to score. They had the tying run at second when the game ended.

“We had ourselves in position; we just left a lot of people in scoring position,” David Fairchild said. “We had an opportunity at the end, and we just couldn’t get it done.”

The Lions led 2-0 on Zane Waggoner’s RBI double in the first and Ivy’s run-scoring single in the second. Starting pitcher Cole Chapman retired the first seven batters he faced before running into trouble in the third.

The junior issued four walks in the inning, and New Home scored three runs on just one hit to take the lead.

“Cole still pitched a good game, and we still had an opportunity to win,” David Fairchild said. “I think all the pitchers threw well in the series. They were hitting some spots, and we just weren’t getting the calls.”

Chapman went five innings, allowing three earned runs on four hits. He struck out seven and walked five before being lifted after 108 pitches.

After Caden Price drove in a run in the sixth, then Cole Read pitched two perfect innings in relief to keep Albany close.

Read came back to start Game 2, but gave up a five-run second inning and was pulled after 2.1 innings. He allowed five hits and four walks while striking out three.

Price also pitched 2.1 innings before New Home pulled away in the fifth.

Albany took a 1-0 lead in the second on Ivy’s sacrifice bunt. The Lions closed to within 7-5 in the top of the fifth when Cooper Fairchild and Waggoner walked with the bases loaded, and Cason Fairchild hit a fielder’s choice to drive in a run.

“New Home had a good pitcher (Logan Addison)in Game 2,” David Fairchild said. “He had a little velocity, and we struggled, but we overcame it with something we don’t usually do. We started laying down some bunts.”

In addition to Ivy’s sacrifice, Coy Lefevre had a bunt single for one of Albany’s three hits.

The Leopards closed out the series with eight runs in the bottom of the fifth, the last five with two outs. The final run scored on a passed ball with the bases loaded.

REGIONAL FINAL SERIES

GAME 1

NEW HOME 5, ALBANY 3

SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E

NEW HOME 0 0 3 0 2 0 0 5/4/6

ALBANY 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 3/5/2

atbat runs hits RBI

Price rf 3 0 0 1

CoFairchild cf 3 1 1 0

Waggoner 1b 3 0 1 1

CChapman ss 4 0 0 0

CaFairchild 3b 4 0 1 0

Lefevre 2b 3 1 0 0

Read p 4 0 0 0

Ivyb lf 3 1 1 1

TChapman dh 3 0 1 0

Herring c 0 0 0 0

Totals 30 3 5 3

2B – CoFairchild, Waggoner. HBP – Ivy. SB – Lefevre.

IP H R ER BB SO

CChapman 5 4 5 3 5 7

Read 2 0 0 0 0 1

WP – CChapman 2. PB – Herring.

GAME 2

NEW HOME 15, ALBANY 5

SCORE BY INNING 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 R/H/E

ALBANY 0 1 0 0 4 x x 5/3/6

NEW HOME 0 5 0 2 8 x x 15/11/1

atbat runs hits RBI

Price rf 2 1 0 0

CoFairchild p 0 0 0 1

Waggoner 1b 1 1 0 1

CChapman ss 3 0 0 0

CaFairchild cf 3 0 1 1

Lefevre 2b 2 1 0 0

Read 3b 2 0 0 0

Ivy lf 2 1 1 1

TChapman dh 2 1 1 0

Herring c 0 0 0 0

Totals 17 5 3 4

HBP – Price, CoFairchild, Waggoner. S – Ivy. SB – CoFairchild 2, Waggoner, Lefevre. CS – Lefevre.

IP H R ER BB SO

Read 2.1 5 5 4 4 3

Price 2.1 6 9 1 3 2

CoFairchild 0 0 1 0 3 0

WP – Read, Price 2. PB – Herring 2. HBP – Read.